Increasing Hand selection

[Lil Ribbit]

A lot of 2+2 books deal with the topic of hand selection in hold 'em. They mention increasing your hand selection as your skill gets better.

I always stuck to the %15-18 that so many people suggest but lately I've been testing the waters with some hands I normally wouldn't play because I feel my post flop play is getting stronger and my hand/player reading skills are more powerful too.

Are these the two main skills you need to begin to increase your hands played percentage. I feel confident I can pump my draws and get out when it's obvious I'm in trouble but I want to make sure I'm not just getting lucky and increasing my variance.

Anyone else expereince a moment where they feel comfertable adding new hands to their starting requirements based on post flop ability or is my self-esteem getting the best of me?

Thanks!

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

They mention increasing your hand selection as your skill gets better.

They also mention that for most players, the results are not good when they add extra hands.

[Louie Landale]

Adding more hands because you "play well" is a VERY slippery slope. Yes, its possible that you may eak out a little extra EV here and there, but the risks FAR outweigh the benefits; mostly because its such an easy trap to start playing pretty much everything in late position.

The other problem is this: with the added (weak) hands you'll find yourself in a LOT more "weak" situations that required "clever" bets to get out of. If you add, say, 10% more hands you can easily end up semi-bluffing twice as often as before. Opponents will notice that.

- Louie

[SunTzu68]

Yes.....I do increase the amount of hands I play, but the decision is made on the basis of what kind of control I feel I have over the table. If I feel that I am able to control the actions of the other players I tend to play a few more hands than usual. In these situations my bluffs usually work, and I am generally able to get payed out on my hands so it adds alot of EV to my play.

My point is that it has more to do with the other players I am playing with and my skill level and image compared to theirs than just my skill level alone.

I hope this helped....

[Mike]

I also think the determining point of the number and types of hands you can play is player dependant.

If you have many players seeing the flop and beyond and they play badly you can open up on the number and types of hands you can play. The numbers of mistakes you can make go down proportionally as the number of players go up. If you have many players seeing the flop and they all play well postflop, you are in a similar situation with even lower expectation - ie, you think you can play better post flop and they do play better post flop.

What you want ideally is terrible players who you can control to some extent, and the abilty to play mistake free post flop with good reads on those players.