Dave Scharf

I have the playing bug back. I am playing an hour or two a day after my recent WSOP trip. And, I have been giving a lot of thought to how I approach the game because I came to an obvious and overwhelming epiphany while in Vegas for four days.

Epiphany: At least 90% of my opponents are idiots that might as well play their cards face up 90% of the time. No, really.

Rule for self: Stop assuming that your opponents are smart and tricky. Do not worry about your opponents "figuring out what you are doing" because they aren't even trying to figure it out.

Putting this epiphany together with "The Delta Factor" (found here Sgt. Rock) it became clear to me that I should find a basic strategy that is different from the majority and I should stick to it.

Playing mostly $1-2 short-handed NL I now minimum raise about 65% of hands. I make the continuation bet a high percentage of the time. If I re-raise I almost always make the minimum re-raise. I let pots mature to the turn.

My win rate is WAY higher than it has ever been (short sample I admit).

I will give more of my thoughts bit I wanted to open the discussion to "alternative approaches" as opposed to the "standard approach" and the benefits that derive from alternatives.

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Fear the beaver, baby. Fear the beaver.

WaterLooser

Speaking of rocks - how big was the one you just crawled out from? Welcome back. Is this a response to the "Where's Dave" thread from a couple weeks ago?

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Homer: Feeling stupid? I know I am!

BBC Z

I'm curious, is the minimum raise to allow bad players to hang themselves or is it just to grow the pot a little more? Is it a feign of activity where someone who doesn't notice how much you are raising puts you in the 'loose' box even though big money only goes in when yer ahead?

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13Cards is the worst thing to happen to Canadian Poker ever.

actyper

If your playing at limits well below your bankroll and skill level, why the min raise? In a live 1/2NL game, a min raise preflop will be called pretty much as often as a 3x-5x raise, so why limit yourself to just the minraise?

Graham

I like it... I do something similar when I play Omaha, but its a completely different game so even if you do get re-popped you can call and hope for a good flop. One thing that I wonder with this in NL Holdem, is do you get a lot of people re-raising you back? I know if you tried something like this online, you would probably get re-raised almost every hand, so is this something you see working better for live vs. online?

Graham

The benefits from alternative approaches IMO is it makes it much harder for an opponent to put you on a hand (esp. if you are raising 65% of the time). Therefore you will get a lot of people that will think any pair is good on a flop and try to take it down by betting big, therefore when you do hit, you can come right back. Also, this way I am sure you take down a lot more smaller pots, and these all add up over time.

westside8

I think he's mainly referring to online games and applies only to a reraise and not the original raise.

Dave Scharf

I am talking here about online play.

It confuses people because it's not typical. Confused people make more mistakes.

It puts a little more in the pot so that a flop-steal wins more money.

Psychologically it counts as a raise. This has a couple of perks -- it helps define my hand and sets up a flop-steal when a board like A-9-7 comes.

The basic thing is that most people apply the wrong counter strategy. They think to themselves, "That SOB is raising all the time. I am going to get a good hand and kill him in a BIG pot." This is EXACTLY what you should not do against the style I am employing.

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Fear the beaver, baby. Fear the beaver.

Graham

I think like that sometimes.... how would you counter it then?