Question for the LAGs

[Endlestorm]

I've slowly made the conversion to (what I feel is) LAG play over the past 4 months or so. I think me and LAG are a good match. However, I have two questions. One, simple, is what do the VP$P and PFR% typically for you winning LAGs?

My less simple question... After sitting at a table for a while, and trying to take down most pots, people are going to play back at you. Sometimes they are going to have the goods, and sometimes they won't. I often hear myself saying when I fire at an A-high flop and get raised "They are frustrated with my aggression, and are trying to make a move, but this time I ACTUALLY have TPTK". In retrospect, it seems that more often than not I am beat in these situations, and that these morons haven't even noticed how many pots I'm taking down and are just playing their standard lines. But on the occassion that there is a thinking player and my 3-bet on the flop takes it down, I feel warm and fuzzy inside. Emotionally the warm-fuzzy makes up for the cold-prickly, but not financially.

One way to solve the problem is to simply switch tables when you get suspicious that people are trying to wrench control from you. But I can't leave my 4x buy-in stack.

What is the solution??

[xorbie]

The solution is to play poker with the players and steal from the chumps.

The solution, when the cards aren't coming and people are playing back at you, is to SLOW DOWN. LAG play only pays off when 1. You're taking down lots of small pots without a fight or 2. People get so frustrated that they're playing back at you with lesser holdings.

In this case it sounds like they're just using you to build a pot whenever they have a hand, so you should slow down, or move on to a new table if you want to continue speeding.

[yvesaint]

hey when people are trying to wrench control from you, thats the best, now hit a hand or two

also im 25/22 when playing my a-game

[trevor]

[ QUOTE ]
hey when people are trying to wrench control from you, thats the best, now hit a hand or two

also im 25/22 when playing my a-game

[/ QUOTE ]

So basically you are never limping? WTF that sounds stressful.

[Big_Jim]

What everybody here has said is pretty much right on.

If you always assume that people are just "making moves" at you, then you are going to spew chips at them.

When you steal 10 pots in a row, and then a guy finally decides to fight back... sure, there's a good chance that he's "had enough," but there's also a good chance that he waited for 10 pots, and now he finally caught a hand.

TPTK type hands DO become even more difficult to play when people start playing back at you, specifically for this reason, but TPTK doesn't usually make for huge pots, anyway. (Unless you're playing 25/50+, those guys are nuts)

When playing LAG, you win a bunch of small pots, the medium pots are kind of a wash, and all of those pots help build up an image where you get paid off big on your good hands.

I'm about 30/17

[Big_Jim]

[ QUOTE ]
One way to solve the problem is to simply switch tables when you get suspicious that people are trying to wrench control from you. But I can't leave my 4x buy-in stack.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not a good solution.

IMO, the primary reason to play LAG is to get paid off big on your monsters, and paid off better than most on your mediocre hands.

If they start playing back at you too much... tighten up, or make a big calldown if the situation is right.

When you make a big calldown, people get scared to bluff you, especially if you were right.

[Endlestorm]

Last night I played a short (400 hand, 6max 2/4) session and was 34/22. And no, I was never limping.

[yvesaint]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
hey when people are trying to wrench control from you, thats the best, now hit a hand or two

also im 25/22 when playing my a-game

[/ QUOTE ]

So basically you are never limping? WTF that sounds stressful.

[/ QUOTE ]

when im first in the pot im almost always raising

i will limp 22-55 behind limpers, or cold-call raises in LP, or occasionally limp/cc 87s type hands etc. but i basically never open-limp, never really a situation where i find this necessary

[Big_Jim]

I occationally open limp, but it is very rare.

Here are a couple of times when I consider it:

a) On the button with a hand like Axs, SC, small PP, rags
Although I rarely do it, I like doing it against passive players, because you can get cheap steals against the blinds when they check to you on the flop. People won't usually play back at you much in unraised pots, and it's cheaper than a pre-flop steal.

b) EP with small pocket pairs and SCs at a passive table.
Pretty obvious.

c) EP with big pocket pairs AKs at an aggressive table
LRR is fun, although I don't do it very often.

d) EP with small PPs and SCs at aggressive table
Sometimes, you can find sweet situations for a squeeze play. Especially good when there's an over-agro player in the blinds.

e) Open completing small blind with passive BB
Lots of hands that are too good to fold getting 3:1, but not really worth playing in a raised pot OOP.

f) When there's a short stack that's pushing a bunch of hands, with big pairs, AKs.

But yeah.. I almost never open limp.