Right, for a while Ive been trying to figure decent strategies to deal with the players at my current poker room. I'm certain many of these players have heard the common quote 'winning poker is all about aggression' and take it quite to an extreme. They've probably watched High Stakes GSN also, and try to replicate the lagginess shown there.

After table selection, the average player seems to be 40 / 10 / 2-3. There is also a whole bunch of 50 / 20's and even alot of 70/30's.

I always pick the juiciest 5max tables which normally consist of two at 35 or 40/10's and two at higher, say 60 / 15's, or 65 / 30 etc.

Naturally these guys also tend to be very aggressive post flop.

The problem is I cant play a proper decent style that id like, where I run at 18/10 and raise limpers, raise LP, raise some MP rags, get a loose enough image and get paid off more. I cant do this because too often there will be a caller preflop and the effectiveness of CB's is very low. Ontop of this there will often be more than one caller preflop - where CBing seems out of the question. On the flip side, raising QTo from MP *may* be profitable when players are calling with weaker hands? However I think raising these hands also needs some CB value.

This has all led me to tighten up, possibly too much? My last 600 hands Ive ran at 15 / 6. I think this may actually be a good figure for these tables. I also add a fair bit of selective passivity, which is annoying.. its not very fun but it I think its a profitable here when people bluff too much. For example this hand here vs one of the typical 60/30 lags. Obviously I get aggressive when I need to, eg build a huge pot or have a nice draw in possition.

One concern is that I may look too tight, and have a terrible image.

Questions:

Will Players think they can run over me even more and throw more aggression my way? Would this be a bad thing or a good thing?

Stratergy ideas so far:
  • PFR less (6, 8% max)
    CB less
    Play good selective passivity, check call to pick of bluffs.
    Semi-Bluff less
    Value Bet more when in position. OOP play more passive and check call more.


Thoughts and ideas found elsewhere:

Sklansky, TOP:

Code:
Type of Mistake:               Best Stratergy:
Bluffs too much                Induce a bluff, then call

Never folds a fair             Never Bluff (on the end) and be sure to come out               
hand on the end               betting a decent hand

Rarely folds a                   Dont Slowplay, bet decent hands for value           
fair hand on any                             
round                             

Plays too loose                 Play solid poker and cut down on your bluffs

Plays loose on                  Play solid cards but play them weakly             
early rounds then                             
aggressivly later on
These all seem fine apart from this one:

Code:
Semi_Bluffs too much         Semi-bluff raise
Sklansky says how semi-bluffs are very hard to defend against and the only way is to fold or semi-bluff yourself. I think a low frequency of semi-bluffing at my tables would be best, where the lag players tend to have high WTSD% s >25.

Muddywater, on playing lag 'Adapting with a LAG style'

There are many differences between the play in a 5/10nl game and a .50/1nl game. Two examples of differences are that players at 5/10nl pay much more attention to position and will fold much more often. With this in mind, one must tighten up at the lower limits. It doesn't pay to watch players at higher levels and exactly emulate their play. The basic principles that they use hold true at all levels, but are applied differently. I still consider the way I play at lower limits LAG, but I don't play nearly as loose as I do at the higher games. The most important principle to apply to lower limits is position. However, it doesn't pay to blindly raise in position. The effectiveness of continuation bets is much lower at the smaller stakes. That fact alone means that a successful player must tighten up. In addition, semi-bluffs decrease in effectiveness as well.
About my game and something which may need work:

Currently I only really call pre-flop raises with AQo+ and PP's. Should I be calling with a wider range? And from what positions? Under PT Position Stats my ColdCall PF%s are

BTN: 2.7%
1: 0.6%
2: 0%
BB: 0%
SB: 0%

Currently, I do not try to float. Should I bother trying at these tables vs the LAGs, vs the pdd random TAGs? This would also bump up my ColdCalling Preflop %s.

Would like to hear any opinions regarding all of this. Any other ideas to play well at these tables and improve my game, deal with the lags?