How to LAG?

[kurto]

This is kind of a general question. I'm typically Tight Passive Aggressive and its been working for me, but I wanted to try playing LAG today but couldn't do it and was a little confused how to do it well.

Here's what I wanted to do:
I planned to raise any hand in mid to late position that I would normally limp with and call a small raise. So, I intended to raise with any:
pocket pair
A-Broadway
suited connector 7-8 and up

Here's where I got confused-- I was on two tables with this plan. To my right on both tables were LAGs. So, pretty much everytime I had one of the above hands, one of the other LAGs acting before me would raise, which meant if I wanted to be aggressive, I would have to reraise. Which I wasn't sure if that was how a smart LAG would play it.

If a LAG in MP raises to 4xBB, and I'm on the cutoff with pocket 5s, does a LAG reraise? 78suited? AJ?

How does one LAG, when there's LAGs raising before you?

FLOP PLAY- if you're in the BB with 9-4os, and the flop comes J95... does a LAG betout?

I found that I was confused how to play LAG and reverted back to my tight style because I wasn't sure when to go LAG.

I was able to make a lot more bluffs today in position with bluffed flushes and stuff, but beyond that, I wasn't sure when to pull the trigger.

I'd appreciate any thoughts from successful LAGS.

[PoBoy321]

The key to being a successful LAG is putting your opponents on hands and being up against opponents who put you on hands. If you can say "I have 78s, but he thinks I have a big pair, so he'll pay me off with his set against my straight," or "I have 78s and he thinks I have a big pair, he'll lay down his TPTK," it can work. However, if he knows he has TPTK and he's going to the felt with it no matter what, you're SoL.

[Rocaix]

[ QUOTE ]


Here's what I wanted to do:
I planned to raise any hand in mid to late position that I would normally limp with and call a small raise. So, I intended to raise with any:
pocket pair
A-Broadway
suited connector 7-8 and up


[/ QUOTE ]

See the key is not to look for specific cards to start LAGging it up with, it's looking for the correct situations. Open raising those types of hands isn't exactly LAG, it's just taking advantage of the situation. It's something most TAG players should be doing, so they don't get the label of a rock. Sometimes you can raise or reraise with any two if the situation is right.

Really the key to playing a successful LAG style is to recognize when you're in a high bluff equity situation, and pouncing on it. This is where you need superior hand reading skills.

Example: Your in the BB, and there's two limpers to you. You check. The flop is a 882 rainbow, your first to act what to do? I usually fire a 2/3 to 3/4 pot here, pretty good chance nobody's got a piece of it and I take it down 90% of the time.

[punter11235]

I play LAG style and I can say its crushing style to beat 1/2NL.
Try this tips:
-play suited connectors from any position
-play unsuited connectors + 2gapers from late position (5last seats, this is LAG /images/graemlins/smile.gif )
-play almost anything from Button and one behind , I mean almost any two : 96s, 108o, J8s etc raise with half of them, remember , against passive opponents your "outs" are : A,K,Q you can even call flop bet "drawing" to these having 64s in the hand
-from time to time pick random 2 cards from random position and imagine you have AK and then play according to it hoping you are convinving enough that your opponents will imagine the same
-bluff frequently, most bluffs should be abandond after the flop, but some may be continued to turn and river (remember, turn bluffs with more than 1 opponent are not very wise at this level)
-from time to time try "slowplaying" I mean pick any two and bluff checkraise the turn and then "value" bet the river
After a while you will see few benefits from it :
-people will call you with second pair etc
-you can stop making continuation bets people will be scared to death after your check on the flop
-you will get 5 callers to your 5BB preflop raise
-you can go allin preflop, probability that sb will call for 100$ with A10 is about 25% (that's my observation).

One thing is very important here, I think you cant play good LAG style while multitabling.. paying attention is very important here. Bluffing against right people and backing against the others is the key.

Hope this will help, happy LAGGing /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[FreakDaddy]

[ QUOTE ]
This is kind of a general question. I'm typically Tight Passive Aggressive and its been working for me, but I wanted to try playing LAG today but couldn't do it and was a little confused how to do it well.

Here's what I wanted to do:
I planned to raise any hand in mid to late position that I would normally limp with and call a small raise. So, I intended to raise with any:
pocket pair
A-Broadway
suited connector 7-8 and up

Here's where I got confused-- I was on two tables with this plan. To my right on both tables were LAGs. So, pretty much everytime I had one of the above hands, one of the other LAGs acting before me would raise, which meant if I wanted to be aggressive, I would have to reraise. Which I wasn't sure if that was how a smart LAG would play it.

If a LAG in MP raises to 4xBB, and I'm on the cutoff with pocket 5s, does a LAG reraise? 78suited? AJ?

How does one LAG, when there's LAGs raising before you?

FLOP PLAY- if you're in the BB with 9-4os, and the flop comes J95... does a LAG betout?

I found that I was confused how to play LAG and reverted back to my tight style because I wasn't sure when to go LAG.

I was able to make a lot more bluffs today in position with bluffed flushes and stuff, but beyond that, I wasn't sure when to pull the trigger.

I'd appreciate any thoughts from successful LAGS.

[/ QUOTE ]

I prefer the term hyper-aggressive please. /images/graemlins/smile.gif I'm actually giving heavy contemplation to writing a book about the psychological profiling of poker types at the felt and how to play against them. I've played poker for quite some time, but only holdem for 4 months. So, to be a successful LAG you need to know the people at the table. And I don't just mean he's a LAG, he's tight/passive, he's loose/passive, etc... While that is important you need to most importantly know and guage where you think a player is playing at skill wise. I usually assign a number to this from 1 - 5 in my head. I then identify the players at my table in general terms such as LAG, maniac, etc.. online pokertracker helps with this a lot too, but live this is even better and more profitable if you can do it successfully. So let's say you identify a maniac on your right. Great place to have one. Now you rate his play, like is he making loose calls, etc... basically is he smart, semi-smart about his game or just bets everything.

I suggest first with identifying the gamblers, LAGS and maniacs, and skip the tight/passives because they're too easy to read and play against. After you feel you've got a good read, then you're ready to LAG it up.

1 being worst 5 being most skilled.
If pre-flop raiser is LAG or maniac with skill 1-3 re-raise 2-4x BB bets with broadways and other obvious cards from MP-LP.
re-raise all 2-4x BB bets with 5-4 suited connectors in LP against 1-3 LAGS and maniacs.
I re-raise pocket 77s-99s with same standards. The rest is obvious.

It works for me, and all this has to be accompanies by reads, none of successful LAG play is ABC poker. You're going to lose a lot of money if you don't know how to make approriate LAG bets and reads. /images/graemlins/smile.gif Successful lagging is all about reads and knowing when there a high equity bluff situation.

It's late and I can go into more detail, but I'm running around 18PTBB/100 after 16k hands playing at 25/50 NL. I don't play 100, although I'm going to next week.

Oh, I almost forgot. I only multi-table 3 tables when I LAG. I can play more but my reads drop off. AND I open one table, play a rotation or two, watch the table and then jump on another, and so on. I don't just jump on three tables at once.