Switching gears is kind of fun...

Jay

I had a rough night last night at the $1/$2 table, kept getting sucked out and was stuck 30 BB. I felt that I needed to get away from that table. I decided to go to the $0.25/$0.50 NL table and experiment with a loose-aggressive style. I haven't played at a NL table in about 4-5 months by the way.

I played a Gus Hansen/Dan Negreanu type of style at this table. I raised preflop with hands like 64, 54, 76, 87, T8 on the button when there were 4 or less limpers. Sometimes I would just steal the blinds, which I didn't mind since I had garbage. If there were callers and I missed the flop, I played the man rather than the cards and successfully bluffed when the times were right. If I got lucky and hit the flop hard, I made my opponents pay to chase or call my bluff with hands like middle pair or ace high. I showed some of my uncalled bluffs/semi-bluffs to keep my opponents on their toes for whenever I was in a pot with them, and also showed them when I made a hand to let them know I'm not always bluffing. After a couple hours, I turned $19 into $80 without ever holding hands better than 77 paired or A9s unpaired. Then I lost some big pots where I made a good hand but got outdrawn and lost it all back.

Then I noticed that all of the loose players were gone now (I busted a few of them), so I decided to switch it back up to the tight-aggressive style I was used to and worked my stack back up to $71 in a couple hours before leaving the table.

Overall, it was an entertaining and fun four hours at the NL table and helped me forget (and cut down most) my loss from the limit table.

Unknown

Nicely done. As long as you're aware that you're playing an extremely loose, high-variance style of game (which you were), it can be very profitable. Also, your opponents may have notes on you now that won't apply if you play them again and are feeling less cheeky. You will probably get called down a lot more. Milk your maniacal image if you can!

Regards,
all_aces

Jay

LOL. I just remember this one hand that was pretty funny.

I pick up 72 in late position. There's 3-4 limpers in front of me who were mainly tight players and would fold to raise most of the time if they've limped in. I decided to raise to $3 to steal the blinds. But the CO calls, and I cursed to myself for making a dumb play. The flop comes Q72, and a sheepish grin appears on my face. I check intending to raise if he bets, and bet the turn if a Q didn't fall. Also, I checked to give off the impression that I was planning a check-raise which I did before when I did make monster hands. He checked and the turn was a rag. I bet and took the pot. I couldn't muck this one, so I showed it and got some laughs.

DJP

I think I'll start trying the ring games more often too. Stayed away from them for some reason until now. I liked tourneys too much. After yesterday though...???

I was in the Stars $3 NLHE freezeout tourney yesterday. (ie: NO rebuys/addons)

After 3 hours, I had 59,000 and the lead by 10k. An hour after that it was all gone. Some good beats and some bad. I think I lost my focus near the end......

So after taking my $9.03 payout for 75th to the bank, I decided to take $20 into a low end ring game. Doubled my money in 30 minutes and went to bed.

Freaking cards. lol

DJP

Interesting! Just noticed this on the popup at Stars when you logon. The last match between Tom McEvoy and someone else heads up. Luckysucker.

He was sitting to my right in this tourney for about an hour. Took some of my loot too. lol My fault partly too. Forgot to shift back to rock low after I had lead. lol