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Gold-State • Strategy: Loose Blind Steals - the LAG Approach
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In this article
In many Medium Stakes SnGs, players no longer play loose but weak-tight, at least as soon as the number of participants drops below 6. The optimal way to take advantage of this is to use the loose-aggressive approach.
The basic idea in this approach is: You attack many small pots with a good risk-reward ratio and stay away from resistance and big pots. As weak-tight bubbles usually take quite some time, it's not enough to always steal the blinds with the same move. Instead you should have a sizable repertoire of blind steals to make it as difficult as possible for the opponents to adapt their strategies.
This article lists up the different kinds of these steals and explains when and how to use them.
One of the reasons that tight poker is successful, is that one avoids difficult decisions. If you play loose, you'll often face complicated situations which require a high degree of concentration and discipline, and thus it is not suitable for extreme multi-tabling. On the other hand, this method is capable of generating ROI values on six tables which exceed those of a tight player on 12 tables by far.
The moves in this article only make sense with a certain stack size and as long as neither you nor the opponents are in Push-or-Fold mode yet. You should always plan your hands ahead, i.e. in a way that you are always able to give up a bluff and still continue playing comfortably. It is necessary to have well-trained post-flop skills and to realize that while you will create a loose image, you will have to deal with the fact that the opponents will bluff and check-raise more often.
Due to the increased tilt danger associated with this method, players who are prone to go on tilt should rather stick with their familiar tight game. On the other hand you now get more value for your own strong hands.
If you master the mentioned moves, you should only open fold for deception on the button and in the small blind. In high, tight limits you can even use these moves from the first blind level onwards. Many tight players will tilt when confronted with such a playing style.
Against weak-tight opponents, an open raise from the SB is deemed to be very effective. Only rarely you will be confronted with a call and even rarer with a re-raise, which saves you the costly conti-bet. This move loses its profitability though when the stacks are less than 20 BB as the opponent can easily defend by going all-in.
In this situation it is also profitable to raise with the weakest hands, as you hardly ever reach the post-flop game. Without antes 2 ½ BB are already enough, with antes you should generally bet 3 BB though as thinking opponents receive good pot odds, especially as they are in position. Weak-tight players will often fold in this case, disregarding the pot odds. Morgoth will often raise to 3 BB in general in these kinds of situations on higher limits.
If you get called, you should closely check the board texture and eventually make a conti-bet of ½ pot size. Any ace, any rag board and any paired flop should be bet.
On a flop like 9JK you should probably play check/fold if you didn't hit anything. Should it get to the post-flop game, it is important to not overplay your own marginal hands against tight players.
Let's assume you open raise from the small blind once again, against a very tight opponent who has never called until now:
, 6
9
K (2 players) (2 players)You get very good odds (about 4:1), but the reversed implied odds (about 2:1) are not so good and you can be certain that your opponent has you beat and is ready to go to the showdown.
This move, as long as it isn't overplayed, is probably the simplest steal with the best risk-reward ratio. If you open complete from the SB with pot odds of 4:1 on a 5-handed table with blinds of 100/200 and 25 ante, the pot on the flop is already 525 chips. If you bet 300 now, you ultimately bet 400 on a pot of 525, which gives you pot odds of more than 1:1. If the opponent folds in two out of three cases, you will be extremely successful without risking too many chips.
Some opponents almost inherently raise against any open completed small blind. Against these kinds of players this approach makes little sense, but also gives you a good approach for slowplaying high pocket pairs.
As the button is usually the best position, you should only rarely open fold. As a raise size we suggest 2 ½ BB in most cases, as a possible all-in re-raise from the blinds negates the position. Furthermore, the blinds play OOP post-flop and as such fold equity is given irrespectively, which makes a bigger raise unnecessary.
With an all-in raise from the blinds the calling range only changes minimally, as tight opponents usually don't overplay their defense actions. If for example you raise first on the button with A9o to 2 ½ BB and a tight player in the blinds goes all-in, you should also fold with pot odds of 2:1 as you are probably dominated.
