[Grisgra]

I have an exceedingly difficult time thinking about Shania, table image, what-have-you. I think I have a decent feel for it, given that I'm not spewing large amounts of cash at 10/20 and 20/40, but it's very difficult for me to put it into words.

The obvious danger in any discussions about Shania is that almost any action at the table can be defended/rationalized as having a good effect on it. "I raised in the hijack with 75s and 3-bet the river but lost to a better 2-pair, but because I showed it down . . ." the implication being that somewhere in that ellipsis is an obvious positive effect on your Shania if you play your hands right in the future. Something to keep in mind.

There are simple Shania effects that are easy to put into words, because they are fairly straightforward: when you 3-bet in your BB after an SB open-raise, and show down a marginal hand, even if you lose, the guy in the SB is less likely to want to get into wars with you out-of-position with crap, because he knows you can't be pushed around.

But deeper than that . . . I have a tough time. Nonetheless, I've been thinking about my recent 20/40 experience, and my recent successful sessions have all gone like this:

1) Play tight postflop, fold to turn raises, etc. with marginal hands. (Most don't do this, I think -- I don't mean most 2+2'ers, just most 20/40 players, as they are immediately massively skeptical of aggression at that level, and rightfully so.)

2) Continue to play tight, raising when I think I'm ahead. I have the sense that people at this point think I'm easy to push around, as I've folded to aggression in the recent past, and I make up some $$ I *might* have lost earlier by folding. So I get bluffed at a little more than usual. They also -- and this is important -- think, I believe, that my aggression at this stage is to some degree tilt-induced, that I'm tired of getting pushed around and am 3-betting them with Q-high, just to show 'em who's boss.

3) I now have a rep of a possibly scared player (at least compared to the average 20/40 guy) that only plays back at folks with the nuts -- or at least top pair. In come the semibluffs, the flop checkraises on ragged boards when I'm defending my BB against a button or CO steal, etc. In other words, now, and only now, do I loosen up postflop and start LAGGING it up more.

4) Even if I get caught in a bluff at this point, my opponents now understand that I'm definitely mixing up my game all over the place, and I get the sense that they aren't big on getting into wars with me with marginal stuff until they can figure out how to re-pigeonhole me.


Now, this "gameplan", so to speak, hasn't been even much of a conscious decision on my part, and to be honest, I can't even say that if I went through my hand histories for my last few sessions that I'd even detect it. In other words, this all might just be the equivalent of looking at a cloud and thinking it looks like a pony or a skyscraper or Osama bin Laden. Also, even if this is 'real', it may not be optimal, even though I've presented it as some sort of genius masterplan.

As rory is wont to say, maybe I'm just rambling here. But I wanted to bring up the subject, get people thinking about (and posting) some Shania-progressions of their own.

For instance, I'd love to have someone describe the start-out-as-major-LAG progression. I think I've done it once or twice, not on purpose, but in general it's tough to outLAG the 20/40 players. On less aggressive tables, perhaps at some of the 10/20 or 5/10 tables, maybe it'd work better. Or maybe it works just fine at 20/40 and that's why there are so many 50/30 players there [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

EDIT -- needless to say, I think that many opponents at 10/20 and above pay enough attention to my play that such a progression is possible. Especially at 20/40, especially becacuse I lean towards tables with 4-5 players, and am not in a rush to leave if it goes 2-3 handed. Only way to learn, right? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]