Creating a personal style

[ChipLeader]

According to every book I read and everything i hear, there are three styles of play. Conservative, Aggressive, and Super Aggressive. Obviously there are variations of each, such as conservative preflop but aggressive on the flop, aggressive preflop but passive on missed flops, etc.

Depending on your style you make different plays in the SAME situation based on how opponents percieve you. This means that there are bad, acceptable, good, and best plays- but they are not always the same. Still, if two players are playing the same style and in the same situation there will always be this range of plays (poor-great).

With this in mind, it seems as if the game becomes almost systematic. Against an overly tight player with XX-XX calling range preflop and X flop standards to continue past the flop, when he is in position X and it is heads up, there will always be horrible play, acceptable plays, and solid plays which will change based on how you think he sees you.

WHile the system is very complicated, the books and advice we get are used to show you how to analyze all the factors in a hand and make the right play by knowing how to react. It would be almost impossible to learn the game based on every possible situation, but if you learn to play one situation well you should be able to play similair ones well. Thus, the more hands and situations you see the more likely you will be to adjust and play similair situations properly in the future. This is how the game is learned and played.

This brings me to my main question. I learned to play by reading and experience. I have read many players' books and strategies and have used the one that suits me best. I therefore follow a certain path to get to the same end as all others- winning. We use math, reads, and wits to get here and in the end you either made a poor play, a good one, or a great one. My style is very similair to Doyle's because i like the additional action i get by adding suited connector and 1 or 2 gap suited connector type hands to my preflop standards. However, i do not like the constant tough decisions you encounter when youre playing a ton of hands like Farha, nor the lack of thought when playing remarkably tight like Helmuth. Ive chosen a style that suits me- notice the wording. Ive chosen one, i have not created one.

WHere in the scheme of things are you left to create your own style? Super Conservative players are compared to Helmuth and Cloutier, Conservative players are more likened to Harrington. Aggressive is Doyle, Forrest, etc. Super aggressive is Ivey, Negrenaeu (i butchered the spelling im sure), Gus Hansen, etc.

Does "unique" still exist and can it be successful? I cant for the life of me remember hearing someone say "he plays a very unique style- unlike any im used to.", unless the player is unique because he is clueless and losing.

I hope this isnt too much psycho-babble for you all. I would like to be a succesful MTT player and am doing everything i can to become one. However, no one ever becomes great by following and i know i can never be anything more than a solid player by just playing according to rules of good play.