Marooned on Weak-Tight Island

[Festus22]

Here's the story:

I achieved a milestone this weekend by passing the $2K profit mark since I began playing more seriously in July. 95% of my play is at Party $0.5/1. My problem (at least I think it's one) is that I must have some kind of phobia toward PF raising. I'll raise AA, KK, QQ, AKs and AKo pretty much every time but I almost always limp all other playable hands. Of course if it's folded to me in MP with AQs I'll open raise but if I'm UTG with that hand, I'll almost always limp. Same for JJ, AJs, KQs, etc. It's funny in that when I click the "call" button, I know I "should" be raising but for some reason, I don't anyway.

Now when it comes to post flop play, I'm usually a fold/bet/raise (probably in that order) player. I rarely call unless it's something like a non-nut draw or a call/fold-the-turn-unimproved situation. I'm probably the anti-calling station and I think that helps me a lot. But what has been pointed out as another weakness is my showdown winning percentage which is currently around 75%. Some have said that's way too high and I'm folding too many potential winning hands. I would probably agree with that also.

So I don't raise enough PF and fold too many hands post flop. Here's my dilema. Even with these "faults", I've developed a winning strategy for Party $0.5/1 by playing this way and obviously don't want to do anything to screw it up. At this pace, I may make maybe $5K/yr playing $0.5/1 which is a nice little supplemental income. Yet I continue to feel I'm playing "incorrectly" based on posts and responses to posts.

Should I make a conscious effort to fundamentally change? Anyone have any advice?

[pufferfish]

As far as the pre-flop raises go, perhaps you could slowly include additional hands. Take JJ for example and raise it every fourth time. Use whatever criteria are somewhat comfortable for you.

If you are playing multiple tables perhaps your “showdown winning percentage” is high because you don’t have a good enough read on your opponents. If you treat most of your opponents the same then I can see how you might be too conservative. I’m not sure how to solve that since I only play one table at a time.

GL,
pf

[lil']

Take JJ for example and raise it every fourth time.
Raise it every time! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

[Festus22]

As you know quite well, Party $0.5/1 games are extremely loose. I base some of my PF play on the recommendations in HEPFAP specifically regarding JJ and AQo and by extention, other similar hands. I don't think I'm that far off base by calling LP with JJ after 4 limpers. Folded to me or maybe one limper - yes, I'd raise but that's a rare event. I think a lot of poster advice goes against what's recommended in the Loose Game section of HEPFAP and I think that's where my confusion lies.

[TheRake]

[ QUOTE ]
Take JJ for example and raise it every fourth time.
Raise it every time! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Classic

[lil']

Hey, do you wanna get off the island or not? I'm giving you a rowboat and you're chucking the oars in the ocean! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[psychprof]

For me, the issue is bigger than just whether or not to raise JJ.

[ QUOTE ]
Even with these "faults", I've developed a winning strategy for Party $0.5/1 by playing this way and obviously don't want to do anything to screw it up. At this pace, I may make maybe $5K/yr playing $0.5/1 which is a nice little supplemental income. Yet I continue to feel I'm playing "incorrectly" based on posts and responses to posts.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope your post will generate more discussion regarding aggressive strategies at micro-limits and the topic of playing "profitable" and/or "proper" poker. I am in the same situation as you and I'd been thinking about posting a message like yours for a while now. I started in August and have also passed the 2K mark playing .5/1 and 1/2. I play tighter than almost all of my opponents (though I still have some leaks), but importantly, I would consider my play to be somewhere between passive and weak, and I'm probably closer to weak than I am to passive. Even so, I'm making over 5bb/hr at these stakes. Clearly I'm making a profit, but at what price?

Specifically, I'm playing against the worst opponents I can find. I'm not utilizing very many poker "strategies", and I'm certainly not playing aggressively (unless the flop hits me hard). Basically, I'm not learning how to play "great" poker. When I do try more aggressive strategies, my variance increases, but my bb/hr doesn't seem to change.

Another part of the dilemma is that I've been told that when you move up to, say, 5/10 stakes, making 1bb/hr is considered good. Well, that's $10 an hour which is what I make now playing $1/2. Furthermore, I've been watching 2/4 and 3/6 games and get the impression that my current semi-tight-passive-weak strategy will allow me to succeed there as well as I do at 1/2 stakes.

I'm not suggesting that weak play is good; I'm just agreeing with you that it can be profitable at these micro-limits, and that I also struggle with the "contradiction" of my success despite my "improper" play.

Psychprof

[PokerNoob]

It sounds like you are tight/aggressive except for the preflop raise. Do you have a large percentage of river folds? When you do lose a showdown, are you shown a hand the player didn't have appropriate odds to be drawing for?

[JTG51]

I think you have to answer this question on your own. Everyone's motivations for playing are different, to answer your question you have to decide what yours are.

If you are comfortable and satisfied with your current style and win rate, then there's no reason to change. If you want to eventually move up in limits where it will be much more important to squeeze more and more EV out of each hand, then you'll have to make some changes.

It sounds like you are happy with poker being a hobby that makes you a little extra cash. If that's true, don't feel pressured to change what makes you happy.

[Festus22]

Nice post and you're exactly right. Who knows, maybe my style is optimal for Party $0.5/1, maybe not. But it works for me and I enjoy it. Hmmmm, that wasn't so tough. Why didn't I think of that?!