Definitely gotta post this
minSim PMed me a bunch of questions and this is what I replied with. I figure there's enough information in here to provide with insights for others and criticisms. Seriously, I would really like criticisms from other players. Especially on the Doubling Tripling Air section.
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Wow strong post. Agreeing with me is a sign of greatness. lol
I don't completely agree with your analysis of why lag is better at micros. You do cover a few good points though.
It pretty much has to do with stealing money, developing poor image, and playing hands vs worse players ip.
Stealing A common theme of bad players (or players worse than our current skill), excluding maniacs, is that they play too weakly vs us. They don't see when and why, but we do, and we capitalize on that by stealing from them. Usually this boils down to isolations, 3bets, and cbets. I am not quite sure about how well barreling works at micros, small, and even some medium stakes. It definitely has its place, but it's a very advanced aspect of the game that I haven't figured out.
Image Everybody notices image, everybody is affected by image, and everybody adjusts in a variety of ways and degrees. We can play like a maniac pf and flop only and then will lose soooo much respect that we'll get paid off by sooo many hands we wouldn't on the bigger latter streets. This is extremely important. Also, poor players adjust poorly pretty much always. I was so surprised when watching Aejones' 100nl 100vpip video and how he was raising like 75% of hands yet the entire table wasn't adapting well at all. They just played pretty much the same. Their mindset was "Well this guy's crazy I'm gonna wait till I like my cards then go to town." and what they don't realize is that 1) that's so not how to do it since they should be loosening up big time, and 2) even if it was how to do it, they're doing it wrong. What I mean is that they were stuck thinking on a low level and while thinking they could out play a better player they were actually shooting themselves in the foot. This is because their mode of play evolves around playing their hand.
Example: Hero raises pre, villain has T9s (loves his hand as he should) and calls. Flop is J95, hero bets, villain has middle pair and a backdoor straight draw (which he loves to hit) and hero is a bluffing maniac so he calls, turn is 7, hero bets, villain cannot even fathom how calling is bad since hero is a bluffing maniac plus he picked up a GUTSHOTTTT so he calls, river is 5, hero shoves, villain thinks a little because he's afraid that hero could have luckboxed a jack or maybe a 5 but he cant get out of his head how hero is a maniac so he calls especially since he 'knows' trips is a prime bluffing spot besides he's been waiting for a hand vs this maniac so he can't fold now, hero flips over AJ and takes it down.
T9 soooooo often finds a fold there vs a standard player, but not as often vs a maniac. Hero developed his image on early relatively inexpensive streets and got a shallow-thinking player's stack because of it.
Position is so importantly awesome that it is just awesome. It is where we make our money. Think of it has 'having position' and that we make our money when we 'have position'. We make money in LP more than other positions partly because when folded to us we have position on the rest of the hands dealt. When a player enters a pot we want to play vs him pretty much only when we have position. Somebody limps in front, raise his ass, he's an idiot to call since we have him owned with position. Not only are our jobs easier since we have position, but his job is HARDER because he is OUT OF POSITION vs an AGGRESSOR. Read that last sentence again, it's fucking huge. We make our money vs bad players so we need to isolate them. We do this in position and with a very wide range because 1) they suck 2) they suck 3) we play more hands with them AND we have position 4) they suck 5) others play fewer hands with them and thus we increase our likelyhood of taking his stack instead of one of the other douchebags at our table who think they're gonna eat our fish and 6) they suck.
Doubling Tripling Air I also do not have much experience with this (some though) but I think thats partly because I tend to avoid getting into circumstances where they're optimal (avoiding regs, playing vs donks). However, I do have many speculations here.
A big theme of good poker play is setting ourselves up. This is the theme behind me stating we should be looking to triple when we double. It is possibly exactly like planning to cbet when we pfr. We're not gonna do it every time, but we're planning on doing it most of the time. Every action we take we should have things planned out. Obviously so many variables hit that we can only seldom make one plan and stick with it for the entire hand.
Example: Hero has KJcc and raises, standard reg villain calls on btn, flop is Qx8c6x, hero cbets, villain calls, turn is Ac, this is a mandatory double for hero so knows he's gonna make it but also knows that if called he's probably gonna triple since a double makes it mandatory most of the time. He knows this because he knows it is the only way to fully rep his hand, that villain probably doesn't have a strong hand or an ace, there's a lot in the pot, and he's gotta 'protect' his value bets.
I really don't know if this is a good triple, but I cannot see how it's not, and I cannot see how hero shouldn't be firing most rivers after firing a double on this good card. Doubling just for the reason of tripling is usually gonna be bad, but I conjecture that doubling without the intention of tripling is usually bad since we have chosen to double a card that helps us fold out better hands. Pause on that last sentence, it is also huge. How are we supposed to think that giving up there is often correct? What else does a hand that calls us think other than 1) 'I want him to bluff or bet a third time into my monster' or 2) 'I hope he doesn't bet again because I'm gonna be in a shitty spot with my marginal hand'? And with the nature of the games, the former situation isn't gonna happen nearly as often as the latter.
Man this makes so much sense to me I cannot imagine how it would be wrong. Eventually I'll be able to have this figured out quite nicely.
Another thing is the hammer (the fear of facing a larger bet on the next street). Nobody really consciously thinks about the hammer, but it really seems to apply the most to double barrels. This then suggests that the hammer is only fully applied when a triple is fired. How often do you call a bet hoping that you don't have to call a bigger one on the next street? Those times you obviously were not afraid enough of the hammer to fold, but may be too afraid to call once the hammer follows up.
I dunno, I really feel like when playing vs those who are good to double, it's gotta be profitable to be tripling often after the double. It's full hand reppage, the falling of the hammer, range balancing, and probably so many other good things.
Concerning your personal situation: Breakeven at 25nl is unacceptable. Those games are too easy. 5ptbb is hardly acceptable even. That game can be beat for so much more. Everybody's always wanting to move up and play bigger and blah blah blah. Take it from somebody who has been there and done that. Get better. Once you're better, get better some more. Once you're better some more, then if you're pwning all the noobs at your current stake you can move up. This is done partly by playing but mainly by studying. I have found that I don't have much time to play since I'm spending so much time studying. This is super awesome too since it's what makes me play better and move up and make more in the long run by a sweeping margin over playing a bunch.
17/14/1.5 is also unacceptable, but you know this. It is very rudimentary poker. Poker is about finding weaknesses and exploiting them. Sooooo much is left on the table as a nit. Learn how to exploit position, learn how to exploit poor hand readers, learn how to exploit fear, learn how to exploit odds, learn how to exploit yourself and apply that to the other regs in your game, learn how to exploit every little thing in the littlest way and then learn that you have soooo much left to learn. By this time you will find that you are comfortable, free-thinking (non-robotic), and your table views you as insane.
I recommend reading and posting more in forums, discussing strategy and hands with other players usually via some form of instant messaging (which I don't do neeeeeeeeearly enough. Probably because nobody likes me), analyzing stats of others and comparing and figuring out how their play makes theirs different than yours, and most importantly watch instructional videos or just get coaching. LeggoPoker and CardRunners are probably best.
