By
Squirrely1
The poker world is changing rapidly, and many players who were very bad only a few months ago may now be excellent players. About 3 days into this year’s WSOP, it dawned on me that the general level of competition among younger players has greatly increased. With all of the information now available on poker, the learning curve has been flattened immensely.
At each table that I played, there were at least 2 or 3 young people who were solid players. The main difference between these players and those in the tournament who were considered “dead money” is that these players were much quicker at picking up patterns and they would adjust their play accordingly. Once they realized that I was a fairly LAG opponent, the amount of reraises that I faced went through the roof.
The style that you play must mimic that of a chameleon in that each and every table in a tournament is different. At some of these tables, it was extremely +EV to raise every pot and simply outplay my opponents post flop. However, the kryptonite for a LAG player is a table full of other LAG’s. In event number 3, they broke my first table (and my heart), and moved me to a table full of twenty somethings who all played well. The first five hands that I sat, the pot was raised and reraised preflop, very similar to a cash game. The main pitfall that you encounter at these tables is that with all the aggression, you’re more than likely going to have to eventually race for your whole stack.
In order to combat all that aggression, the correct strategy is generally to tighten up your play and only come into a pot with a premium hand. However, as a LAG, you must realize that the range of hands others will play against you has greatly widened. The LAG players who will never bet their whole stack with AJ, even when they feel it's the best hand, will get absolutely crushed by this new style of opponent.
If you feel that your opponents are moderately skilled but simply playing a crazy game, then tight aggressive is definitely the way to go. Eventually you will pick up a hand on the button (I know it sounds impossible, but IT DOES HAPPEN SOMETIMES) and get reraised when you have much the best of it. If your opponents are crazy but unskilled, then you should maintain your LAG style but try and trap a little more. The pot size may get entirely too large, but you can outplay them for big pots. Be sure to keep in mind that they know you’re loose aggressive, and thereby your range of calling/reraising hands must increase.
The major pitfall of trying to overcome aggression with more aggression is that your variance increases exponentially. With tournaments that have large fields and many crazy players, you will often times find yourself on the rail during the first few levels. However, if you are trying to win the tournament and not simply maintain and make the money, you must push the +EV situations and take your lumps as they come.
The game of poker is changing as fast as it has been growing for the past 5 years. The days of tournaments with 80% dead money in them are simply no more. Each and every day, there are more and more intelligent, thrill-seeking, and fearless players who enter the game. In order to deal with these new entries, you must constantly adapt your game and continue to seek new ways to beat these players. I watched a hand between PearlJammer and Eric Seidel in the $5k mixed event and was completely blown away. The action went as follows...
PJ opened the pot for a standard raise in early position, and Seidel called the button. The flop came out K Q 5 rainbow. PJ checked, Seidel bet about 2/3 of the pot, and PJ called. A queen came off on the turn, and the action went check-check. The river was the 8 of hearts. PJ bet about 3/4 the pot, and Seidel went into the tank. After thinking for about 3 minutes, he groaned and called, and PJ instantly mucked. Seidel turned over the 86 of clubs!
I don’t necessarily think Eric had a read on PJ, but I’m of the opinion that he saw him as a crazy, young internet player who was capable of making a lot of bluffs. Even though we all know that Jon is a solid player, I’m certain the fact that he is young factored into Seidel making his decision. If you rehash the hand, all he could beat was AJ, A10, or 10J. To me, this was a prime example of adjusting your play when facing different opponents. In my opinion, it was a very bad call on the river, but it worked out for the best. Five years ago, there is absolutely no way Eric could have made this play.
The best players in the world are adjusting their style to fit the opponent-will you?