Tight as a Nun's... er, Drum

Have had some pretty good success in limit games lately. I’m trying to really work on playing position poker and not get involved with trap hands from early seats. I also willing to throw away fairly strong hands if I’m out of position, or if strong players have raised and re-raised ahead of me. As I’m writing this, I’m in two $1/2 games, and I just folded JJ from the SB when a 20/16 player raised in early position and then a 22/11 player re-raised him. The two players turned over KK and AK, respectively, making my fishhooks big dogs if I had played them. Yesterday I actually folded QQ when two very tight/passive players raised and re-raised ahead of me. Yes, they turned over AA and KK at the showdown. And yes, I felt pretty good about having the discipline to make that lay down. (Watching the grinderschool videos (even though they’re geared more for NL cash games), has helped me a lot in this area, focusing on position poker, and willing to make lay downs like this.)

I’m also bluffing a lot less frequently, but on the rare occasions when I do, I’m really coming on aggressively, trying to “sell” the bluff as hard as I can. I just made a move with AQ on a really dry board against a passive player. I fired bullets right up through the river into a board that completely missed me, and he finally folded what I assume was a better hand, probably something like bottom pair.

Using this strategy, my numbers have tightened up significantly. My VPIP used to run around 20% at any given table, but is now typically around 15% in a normal game. My PFR% has come up somewhat, too, relative to the new VPIP numbers; my PFR is now usually something like 13% or so. Tight and aggressive, or maybe I should say TIGHT and AGGRESSIVE wins the race.

The trick to all this, of course, is staying a TAG player and not getting too cocky, which for me usually leads to a gradually looser and looser VPIP. Negreanu wrote recently in a blog that one of the secrets to his success in cash games is staying disciplined at playing positional poker, even when the cards aren’t running his way. I think he just might be on to something…

All-in for now…
-Bug