As mentioned earlier, this raise is most effective when the stacks are bigger than 20 BB, as the opponent can't defend profitably now by going all-in.
If the pre-flop raise is called, you should conti-bet ½ pot size on Ace high boards, rag boards and paired boards in case the opponent checks. On dangerous boards, delayed continuation bets can be made by first checking the flop as well and betting on the turn after the opponent's check, to avoid traps. This might induce the feeling that you yourself are slowplaying and you will receive even more information about your opponent's hand.
If the opponent donks the flop, you should, as long as you didn't hit anything, fold in most cases, or against very aggressive opponents bluff call the correct boards; so call on the flop to then bet a minimal amount after the opponent's check on the turn. Often a bet of about 1/3rd of the pot is already enough as you can assume that the opponent doesn't have a very good hand.
It is different if he fires a second barrel on the turn, after which you have to fold without a good hand of course.
, 8 K 7 (2 players)
(2 players) On the turn the opponent ponders and checks. If he had a reasonable hand on the flop, it would have made little sense to immediately donk and not let you conti-bet. On the other hand it also makes little sense to check the turn if he has e.g. A9 and played the hand straightforward, since the board has become very draw heavy. Everything seems to indicate that he does not want to go to the showdown after all. He could have a middle pocket pair, a king, a flush draw, a good ace, or he could have bluffed as well.
Buying the pot seems to be a real bargain now. The opponent only has 2,000 chips, so 900-1,200 should be enough to pick up the pot in a profitable way. If we bet 1,000, we paid 1,500 since the flop to steal a pot of 1,600. If we had raised on the flop, we would also have raised to about 1,500, without having the further informations on the turn though.
To decide if a bluff call is profitable, you should keep these values in mind:
(with a tight button you can also call on the CO)
This style is often frowned upon at most tight tables, as the move itself already implies weakness: You're in position, only playing against the blinds, so why not raise if you have a legitimate hand? As calls seldom happen on the button, most players don't know how to react to this. This gives us an edge over such players, at least for the first few times.
First and foremost, the move is good to vary your own game after you often raised on the button. It is preferable to play hands which don't have a high equity against the blinds in pre-flop match-ups, but could become very strong with a good flop, thus suited connectors or hands like KTo.
Especially against opponents who like to defend their blinds it is a good move, as you didn't attack their blinds in their opinion. If you get raised from the blinds, you can easily fold without the correct odds. After all, you hardly invested chips into the hand.
The button call is highly effective with stacks of about 15 BB, as your opponents now have the choice of either pushing all-in with 15BB or check, as they would have to fold themselves following your push after their 3-4 BB raise. Hence they often check, even with somewhat strong hands like A9o with which they would have gone all-in after a raise.
If both (or only the BB) checked the flop, you should bet ½ pot size on any board. To not ruin this bet's credibility, you should even bet the nuts, especially with regulars on the table.
If one of both players donk the flop, you should fold all weak hands, and continue playing good hands the normal way, or eventually, as described previously, bluff call if the situation is ideal for it and the board doesn't look too scary. Keep in mind that you won't get much credit for an ace, as you didn't raise pre-flop.
If a blind calls the bet, you should give up in most cases or bet again against very weak opponents on a checked turn. For this you have to check the value “fold to flop bet” and the opponent's stack. Low stack and high fold to flop bet value indicate a strong hand and the will to call down to the showdown or check-raise. Middle to big stack and low fold to flop bet value indicate that the pot is still worth buying.
If you got called on a draw heavy board, you can also check behind on the turn and make a small river bet after a check when an obvious draw didn't hit. After the check on the turn you showed enough weakness for...
It turns out that loose aggressive blind steals are profitable when the opponents are tight and weak, and you are able to quickly recognize the spots in which you have to give up a hand, or in which a further move is possible, respectively. In particular you should keep in mind that your own image changes with a more active playing style and thus also changes the attitude of the opponents. You should not lose sight of the fact that the goal of this style is to get the small pots which are relatively easy to win.
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You can find this article and many others at www.PokerStrategy.com
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