More than 1 Gear?

[Jager]

I have been seeing alot of people talking about this, but not much explanation.

Could someone please help me with this?

Thanks

[Silly String]

Not important at micro-stakes levels. Learn to play a good solid, disciplined, TAG game and then later you can work on shifting gears to LAG and other playing styles. The reason to shift gears is when you play the same opponents over and over and they begin to pick up your patterns. Betting, starting hands, etc. At low stakes you don't see the same opponents enough to warrant shifting gears to a different style that will lower your short term win rate in order to benefit your long term win rate.

[flyingPenguin]

Not sure if I'm on the wrong track here, but I disagree. Shifting gears is more than just changing from TAG to LAG. It can just be a slight change in starting hand selection and aggression, and is very important at $25NL when playing different types of opponents.

Often tables are fairly tight, and raising and cont-betting a much bigger range of hands from LP can be profitable. However if there are a couple of extra loose calling stations then you need to hit something to play against them, and raising non-premium hands and cont-betting is just spewing chips, so you need to be less aggressive with crap hands. This isn't the only case where you need to change your style, but for me it's common.

I think it's a leak of mine that I often don't pick up on players habits quickly enough, and lose 20bb at a table before I shift gears.

[KrazyBluffer]

I have been seeing alot of people talking about this, but not much explanation.

Could someone please help me with this?

Thanks

http://www.parttimepoker.com/poker-s...mit-3gears.htm

This link explains how to play 3 different styles, therefore 3 different gears.

I generally play TAG with a more Tight-Passive approach to very loose and aggressive games. Usually this happens when there are 2 or more players that are maniacs at the table. Then I will nutcamp and use the rope-a-dope to take there chips.

However, in this article the author says "It's different than just adapting to a situation with a specific strategy - it's more of an actual mind set switch that ends up with you playing a style that renders you unrecognizable to someone who had been watching your play earlier in the session."

I doesn't seem like at $25 you need to shift gears that often, maybe not at all, but it would be a good place to learn. The problem I see is there are only so many ways to play vs loose fishy players and maniacs. I feel it is the good players that you want to confuse, the ones that probably are paying attention, at least a little.

In HOH1, Dan explains tight-passive, TAG, and Superaggressive.
It's the Superaggressive one that is hardest to learn, but I do notice after playing tight-passive for a while, even the loose fish fold to my raises along with the LAG's. This would most likely be a good place for me to change gears since obviously my table image is defined. Players are thinking, "If this guy bets he has something and I will fold". But you still have to play smart.

So to sum this up for switching gears, you need to play different hands in different positions then normal, you raising range should change, re-raising range should change. Also your range for calling raises should change. But you still need to play the players and play good on the flop. You might try more bluffs and semi-bluffs as well.

Changing gears is a part of the game I need to work on personally.

There seems there is always something to work on when playing NL.

[TalentedTom]

Gears means changing styles in order to throw your oppoents off balance and maximize your profits.
So play tight for 500-1000 hands or something like this untill your opponents realize your tight and begin giving you respect. When you notice this begin to loosen up your game bluffing at a higher frequency and open with a larger range from any position - continue doing this untill you are looked on on several occasions and at this point return to the TAG. Keep alternating like this and you will become a dangerous and unpredictable player who should crush any stakes he plays (20+bb/100)

[Silly String]

Hey Tom, welcome back. I haven't seen you in awhile. I always look forward to your posts.