weak tight avoidance

[Kenshin]

I consider myself a solid player at mid-stakes hold'em; however, I have a tendency to revert to weak tight. I recognize this propensity and I suspect that is half the battle. What can I do to ensure tight but aggressive and not tight and weak?

[Al Schoonmaker]

In one of his essays Mason says that becoming weak-tight is often a necessary step toward becoming a good player. The most common and serious errors are playing too many hands and chasing with them too long.

You've overcome that error, but need to remind yourself constantly of a few points.

1. If you bet or raise, you can win two ways, by having everyone fold, or by having the best hand. If you don't bet or raise, you can win only by having the best hand.

2. If you bet or raise, you may not win immediately, but you will win MANY pots that you don't even know about because you knock out someone who would have drawn out on you. That is, you get called by A, but knock out B. You beat A, but would have lost to B.

3. If you bet or raise, you lose -- at most -- two extra bets. If you do not bet or raise, you can lose the whole pot.

To keep things simple, just write on your wrist in "invisible" ink that only you can see: AGGRESSION PAYS.

Regards,

Al

[Griffin]

Those are three very valid points, and I will remember them as I also have weak-tight tendencies.

However, I'm not so sure about how applicable they are for microlimit games. I find it very hard to drive people out of a pot when my raise only costs them a quarter or two.

The flip side of that, though, is that if they call my raises and win the pot, it only costs me a quarter or two! (Point #3 /images/graemlins/grin.gif )