Tough Games versus Tough Decisions

[Nate tha' Great]

Was thinking about this some in the context of a recent, not-so-successful (results-wise, at least) shot at one-tabling some higher limit shorthanded games while my computer is in the shop.

It seems to be that it's worthwhile to make a distinction between a tough game and a game that requires you to make a lot of tough decisions.

People typically associate tough games with tight-aggressive games. A good example might be the Party 30/60 game while the number of tables were limited, or perhaps a typical Vegas 40/80. The profit potential in these games may not be especially high, even for an expert player. Typically, you're able to win something by taking advantage of the one or two weak players in the game, or perhaps by being especially proficient in one or two microareas of play, such as defending your blinds or making good river laydowns. However, the thing about these games is that, even though your profit potential is not all that high, they are usually fairly straightforward to play. Perhaps 5% of your decisions might be described as being "tough", which I'd describe roughly as falling within +/- 0.10 BB before the flop or +/- 0.20 BB after the flop.

Contrast this with a game in which the play is somewhat looser, more aggressive, less predictable, and/or in which the game is running shorthanded. Your profit potential - emphasis on potential - in this kind of game is probably a fair bit higher in this kind of game than in the rock garden scenario described above. However, because you are facing less predictable opponents and probably larger pots, you are also facing a lot more tough decisions. Perhaps 10 or even 15% of your actions fall into the "tough" category.

The point is that your win rate in these more aggressive sort of games is going to be more "elastic" relative to just how good your skills really are, as well as just how well you're playing *at that moment in time*. Things like playing while tired, while multitabling excessively, while not having good player reads, or while adjusting to the stakes and game texture are likely to have more impact here than they are in the former case. If you're playing your A game, then your win rate is probably going to be higher in the aggressive game than in the tight game. However, if you're playing your C+ game instead, the tight game might actually wind up being better for you, if either game is profitable at all.

Just something to chew on while you're in the process of moving up, whether it's from 2/4 to 5/10 6-max, or 30/60 to 100/200.