Is my reputation hurting me? Plus other questions...

[Garland]

I've ran good for the first 6K hands or so at Ultimate Bet $1/$2 $200 Max no-limit, but for the last 3K hands, I've been very stagnant. I'm wondering if it's possible that my reputation is hurting me, and if I need another alias to play under. I know I've built up enough time playing with the same people for several hundred hands that they may have a read on me, but I'm not too sure if at these low levels the common regular opponent thinks anywhere as deep as I do.

I've seen that SpiritRock guy supposedly change names several times probably for the same reasons. I wonder how many metamorphoses he's gone through...

I'm just trying to evaluate how I'm doing. It's like my bankroll is at a standstill for several weeks. It's also totally possible that I'm also running bad, picking bad tables, the opponents are getting better at hand selection and making lay downs. I don't believe I tilt.

Also I'm been picking tables that have high pot volume (along with high flop %). I find that it tends to mean the action is much more aggressive, and perhaps I find a passive table more to my liking. It's not that I can't win at aggressive tables, but I have to be more patient and pick my spots judiciously. Monsters and strong holdings don't just grow on trees. In these types of games, I like to let aggressive people bluff into me and I become more passive and as a consequence someone could draw out on me more easily.

Passive tables afford me the opportunity to make reads such as weak bets with weak hands. They also allow me to make cheap draws at flushes and weak hidden draws like gutshots. I like to keep the pot small when drawing. But aggressive tables overbet the pot and basically force me to muck or make a move at them, which I rarely do. Good pots come along slower as it's harder to build a big pot.

Any thoughts on all this?

Garland

[tbach24]

If you think that your name is hurting you in any way, change it. Nothing bad can come of it.

[Jay36489]

If you think people are giving you too much credit and wont play against you, you should use that table image and get more aggressive. I think it may just be variance though and you may be giving the other players too much credit. I don't play UB $200 though, so are the players really that good there?

[Garland]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't play UB $200 though, so are the players really that good there?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Jay36489,

I would say that they are better than the UB $100 and, of course $50. The key things I've noticed from when I moved up from $50 to $100 to $200:

1) People will lay down "big" pairs to preflop aggression
2) People won't copy TV and go all in on AK or AQ preflop anymore (with deep stacks anyways)
3) People are not as loose
4) Preflop will garner more respect. In the past if people limped and there were a significant raise, I'd say usually 60% would stay to see the flop. Now that number is probably 30%. I may be wrong on this.

In all, it's still a good game, but I think you have be more aware of what's going on. It's not like Party NL25 where I can 4-table and basically go on autopilot with only 50x BB stacks.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Garland