Adjusting From Tight To Lag

[UglyInside 0]

this is a bit vague but any advice is appreciated (apart from me giving up....)after playing for 2 odd years and playing quite a tight game (seeing around 20% of hands??) it seems the better looser players get to more final tables, so even though I had been winning I adjusted my starting requirements from MP and LP, playing more positional play and seeing a few more hands but now seem to be stuggling I know everyone plays differently and each session is also different but what percentage of hands do people play? I saw a pundit last night saying he usually only play 15%! am i getting this all wrong and should stick with the TAG play rather than LAG?

[sholden 0]

You need to play loose to win (or get a significant place) in a tournament, simply because the blinds get too big for tight play - unless you go on a card rush of course...TAG is fine initially though, since the blinds start small- though if you have an edge post flop you don't want to play tight - you want to see flops and hence have your edge in play. If like me you suck, tight is good - less flops means less chances to lose your chips :)I think one of the main things that makes a good tournament player is knowing when to open up as the blinds go up - and being able to tell which players to do so against. It is after all the big difference between tournament play and cash game play (well not being able to rebuy is probably bigger, your last X chips are worth far more than those same X chips when you have 20X in our stack, in a cash game $X is $X...)

[dbl_j_22 0]

My advice is that you should never always be tag, and you should never always be lag.Part of the art of winning at poker is choosing when to speed, when to trap, when to play fundamentally solid, and one way to determine your speed is that you need complete control over your own image, you need to know exactly how you have been playing and what type of style you are representing, then you need to know how your opponents are interacting to your style. One example, ifyou are spending your whole tournament setting up a very tight image, not making plays preflop, then to pick up extra chips, you need to put a squeeze on a blind stealer and loose caller with any two cards if the time is right. If you are speeding, and you have a couple capable blinds that aren't letting you push them around, then you can forgo the obvious button steal and let your image tighten back up. Pretty much, you gotta adjust your speed throughout the tournament and the easiest way to do this is generally to pick an "opposite" strategy against your opponents. The reason I say "opposite" is because sometimes you'll both be playing tight, so that if you put him on making a move even with a tight image, then you can make a move on that, so thats not really opposite. But I generally won't steal as many blinds against someone else who is playing fast and not laying down their blinds, and I generally will steal every blind if someone is playing like a nit and you just go back and forth in between gears as someone adjusts their play with you.In the new issue of Bluff magazine I got, Allen Cunningham writes a great piece about setting up a solid tight table image and then using that to his advantage.I would say that main point is being completely aware of your image, and then putting that to good use, so if you really are lagging it up, that probably means semi bluffing less, and if you are getting a cold deck and your table isnt giving you any opportunities then you probably are getting close to a nitty image and you have to use that to make a play, you can't get stuck folding away your blinds, but you also can't get stuck in the pattern of always stealing either.The easiest way to maintain control of your image is using poker ace hud or whatever variation. I click on my pop up stats consistently, if you are stealing over 50% and you have poeple with close to eagle stats in the blidns, you can just pass for a couple rounds. If you notice that you only stole like 1/10, and the guys inthe blinds aren't completely clueless, like 60/40 type players, then you can steal with just about anything.I would say one of the things I've the had the most trouble with in my game is the steal game. I've lost a lot of money choosing the wrong strategies when I know my opponent is stealing, and I think what's been helping me recently is staying aware of whether my opponent perceives me as tight or loose, and then choosing specific strategies based on that.I hope some of this post is on topic with your question, some of it might just be incoherent rambling.GL at the tables and hopefully see ya at some final tables.

[UglyInside 0]

thanks for the posts, wont feel so bad about the times I play a bit tighter, but do now think I may have been semi-bluffing a bit too much/attempting at the wrong times

[Cappy37 0]

I agree with dbl J's sentiments.One thing to add: The annoying thing about playing really tight for any significant amount of time after the blinds have risen a few levels is the likelihood you are going to be moved from table to table.Setting up a tight image early only to be whisked away is just a complete waste of time, and it's happened to all of us. Playing rocky is a bit more benefitial later, when you are likely to be at a table a bit longer. But at that point it's closer to a shovefest anyways and you still won't see a huge benefit. You need to play often enough to get your big hands paid, while tight enough that your blind steals and post-flop takedowns offset the cost of "advertising". And speaking of which, it may serve you better to either win or lose an early pot, but get to table complete junk (82, T3, etc). Cheapest form of advertising, because folks will remember someone getting caught with junk a lot easier than getting unlucky with AQ.As for the % of pots to play, I've won quite a few satellite seats playing less than %10 of the hands, it's all situational. Play the hands that you feel comfortable with, and steal enough blinds late that it makes you "slightly uncomfortable". If you are at ease with your stealing, you aren't stealing enough. This is especially true pre-bubble. That is the easiest money in most tournaments. Once people have "cashed" they are far more willing to gamble it up, with "the houses' money".