[BoxTree]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you varying your play or shifting gears? How much time do you spend in selecting a table? Do you occasionally raise on the button with air?

One trick I use is that I pick a hand, say 78s, and play it like AA all night. It helps me develop my post flop skills and it adds a bit of deception to my game.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't need to shift gears at Commerce. Occasionally mixing it up by raising 87s under the gun or raising 87s on the button makes strategic sense at higher limits where your opponents don't suck (I'd assume some 40/80 games -- I've yet to find a 20/40 game where either of these moves makes sense.) At virtually every 20/40 game I've ever played at Commerce, I can fold every hand for four orbits, look down and find AA UTG, raise, and get three callers. There's no need to mix things up. As for raising 87s on the button, this only makes sense if you want people to stick around if the flop is good for you. These people stick around anyways. Your raise will just increase your variance.

Table selection isn't that important at 9/18 and 20/40. The players are generally so bad and the tables change so quickly that seat selection is much, much, much more important than table selection. (That may be true for any game...I've yet to decide.) I've heard that table selection is absolutely essential at 40/80.

Raising on the button with air is a bad idea. Please don't do it.

Don't play 87s like AA. Play it like 87s. Please.

Again, my comments apply specifically to Commerce, and I presume, to most B&M. Online play is likely to be very different.