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.

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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.

[johnnybeef]

Lagging correctly is all about three things.....hand reading, position and cheap pots.

[adanthar]

Yeah, it also helps when your opponents conveniently underbet the pot into you every time they have nothing, probably because Harrington told them to.

[Dirtsqrl77]

Very nice post...

You are on a roll results and posts.... nh sir

I would like to think I am midway to three qarters of the way through the TAG phase.
However, this does not mean I have not toyed with a LAG gear of my own. Stepping it up can be real ugly, and I have found this out the hard way. I think some of my biggest successes in tourneys have come when I have brought a LAG element into my game, even if only briefly. The rewards are huge.

I hear what you are saying, bringing in this element is all about your feel for the game and that can only come with A LOT of experience.

Did you find yourself toying with LAGish long before you ever really made it an effective part of your play??

[Lloyd]

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It's no secret that I've got an MTT style similar to Tommy Angelo's limit game

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Can you please elaborate? I talked with Tommy a few months ago and I know (or at least he said) he has very tight opening standards.

[adanthar]

I've never talked to Tommy, but he and I have a pretty similar style postflop.

For example, I'm the only person I know that's check/called three streets with trips turned quads (granted, the last one was a push).

Nice post. I'm starting to incorporate LAG play into my bubble game, and it's a lot of fun.


I'm not sure about the specific hand though. Your stack size is awkward, so you're forced to bet 2x the pot in order to make a convincing bluff. (Of course, overbetting probably makes it less likely that you get called, but I don't think that effect is significant enough to cancel out the extra chips risked.) If you had more or less chips, I'd like this play a lot more.

Mainly, I think every play is wrong always with any cards in any position against any villain with 10x BB to 20x BB.

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For example, I'm the only person I know that's check/called three streets with trips turned quads (granted, the last one was a push).

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I do this sometimes.

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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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This may seem odd, but what exactly is LAG and TAG?

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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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This may seem odd, but what exactly is LAG and TAG?

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LAG = loose/aggressive. A LAG plays many hands and raises/bets a lot.

TAG = tight/aggressive. A TAG plays less hands, but has a high bet/raise to check/call ratio.

Other options are loose/passive and weak/tight (which is just the way people say tight/passive).