Preflop % indications and strategy

IndiGenus · #1 01-14-2005, 01:45 PM

Hi,
Kind of a 2 part question...I currently play on Pacific and Poker Stars, .25/.50 limits, and am winning but still learning and building my BR to hopefully move up.

Main question is...there is about a 20-30% difference in plyrs/flop between the 2 sites. With PS being around 40-45% and Pac being around 65-70% roughly. Should my strategy be to tighten up more on Pac and conversely loosen up on PS? I've kept my strategy pretty much the same on both (tight/aggressive as described in LLHE) but do better on Pac. Which I guess makes sense because there seems to be more loose fish there. Would it make sense to try and loosen up a bit on PS? And what are other people's opinions on the quality of oponents between the 2? My next step would be to move over to Party, as it seems people here seem to think the competition is pretty easy, when my BR gets up a little bit and play the .50/1.00 limits. The one thing I can't find there is the plyrs/flop % shown by table like the other 2 sites. Is it listed anywhere? Sorry to ramble but I'm on a roll. TIA for any help.

jay1313 · #2 01-14-2005, 02:03 PM

Tight aggressive is the best style for any table. Having said that, PF % is good indicator when combined with passivity for table selection. Best place is to be at a table where on a regular basis, 6 or more see the flop without a lot of pre-flop raising. The potential here is for bigger pots when you hit your hands, but you also have the potential of more irritating suck-outs. What I am really saying is you have a wider variance in your BB per 100 at these tables.

Tight/passive (less then 6 seeing the flop, little pre-flop raising) you tend to win smaller pots and don't get as much action with your good hands. You also should tighten up a bit your starting hand requirements at this type of table because players are a little more picky about what they play and pot sizes will be smaller, making it harder to recover from 'looser end' pre-flop plays.

So the short answer to your question is yes, loosen up at the looser tables and tighten up at the tighter tables, but be aggressive at both.

As far as your stats question. Go to www.pokertracker.com and check out their product, it provides lots of stats on your opponents at a very reasonable cost.

realbad101 · #3 01-14-2005, 02:20 PM

I think the answer to your questions is both yes and no. Loosen up and play more suited connecters and pocket pairs, even from EP. Trash offsuit cards like they had the ebola virus. KTo... gone. KJo... gone. 56s... YES.

About party...

Well, normally I would say it plays loose, but lately Party and it's affiliates have been offering good reload bonuses that require lots of hands to pay off. So better players are working their bonuses off at .5/1. I am seeing my Table VPIP go below 25% more often than I would like.

IndiGenus · #4 01-14-2005, 02:22 PM

Thanks for the input Jay. Makes sense. I've downloaded PT for evaluation and am trying to import my Poker Stars hands...without much success. I'm working with their support to hopefully get it working. Has something to do with the way my email client is formatting the data. And unfortunately it doesn't work with Pacific...as that's where most of my play has been. Thanks again,
Dave

IndiGenus · #5 01-14-2005, 02:24 PM

Wow...25% VP$IP is low. Everyone is doing their homework and playing like the books say. Good for poker I guess....

tiltaholic · #6 01-14-2005, 03:03 PM

i think most of the bad players are trying to hit the massive bad beat jackpot right now....they will return.

crockett · #7 01-14-2005, 03:03 PM

Hi,

I'm living on Party and it's skins right now. Yes, probably one of the world's biggest myths running right now is how loose Party is, although I think many are starting to come around. I can't wait until it shows up on Myth busters.

It really is silly because on this site alone we probably have 100's of thousands of hands to prove the V$PIP % on Party 0.5/1 to a high degree of accuracy (ASF stat in PT). I'll check tonight but I believe 0.5/1 runs right around 36%

Yes, your right 36% does seem low when your used to 60-70%. But I have a theory about all the recent "are the games getting tougher" threads and complaints. I believe we are seeing more and more people who play relatively close "to the book" pre-flop but still are very poor post-flop. Hell, even my wife now knows that limping with J7s is a sin. She has seen enough TV, played enough home games (where these things are discussed all the time), been lectured by enough table coaches to learn this. But she still couldn't play herself out of a wet paper bag. I've also closely watched certain players and I notice that they lack discipline as well. For example, I always wonder how a player can have a V$PIP of 28% after 200 hands. When I watch them closely I realize they occasionaly slip in the crap hand, they just get sick of folding, or they think it "mixes up their game."

Another "evolution" that has not yet occurred is that I see oodles and oodles of 18-25% V$PIP, 0-2.5% pfr, AT-T<1. They know what to hold or fold but they have no clue how to bet for value.

Summary, get the BR for 0.5/1 and make the move to Party..there will be some adjustments, there always is but I'm sure you'll do just fine.