The definition of LAG

[rwanger]

Ocho, since I consider myself fairly good at figuring out what hands people have online, I wonder how that is going to translate to live play? Will I be better at it? Or worse because there will be many other confounding variables?

Come closer, I will value bet you to death. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] (But sadly I'm also succeptable to the overbet). [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[craze9]

I agree that there is a lot of confusion on this forum about what LAG means. And I think pokertracker stats do nothing to dispel this confusion.

Loose generally means you play lots of hands preflop. One can also make loose calls, or loose raises and bets (overplaying one's hand), but loose primarily refers to preflop.

Aggressive refers to postflop play. Betting hard, raising w/ lots of different values, bluffing.

So a Loose Aggressive player does all of these things. But being a LAG has nothing to do with how good one is at poker. Most bad no limit players are LAGs to some degree. Lots of the biggest fish are LAGs. They bet hard when worse hands wont call, they raise in the wrong spots (often getting reraised), and they bluff off their chips.

It is rare to find a winning LAG player. But those that exist do all of the above things well. They are loose preflop when it pays to be, they make lots of plays at the pot, and they play bluffs and real hands very similarly. They make sure their opponents never know what their hand is until it's too late to matter. There are some big advantages to this style, but the variance can be huge.

@Ocho
Betting patterns are the primary tell in poker. I don't use pokertracker at all but I get plenty of information online.

[jsmith5]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess the true reason I don't enjoy online poker is because all of the physical clues that I rely on so heavily when playing live are stripped away from me. All of the great things about live poker are replaced online by vpip, aggression factors, etc. I don't like that trade. I am an online fish because I can't read a hand for the life of me when playing online. And everybody hates being the fish.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ocho, I find myself in a similar spot as you. I am a big-time loser online, and a very good winner live. This may be a bit off topic, but a friend who is a great online player at all limits (usually 5-10NL) yet who I destroy live were having this discussion recently. Whereas my game is largely based on the strength/weakness of my opponent's he says that doesn't work online as it is about the value of your hand in each situation. For some reason LAGs online really seem to be the big losers...while live the physical presence has a lot to do with the game (at least mine). So my laggy ways online pay for many a 19-year old's college tuition...