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Server Time: 12/1/2008 7:57:17 PM PACIFIC |
 short handed wild man, Banning, 1. Aug 2003 00:00 | ||
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| Lately I've been playing with my friends in a very short handed scenario. In every situation I have been the one walking away with all of the players money. In this forum we've talked about being way more aggresive short handed so I've been trying to do that, in fact in my search of learning how aggresive to be I've been pretty much ramming and jamming tons of pots. Today, I folded preflop about 10 or less total over about 3 hours of play. I went to the river in about half of my hands or more. I was calling my opponents down all the time when I figured I had it lost instead of folding (which should be dumb), I was jacking the pot like a fool with mid pairs, I was doing ridiculous bluffs, I was just playing like my chips were going out of fashion. I have been playing like this for the past 5 or 6 sessions of short handed poker we've been playing (4 players). I have booked considerable wins every time. Each time I was the only winner, taking almost everybodies money. I know it works, and everybody else has been watching it work, but we just don't know why. We've actually discussed it as a group. You would think that I should be losing cash seeing as I'm going to the river tons of times. I am maximizing my profits on my winning hands, but really I should be winning alot less than how often I'm losing. I haven't been getting "super lucky" because we've discussed it afterwards and we all agree my cards were no better. Here are the reasons that we figured it has been working. 1- Playing like a ridiculous fool puts other players on tilt, especially when I win with a trash hand, thus they play loose and crazy like I do 2- Point number 1 should only equalize me with the others, except that I've been practicing playing in this style moreso than the others and so I know better how to play it, thus giving me an edge 3- I do make money on blind steals (a bit) and from my bluffs. Even so, not that much compared to how often people call me seeing as they know I'm playing trash 4- Playing wild does reward me when I have a good hand, by making me win more with my good ones 5- My image is of a guy who calls people down, so nobody really tries to bluff me which is good in shorthanded play Considering all of this, it still seems odd because when I play wild, people should just sit back, let me do the betting for them and rake the chips from me because I'm playing sub-par cards. People do do that, but for some reason I'm still making money. What makes the wild man work so well shorthanded? We all know it does, everybody says to do it, but I don't understand WHY it works. | ||
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| Re: short handed wild man, BobbyLocust, 1. Aug 2003 19:52 | ||
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| Your "wild man" shorthanded strategy has some advantages but is overall a very flawed way to approach the game. Your success so far can be attributed to weak opposition. I am going to assume you are playing low limits, in that game you will find mostly passive players who allow you to run them over. However, eventually even the worst players pick up on this maniacal raising and will call you down. Worse, if you happen to run into a decent player they will punish you by reraises and traps. They will wait patiently for their hand and beat you with better cards. A good player will give you the blinds and the small pots after the flops because they know that they will eventually win the monster pots from you. I play shorthanded almost exclusively and LOVE to have players like this on my table. Your strategy does have its strengths, like you mentioned. There is a psychological advantage. When your J-3 offsuit rivers a full house to beat the nut flush it can really put a player on tilt. Once again, though, a good player should be able to overcome this. In addition to that, playing like a wild man is still a better alternative than playing loose and passive. AGGRESSION is the key in poker, shorthanded especially. SELECTIVE AGGRESSION, a phrase I prefer to use, is the only way to consistently win. Pick and choose your battles but when you play, go fast and hard. This doesn't necessarily demand a tight preflop strategy, instead KNOW when you have the best hand and attack. For example, just tonight I was playing a "wild man". Everybody folded to me on the button and I raised on Ace-rag, SB folds, BB(wild man) calls. Flop comes 5-J-7 rainbow. He bets, I raise. Turn 3, he checks, I bet, he calls. River 6, He leads out representing a 4 for the straight, I raise, he calls, I win decent sized pot with Ace high. Without going in depth with my thinking during the hand, the bottom line was I knew I was ahead and I raised and played hard rather than checking and calling. This allows me to CAPITALIZE on his mistakes and maximize my gains. I will always win more from a player like this than I lose even though he may win triple the number of pots by maximizing my gains and minimizing my losses. I have started to ramble on but basically my point is "wild man" is not a bad strategy against bad players but it DEFINITELY is not the best way to play. It utilizes the overwhelming advantages of aggression. However, when you are behind in a hand or drawing dead, aggressive is the last thing you want to be and that is the "wild man's" downfall. P.S. In a good game it is sometimes a good idea to swich gears and go into a "wild man" gear for a span of time, in order to mix up your play. Switching gears and mixing up your play is important in shorthanded play. | ||
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