Turning on the LAG gear

[adanthar]

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why the hell didn't I take the plunge and start playing these months ago...

oh yeah, I only found the LAG gear last week, riiiight

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The first thing you have to do in order to beat MTT's regularly is play a solid TAG game with few if any obvious leaks for six months or a year. Maybe you can skip that if you're a poker prodigy; I guess I'm pretty good at this point, but I don't think I could've.

[As an aside, step one and a half is playing SNG's - lots and lots of SNG's. Getting to the final table is awesome, but worthless if you don't know what to do when you get there.]

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NL Texas Hold'em Trny:16566313 Level:13 Blinds (750/1500) - Friday, October 14, 01:33:38 EDT 2005
Table Super Thursday(484589) Table #3 (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: lentyai ( $11762 )
Seat 2: bulkmail ( $23142 )
<font color="red">Seat 3: Adanthar ( $29066 )
</font>
Seat 4: icrazy ( $56935 )
Seat 5: incision69 ( $17017 )
<font color="blue">Seat 6: JPaps18 ( $35918 ) </font>
Seat 7: CUZJJ ( $43016 )
Seat 8: Mellochello ( $17360 )
Seat 9: Buggsy46 ( $56083 )
Seat 10: play4food888 ( $21372 )
Trny:16566313 Level:13
Blinds (750/1500)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Adanthar [ 8c 8d ]
Adanthar raises [4000].

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So you start out playing a TAG game (maybe you're coming over from SNG's or limit, maybe you've got a solid Sklansky background and your success in other games is all based on his books, maybe you're just naturally risk averse) and you do well. In order to do *really* well, though, you need cards. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't, and lots of times, you get pushed off flops that might've even hit you somehow by people that play every hand...but when you have cards, you are a real threat.

[ QUOTE ]
JPaps18 calls [4000].

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Somewhere in there, if you play enough, you pick up handreading. Bad LAG's, who cannot hand read, will never get anywhere. Good LAG's have a huge innate advantage over TAG's, though - they know what the TAG's have.

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** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 6h, 4h ] (pot: 12,250)

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The problem with just reading hands as a TAG is that it isn't enough. You can put your opponent on a range of, say, AK-AQ/JJ-77, but when the flop misses you, you will often just give up. "What do I have? What does he have?"

Anyway, last week, something clicked. It's no secret that I've got an MTT style similar to Tommy Angelo's limit game, and that will always remain a key part of my game, but I needed something else. You see, in order to play like Tommy, you need two things: you must have at least half a hand, and your opponent must suspect you only have half a hand. Sometimes, you don't have either of those for a while, either.

So the step that I was missing is this: after you put the guy on a hand, pretend you are a LAG. Just for that one street is plenty.

"What does he think I have after I've been a TAG for four hours, and if I had it, what would I do?"

Adanthar is all-In.


PS: Of course, the bad news is that sometimes the LAG car crashes, you think top pair is good until it's too late and cost yourself about 14 thousand bucks. That's OK, I'll be back.

PPS: One of the drawbacks of finding a LAG gear and posting about it on an Internet forum for all to know is that your image alters. That's OK, too, but only if you know that and remember what your image is to the particular player you are against at all times. The correct play will greatly differ based on that.

PPPS: Be prepared to bubble out, like, a lot.

Oh, finally, yeah, I fully expect not to final table anything for months after this post.