Skilled LAG play?

[Raven]

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lag is loose aggressive.. the main difference between TAG and Lag is probably the consideration of position. LAG cares less.

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I dont think its right, to play a good lag is to play a solid post flop game and a aggresive preflop game with a wider range of hands that the usual tight player, position is also if not more important when you play like that.

[Skuzzy]

I play 100NL and take shots at 200NL. This is a recent move up. The reason I want to expand my range is to help for the move to 200NL. I think this step is likely to be more key to me coming from the tight is right background than any other one I've made in limit or NL.

[subzero]

Have you seen fim's post on moving up?

[Skuzzy]

Thanks for the links Subzero.

[emil3000]

Please don't quote this interview as something insightful or anything. I won't comment on those specific lines, but you should think about whether you want to take advice from a guy who in the same interview makes these statements:

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I needed to make one of the top three places [in the WSOP ME] [for it to matter]. Number nine doesn’t mean anything to me. It just enables me to pay off a few markers.

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I have people I can borrow money from. I don’t worry about money. When things get bad, my mom asks how I will pay bills. I say, “Ma, shut up. Have I ever worried about money?” I don’t worry about money. Somebody will always loan me money."

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I loved football. I still do. I’m still a degenerate. Come football season, the bookies all call me. I go off for anywhere from $200,000 to half a million every football season. I know I will lose all the money, but I can’t quit because I love it so much.

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And my favorite, which also tells something about this guys understanding of poker:


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So, if it’s fifty-fifty, would you want to go in holding a made hand or needing to make a hand?

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[Skuzzy]

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So, if it’s fifty-fifty, would you want to go in holding a made hand or needing to make a hand?


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That's a nice line. But it tells you something about my understanding of poker that I had to read it twice!

[subzero]

I'm not a big fan of Matusow's. The guy has no money managment skills and I don't like his attitude. I just found it interesting that a pro like him (someone I'd expect to play a tough LAG game online) would hint towards a TAG strategy since Internet players are so bad (even at his stakes).

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what about all the times when they call with the best hand because the lag doesn't have anything.

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What about it?

The point is to use your skill and judgement to avoid these situations. If it comes up, hopefully we still have some outs because we've been intelligently semi-bluffing and not rampaging with 27o. Obviously you don't want to bet air when you put your opponent on a hand.

As I said previously, it comes down to reads and postflop skill, which is why *I* don't do it, but you can't play any style of poker if you're always scared of the nuts.

[gulebjorn]

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So, if it’s fifty-fifty, would you want to go in holding a made hand or needing to make a hand?


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That's a nice line. But it tells you something about my understanding of poker that I had to read it twice!

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I would wanna go in with a made hand.

[afreeman]

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Maybe I'm just suffering from that common poker players delusion that the LAGS have it all and TAG play is old news.

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I've been wondering the same thing lately.

Then I watched my 2003 WSOP DVD again. At the final two tables, there were about an equal number of TAG players (if not more) vs. LAGs. You don't see or hear about them much from the announcers because they don't make wild, dramatic moves.

Same deal in live poker. Who are you going to remember longer: the guy quietly taking down an occational medium pot, or the guy that is constantly bluffing and playing junk hands?

Plus, the personality of most LAGs is also typically more outgoing and jovial than that of the typical TAG player (think Scotty Nguyen versus Dan Harrington).

(Of course, at this level the game, players are constantly shifting gears, so its hard to really catagorize any top player accurately; I'm using these guys as examples because they seem to epitomize the archetypes.)