NLH, Waiting game or Unbridled Aggression?

[TienXia]

Hey guys,

So recently ive started playing live again and that has caused me to make a few revisions to my game. Playing live made me really realize how many orphan pots were being taken and how often the original raiser gets to take down the pot with a continuation bet without any confrontation. This really started to bug me. I felt like i should be playing back at these theives. This urge has lead me to play much more aggressively online as of late. Ive been raising just about every pot i get into whether or not theres limpers before me. I lead a lot of flops and while i do pick up some of them, the table usually starts to catch on and collude against me in an effort to catch me bluffing, which i often am. Im wondering whether or not i should be trying to play this aggressive. Perhaps its just that i get LAGgy when playing this style. However, i feel like its so much of a waiting game otherwise. Should i tighten back up and just play a more straightforward game or should i stick to this style? Anyone try mixing it up like this before? Any thoughts are appreciated!

-Tien

[tagtastic]

I've experimented alot with both of these styles, and honestly I think the best is somewhere in between - either playing a straightforward game and not letting easy bluff opportunities pass you by or playing LAGy and letting a few more opportunities go. (as a "default" strategy with no table reads)

Ideally you should tailor your aggression level to the table and specific players you're up against, etc. A good way to play IMO is to balance your play based on the responses of others. For example if you're taking down alot of pots and you start getting too much action (pfr and continuation bets being called w/ very marginal hands) - then tighten up. Conversely if you're always taking pots down uncontested, step it up a bit.

This advice seems obvious, and is obvious (written in most poker books as well). The problem I run into is maintaining this while multi-tabling, I usually lean towards too passive or too aggressive across all my tables, which will end up working for some and hurting me on others.

[sawseech]

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balance your play based on the responses of others

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I lead a lot of flops and while i do pick up some of them, the table usually starts to catch on and collude against me in an effort to catch me bluffing, which i often am.

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lol...