Re: Post for david...
 

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The 73 suited thread involved an early position limper, a late position raiser and you calling with 73 suited from the bb.

I said in that thread that to make the call, you have to be a very good postflop player. DS corrected me and said that this was an easy call even if your postflop skills wre average.

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Was that an older thread or a more recent one? Can anyone link it?

Re: Post for david...
 

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Seems like variance is the only difference.

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That, and whether or not some random drunk guy keeps raising your blinds with 8 high every round.

The reason you defend in EV neutral situations is to prevent -EV situations from coming up later.

Re: Post for david...
 

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One thing to keep in mind is that when getting 3.5-1 odds, you should be calling a lot because you're getting a good price. If you flop something, just continue to the river. You can play like a wuss oftentimes, because the money is going in anyway. In other words, extraction of value will occur because your opponent is tenacious and tough. However, you'll not have as many positional issues since you're not gonna put in as much action.

Another reason to call a lot is so that they'll stop stealing from you so easily. I love playing against people who are non-defenders. I just figure that I will either get the button twice a round, and/or that I will get to play for free. If you aren't thinking like this, then I don't think you are a favorite in a 100-200 game. I'm serious.

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Dude, you really need to create some online accounts and show us how to beat a 100-200 game.

Re: Post for david...
 

That thread was circa spring 2001. I am brutal at archives searches. And if I did find the old thread, I am even brutaler (sic) at linking it.

Re: Post for david...
 

Variance makes a lot of things look neutral for a long time that aren't neutral. The best players generally embrace the highest variance situations, especially at high limits.

Re: Post for david...
 

I disagree. At the higher limits, this situation comes up all the time and is extremely important. If you are folding to many big blinds or not playing aggressively enough after the flop, I believe that is enough to turn you from a winner to a loser in games 100-200 and higher. Paluka surely would disagree, I'm sure he'll pipe in soon.

In short, this situation cannot be dismissed. Party on.

Re: Post for david...
 

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Yeah point taken a lot of these spots are pretty close to break even. But then again after a certain point, dont you have to start looking at those marginal spots and how to play them correctly in order to take your game to the next level? In Hiatus 10 7 hand example. He was under the impression it was a clear fold, and other top players thought it was a clear call. Somebody has to be way off base, no?

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Yeah, that's a fair point. It's not like the extra .10 BB/100 wouldn't be worth fighting for, especially if you're multitabling 30/60 online or something.

In terms of my own game, I've gradually been moving toward looser and looser blind play over the time, but there are still a lot of situations where I don't have a set play. Which is just kind of weird. I could list for you almost exactly the hands that I'd open-raise with on the Button given typical opponents, but I don't know that I could provide the same list for the BB.

I do know that, the last time I looked at my Pokertracker numbers in some detail, there wasn't any group of hands that I was generally defending with that was showing a loss worse than the .50 BB I'd lose by folding. That, combined with Peter_Rus's research, JA Sucker's salient point about how it's fairly profitable to play fit-or-fold against typical opponents, the metagame benefit of deterring future steals, and the favorable rake structures in midlimit online games, suggest that I should err on the side of defending a bit looser than I already do, and perhaps quite a bit looser than "textbook play" would suggest.

Re: Post for david...
 

I'm not saying that you can or can't beat a 1-2 game, and I'm not trying to be snide in my remarks, nor am I trying to attack you. Seriously. I know that you are an excellent player from your posts, and I'm sure I've played with you online.

If you don't like me, fine. However, my advice is generally pretty good, I think.

My comment about non defenders being great on my left is a valid point though. MOST non-defenders are people who won't float/3 bet with the range of hands that they should when a tough player opens to the right of them in the cutoff or one more to the right of that. Thus, you can either get a SB who NEVER defends without the goods (a nice situation when you're on the button), or if they are 2 to the left of you, you get to steal their BB more often than you should when you have the button and will often be able to steal from 2 OFF THE BUTTON when they have it. This is very sweet, and is like playing a game with no antes.

As for my postflop stategy, check call, check-call gets the money in lots of situations, but people who have played with me in these situaitons know that it's nowhere near all that I do, either with good hands or bad hands.

There's also a little more to my comments because at high limits, hands are not played in a vacuum. Thus, I think that it's far better to be a loose defender than a tight one.

Re: Post for david...
 

I don't know why you think I don't play online, though I don't play all that much.

Re: Post for david...
 

On an unrelated note, my friend Matt and to a lesser extent I completely invented and populated the term float which u have seemed to embrace. Glad u are enjoying it. Also, u have said before that u can easily beat floaters and u love to play against them cause they are so easy to exploit, and now u say they are a nuisance and harder to play against. These kind of comments are where I have formed a less that A+ opinion on your posts. (You seem to always think u have the answers, no questions asked) All that being said, u are right...being a loose blind defender has tons of adavantages the bigger u go and I think it is a leak of mine...By the way I dont think anyone is running over my blinds enough to be playing a no ante game, I adjust my defending to how often they are stealing and I am still in there defending trust me. I was just suprised HOW LOOSE some very good players defend. Thanks for your contributions to the thread so far