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 What you need to learn to move up and win
This is my article contribution to those players who are having trouble winning and moving up. I have been playing 6 max for over a year now, and eventhough I have not move up a lot(I had a solid bankroll from FR pre UIGEA) I feel I can give a solid perspective on some things that a lot of players seem to be struggling with. I have divided this up into 2 parts, basic and advanced. The basic parts are things that ANY player can do and get better at, the advanced parts are things you need to improve in order to win as you move up.
Basics
1. Hand reading
This is the something every player has, however it may be the one skill with the greatest difference from the bad to the good to the great. Your ability to read hands should determine what type of playing style you should employ to be a winner. I would never advocate a nitty game(12/10 ish), but there are players playing at 200+, who are winning playing this style. If you are average at reading hands you probably should be playing a tight TAG style around 15/12. As your ability gets better you should begin to open up more. There are only a handful of winners players at 200nl that have a PFR over 18%. This increases the farther you move up as the players get much better. There is no shame in playing tighter in order to win.
2. Stats
PT gives a ton of stats to look at and analyze, not to mention the additional stats PAHUD has to offer. Everywhere you look someone is posting stats asking what they need to improve. I spent a lot of time looking at these postings looking at the differeneces between the winners and the losers. This post would get way to long for me to do into great detail, but there are several stats that vary greatly for both winners and losers, ie turn and river AF. On the flip side there are certain stats that only the strong players are good at, ie W$WSF. Your stats will not fix themselves without playing better, but you need to know what you are looking at to see if you are getting better.
3. Table/Seat selection
This has been said many times, but you need to sit at a table where you have an edge. Now the edge may vary greatly on the table, but more important is your SEAT selection. I can sit at a table with a very low flop % and a low pot average and win steadily if I have a good seat. For any player a good seat is with position on the fish, with nits on your left. The better your seat selection the better your edge will be.
Advanced
1. Understand ranges and the math behind them
This the next step in hand reading. Suaces guide is an excellent example of how just understanding preflop ranges can improve your game dramatically. If you take his guide as a starting point you are able extrapolate that to form a solid postflop game by only putting your opponent on a range. Poker Stove is the must have tool to help. Run ranges through to check your PF calling ranges vs a typical PFR on any flop. Learn the math behind your equity, their range, shoving, calling, and how bet sizing can influence your decisions. Whether you like it or not there are very very few "feel" players out there who do not have a good understanding of the math and still win at a good clip.
2. Play Positionally Strong
No matter what level your at you will make more money from the button and cutoff. You need to learn to play these positions well. I spent a lot time thinking I was playing well in these spot, but realized I could be playing much better. Experiment with a lot of things in these spots and versus all players. Learn to defend your button, and what it takes to exploit players who play too much oop.
3. Blind Play
The flip side of strong opp play is strong blind play. All solid winners at all levels play well in the blinds. In a typical 6 max game, you may play as much or more than 40% of your overall hands from the blinds. The one thing I figured out was that if you only play about 15% of your hands and win about 1.00 ptbb/hand with them you will break even in the SB and lose about 0.10 ptbb/ hand in the BB. Remember that 15% includes all your big pairs, AK, etc. There are many many players who are just horrible in the blinds, including many winning TAGs who just try and do too much or are just plain bad oop.
4. Player Reads
Everytime a player bets, calls, raises etc, he gives off a read. Most players play their hands the same way. They raise sets here or bluff there, but whatever it is they never change. The rest of the players give off reads to form an image. They use their image to exploit you or anyone else. The top players use their image to the fullest extent. You need to learn when they are making plays because of there image. This is the basis for multi level thinking. Typically the players who are giving you trouble are using their image and are one step ahead of you.
5. Your Image
Again this is the flip side of player reads. Everytime you make a decisions you give off a read. The summation of the reads you are givving off, forms your image. By understanding your image, you will be able to exploit more regulars and become a bigger winner. There are a lot of posts on this forum where someone comments about Sauce or Gabe or ISF making a bluff or play they don't understand. Most of the time it involves their image or them giving off a read to furthur exploit their table or a particular player. Learn to understand your image, and you will be better able to exploit those pesky regulars.
Once you become better and learn these concepts, you will become better at 3betting, you will be better at reading flop texture and cbetting, you will have the ability to know when to raise a Cbet or even a blocking bet and know that it is +EV, you will be able to adjust to almost any player and exploit them, you will know when to apply constant pressure, you will have selective aggression, and you will know when to try that big bluff shove so you can PM it to ISF.
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Originally Posted by Carroters
