mixing it up thoughts or comments?

Most of the poker I play is home games for $20 or less for the night or 2/4 limit hold em online. My friends have commented on how predictable I have become in my preflop raising and calling patterns. (I follow the small stakes suggestions from Miller Sklansky and Malmuth) and have recently experimenting with occasionally (about 10% of the time) raising a hand like 6-7 suited preflop. The result has been pretty good, if the flop comes up with an Ace or King and I bet my friends have thought I had top pair with a strong kicker and usually muck all but their strongest hands and if there is no paint on the flop a bet is taken to be a bluff but usually indicates I have a pair, straight or flush draw and I get alot of action.

I wouldn't try this online because most players don't stay at a table long enough to notice betting patterns or aren't good enough to notice anything but their own hand.

Would this type of mixing things up be effective in a B&M or tournament where players tend to be of higher quality?

i dont worry aboutmixing up my game while online at low limit games.

maybe at a B&M if you think your opponents have had enough time to read you well, then you should mix up your play.

Just try raising hands that play well multiway like KTs QJs JTs etc after a few limpers..then you can decide to either bet the flop when they check to you, or take a free card. Miller says you can raise suited broadway no matter hwo many limpers anyway

[pzhon]

Mixing up your play is not nearly as important as people say it is. Suppose you raise preflop, telling people that you have a strong hand. Then the flop comes Q62. Now your opponents don't know if you have a weak hand like AJ, a strong hand like KQ, a very strong hand like AA, or a monster like QQ. You don't need to mix up your play for your opponents not to know the strength of your hand on the flop.

[SheridanCat]

I agree with pzhon, you really don't need to mix it up much in your normal ring game. As you found out, your tight image will allow you to run bluffs occasionally. Just don't go crazy with it and remember to tighten it back up to reestablish the image if you get caught.

At a normal B&M, at the limits most of us tend to play here, no one is going to pay that much attention to your tendencies unless you have very extreme habits, ie you're a maniac or super fishy. That doesn't mean you won't be paying attention to how others play because you will find strong tendencies among players you play with repeatedly, but your standard B&M player isn't really paying attention.

Tournaments are a different kettle of fish, in my opinion. You're often going to have to switch gears during a tournament based on a number of factors. If you read Harrington's two books, you'll get a good feel for when you need to switch gears at tournament poker.

Regards,

T

[bholdr]

if you're winning in that game, why bother to mix it up? maybe, just for fun and to screw with your buds, make a REALLY dumb play and advertise the hell out of it when you get caught...

i don't think it'll help your bottom line, but when i'm playing for fun with freinds, i like to be unpredictable for it's own sake.

and as for online... that's a good thing. at 2/4, nobody really A: pays close enough attention to you to get good usefull info AND B: has a big enough sample to be meaningful, AND C: knows how to use that info to their advantage.