--- tips on varing my playing stlye ---

[orbie]

last night I played by the book for low-limit.
Tight-agressive. I knew there were two players at the
table better than myself. When I had big cards I raised/reraised. Bet top pair, ect. Very predictable, the times I capatalized most were when I'd gamble or defend the blind with hands like Q 4s, 9 7o.

My predictablity made it hard to capatilize on good hands and costly on second best hands.

My thought is to try slow playing a few hands and bluff with second best pair. The other option being back out agianst the better players.

suggestions?

[TobDog]

By the book is a good starting place, if you want to appear to be more wild, you can play your draws aggressively, like, free card raises for your draws, betting 2nd pair if you are last to act and it was checked around twice. Another play that will appear aggressive is to raise in your blind when you have a good milti-way hand and a lot of callers already, hands like middle suited connectors, and small-mid pairs, when you flop a hand with these plays, you have built a pot already. These are things that are actually solid plays but give you the appearance of not being predictable. Another thing I do occasionally is I will check top pair whe the board is not threatning, this will allow my opponents to wonder why I did not bet with such a hand, it is better if you have someone betting it for you on the button in this situation.

[broomcorn]

remember that varying your play is unnecessary if the other players are not good enough to notice.
that said, if everyone is noticing that you only play the best hands, obviously start loosening up a little, preferrably from later position and make sure that everyone takes notice of your "new" starting hand requirements. if you don't get any advertisement, then you'll be throwing more money away for no reason!
then, once they think you might be looser than they thought, that's when you go back to your regular tight game and (hopefully) get more hands paid off.
i found especially in a home game where its the same mix of guys every week, you have to constantly switch gears and try to keep some sort of track as to how each player views your play.

[Louie Landale]

This may be hard to fathom right now, but the better players not only can tell what you've got (since you play predictably), they ALSO can [1] tell what you are thinking, and [2] can manipulate you. Inexperienced players (no matter how good) have a serious problem against the experienced players (no matter how bad). There is a whole mind-game-war going on at the table, even involving those that are unaware of it.

"Feeling" you are getting outplayed by the better players is PLENTY of reason to play very selective when they are in. Put another way, a "marginal" hand against the typical fish is a loser against the typical pro.

If your hand is face-up like this, there are a couple things you can do [1] play tight so it really doesn't matter if they know what you've got [2] make surprise bets/raises against the better players. For example, call with the flush draw then raise with it on the turn.

Well, I thought I knew where I was going with this but it doesn't look like I do.

- Louie

[Rockfish]

If I were you I would vary my play by not defending in the blinds with trash hands like Q4s and 97o.

"My predictablity made it hard to capatilize on good hands and costly on second best hands."

Are you sure? You said you played tight, aggressive, but were you really tight and were you aggressive in the right places? For example you said you raised and re-raised with big cards. What kind of big cards and what position? Are you re-raising an UTG raiser with KJo? Those are big cards, but that re-raise is a huge error. It can also lead to some very costly second best hands.

Don't slow play. It is rarely correct to slow play. Betting with second pair is not necessarily a bluff if you have an overcard to the board. As far as backing out against the good players, that's a good thing. I'm not saying to run screaming from the building, but you should be more selective about the hands you play against them and make sure you don't play hands that can be easily dominated.

Rockfish

[orbie]

thanks everyone. I pulled a good deal of information for reflection on my play.

by playing tight-aggressive, I mean strick starting hands. Raising with good hands like floping sets with pocket pair and raising with two pair. I may be off on my interpretation of tight-aggressive though.

Thanks agian for the feedback I'll see how the new out look plays out.