Meta Game

[Brom]

I've seen the term "meta game" used in a lot of posts around here and I think I know the meaning but am not too sure. My understanding is that it relates to the betting of the hand and future hands (and not the actual cards one is holding). Well it's kind of tough for me to explain what I mean here.

Could someone please enlighten me as to its true meaning? Possibly with an example?

[techrush]

my understanding of the term is its kind of like the "game within the game" if that makes sense. for example changing your playing style to a particular structure. say 6 handed vs a full ring game. or changing play based the play of the other players around you may be more accurate. ie. playing tighter in a loose game...

tec

[pzhon]

A metagame is a game built of games. In this case, the building blocks are hands.

Theoretically, you might have so much experience playing poker and so much confidence in your strategy that you don't learn anything more from experience. In reality, players constantly adjust their play according to what they observe from their opponents. "Metagame considerations" mean making plays that are not optimal for the current hand, but either provide you with more information or mislead your opponents in future hands.

Showing a bluff has no value in the current hand. However, it may have metagame value if you almost never bluff in that situation, and want to mislead your opponents about this.

[axioma]

correct meta game strategy is to play the style that you determine best complements your opponents likely styles.

or more exactly, its to make the play that you determine to be the best, given your expected notion of how your opponets will react.

for example, you might decide that given the passive nature of your opponets at a certain table, your meta game strat. might be to make free card plays whenever they are suitable, since you determine that they are unlikely to 3-bet you, or bet into you on the turn.


[edit] although the example i used above was for a ring game, meta game strat. is generally more important in HU matches, where your expectation of your opponents reaction to certain plays is competely crucial.

for example if you approximate that your opponents raise percentage from the SB is X%, complete percentage is Y%, and fold percentage is Z%, you can come up with an optimal metagame strat. for hands you should reraise, call, and fold.

[BluffTHIS!]

I've never read an 'official' theory of meta-game but here is what it means to me. Meta-game is composed of:

1)Poker strategy & tactics & knowledge of multiple types
2)Psychological ploys (Mike Caro's ultimate level)
3)YOUR physical and psychological situation as to how it determines whether you should be playing right now
4)Game selection
5)Bankroll considerations (correct bankroll considerations)
6)Thinking a great deal about the game (Mason's often repeated advice)

Thus having the proper knowledge and experience to play various forms of poker in a tactically sound manner is not enough to excel if you don't play according to/protect & build your bankroll, if you play when you shouldn't physically or psychologically, if you don't try to manipulate your opponents psychologically through various verbal artifices, if you fail to excercise proper game selection (especially a large mistake online which is game selection paradise), and if you don't attempt to keep learning and thinking a lot about poker.

The player who can successfully put all of these together is the one will be winning money and improving year after year while the majority of other players drop by the wayside or even sadder, be frozen at a certain level below their maximum potential.