meta game

[technologic]

i have no idea what meta game implications means. or what not. there are a lot of other terms i'm not sure i catch the meaning of on this forum...AZK can you provide a quick glossary of these elusive terms?

[fsuplayer]

meta game.

ill try a simple explanation; the grand scheme of the game.

if you raise UTG and bet the flop every time, but then check with AA on a A410r board, you are practicing bad metagame.

im sure others can expand much better, but thats the quickest example i got.

[Kovner]

The game outside of the specific hand you are playing right now. The most understood principle of minding the metagame is minding (and controlling) your image.

[Alex/Mugaaz]

Most of the time it's an excuse people use for making a terrible play.

[IHateCats]

I've looked around but I haven't found a decent definition so I'll take a shot here, though my understanding of the term has simply been picked up due to it's context and is likely imperfect. Metagame considerations are strategic playing considerations beyond those of the specific hand.

Fsuplayer's checking AA flopping the set is a straightforward but very useful example. While it may be optimal for that specific hand to check and give your opponent a chance to catch something, if it's an environment where you play regularly that move will be a dead giveaway and a net loser since your continuation bets will get far less respect if you regularly check your monster hands while betting your medium hands and bluffs and your opponents figure this pattern out. Similarly you want to play your very strong semi bluff draws and overpairs in a similar fashion to the way you play sets; so you can maximize the action you recieve on your sets. Being hyper aggressive in situations where you are EV neutral if they call is a gain for meta gaming reasons, you can then be hyper aggressive with your bone crushers and give your opponent a chance to make a major mistake getting all in with a 2 outer where they think it's another coinflip. Similarly showing a bluff can be done for metagaming reasons, to stimulate action, counteract an overly tight table image or put an opponent on tilt.

Paul Phillips had a blog thread about how in tourneys an opponent like Amir Vahedi or Gus Hansen who is well known to be willing to play "mutually assured destruction" has a substantial asset in that their occasionally reckless play and willingness to make loose calls gives them a big 'don't mess with me' tag.

[gol4pro]

I post a lot at THP and UPF, but I've never heard the term used there before.

So it's essentially predictability, or the amount of deception you use?

[savman]

[ QUOTE ]
Being hyper aggressive in situations where you are EV neutral if they call is a gain for meta gaming reasons, you can then be hyper aggressive with your bone crushers and give your opponent a chance to make a major mistake getting all in with a 2 outer where they think it's another coinflip.

[/ QUOTE ]

my favorite part.

[IHateCats]

At least how I've seen it used it's a bit broader than that though that is a huge part of it. As I've seen the term used it also brings in some pschyological factors such as making opponents fear you, having a reputation i.e. 'Spirit Rock', putting opponents on tilt, even extending to being civil when you take a bad beat or being friendly to the fish. All of these can affect how much $ you can make long term and are strategic considerations but don't relate to +/- EV play considerations within the context of a specific hand.

[turnipmonster]

if a hand of HE can be called a game, the metagame is a game made up of many hands of HE. basically it's the game composed of games.

a good example is rock paper scissors (roshambo). if you and I were going to play a single game of roshambo, my optimal play is to use a random strategy to play that single game.

say now that we are going to play 1000 rounds of roshambo. say that somewhere in the middle of those games, I notice that you go paper 2/3rds of the time. clearly my optimal strategy should now change based on what I know of your previous play, in that I should go scissors every time.

I am altering my strategy based on games we have played and the likely outcome of future games. another way of saying this is I have altered my strategy based on metagame considerations. in this simplified example the game is roshambo, and the metagame is 1000 games of roshambo vs you.

--turnipmonster