Old Schooler graduating from "tight is right". Advice Please.

Hello, newbie poster here.

In Jonathan Littles booklet “Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Tournaments” he describes me, the player type that plays too few hands too aggressively. Such players subscribe to “tight is right and overplay marginal made hands such as top pair and over pairs”.

In the fast paced, short stacked, small buy in league tournaments I play in, this is strategy, which often sees me severely short stacked towards late stages, is no longer working against the younger, more aggressive players, who play more hands. As one of them said to me, you can’t win, if you don’t play and he has a point.

I’m trying to open up my game. Specifically I am trying to play more hands in later position, when I can see a flop cheaply, and where a hand has potential (pairs, suited connecters, decent Ace, decent flush, picture cards). I’ve had moderate success mainly by taking pots down because of position (most of my league opponents still view me as tighter than a ducks butt).

For context, I am recently retired, so have some time to study the game. I’m practising this strategy tweak in online micro stakes SNGs that have a similar sized field to my league. I play mainly for recreation and socialization, but winning always makes things better right?

Relatable advice or pointers anyone?

Thanks,
-David

Welcome to CC! You’re doing the right thing by studying J. Little books. Just keep learning all you can and keep practicing in your league games. Try out different strategies, this is the place to do it so that when you do decide to play a big money tournament you will be more comfortable and confident in your play. Just remember to win a tournament is hard, with so many players you will almost always not finish first so use that as motivation to go all out and play aggressively, you have nothing to loose. Have fun!

Have you seen our free 30 day course? It contains many hand histories with examples of how to play postflop. Which is important, because when you play more hands, you will go postflop more often. And you will also have hand types like draws or medium pairs more often or simply air, where you need to decide between bluffing and giving up.

loosen up if they playing too tight

tight is still right, do the simple.

It really depends on the field. Which rooms/networks are you playing at?
The general idea is that if you're against loose maniacs, tighten up. If against smart LAGs, which I believe is the case you're describing, loosen up. I would suggest that knowing percentages of hitting the board, equity vs 1, 2, etc. opponents is a good starting point, but if you read Little I assume you're already well versed in that. Then probably start assessing HUD stats and fold equity at your table and adjust accordingly. If you're up against good LAG players (which is possible in private/some league tournaments), then study advice for that style to understand the thinking they are doing to be able to counter it. E.g. these days, you will commonly see them squeezing in late positions and blinds when there were limpers in the hand. 4-bet them, if you think that is what they're doing (and you got some equity). If it's an unskilled LAG be careful with that counter-line, you are likely to get called/shoved lol.

I have a few of his books myself in my collection and he talks a lot of sense. I agree with the consensus here about loosening up.
Adding more hands into your pfr is essential as many players are bluffing high volumes of hands which exploits tight players.

NAP2025 said:

I’m trying to open up my game. Specifically I am trying to play more hands in later position, when I can see a flop cheaply, and where a hand has potential (pairs, suited connecters, decent Ace, decent flush, picture cards). I’ve had moderate success mainly by taking pots down because of position (most of my league opponents still view me as tighter than a ducks butt).

Click to expand...

I think your new approach is sound. Just be ready to bail if you get much resistance from otherwise tight players. They often have AA or KK when they wake up out of a deep sleep.

Hey everyone. Thanks for the warm welcome and encouragement. Sorry I have been offline for a bit, out of town looking after my elderly father (90 in May!).

dannystanks said:

Welcome to CC! You’re doing the right thing by studying J. Little books. Just keep learning all you can and keep practicing in your league games. Try out different strategies, this is the place to do it so that when you do decide to play a big money tournament you will be more comfortable and confident in your play. Just remember to win a tournament is hard, with so many players you will almost always not finish first so use that as motivation to go all out and play aggressively, you have nothing to loose. Have fun!

Click to expand...

Thanks. While I wouldn't say Mr. Little is my idol or anything, I do like his style and demenor and of course his results speak for themselves. I actually find his books a bit hard to read at times as in they don't seem to flow. I think he could do with another editor His videos on the other hand I do enjoy and download to watch offline.

fundiver199 said:

Have you seen our free 30 day course? It contains many hand histories with examples of how to play postflop. Which is important, because when you play more hands, you will go postflop more often. And you will also have hand types like draws or medium pairs more often or simply air, where you need to decide between bluffing and giving up.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pointer. TBH I haven't looked around the site terribly much, but I will see if I can find the course of which you speak.

OnyxD said:

It really depends on the field. Which rooms/networks are you playing at?
The general idea is that if you're against loose maniacs, tighten up. If against smart LAGs, which I believe is the case you're describing, loosen up. I would suggest that knowing percentages of hitting the board, equity vs 1, 2, etc. opponents is a good starting point, but if you read Little I assume you're already well versed in that. Then probably start assessing HUD stats and fold equity at your table and adjust accordingly. If you're up against good LAG players (which is possible in private/some league tournaments), then study advice for that style to understand the thinking they are doing to be able to counter it. E.g. these days, you will commonly see them squeezing in late positions and blinds when there were limpers in the hand. 4-bet them, if you think that is what they're doing (and you got some equity). If it's an unskilled LAG be careful with that counter-line, you are likely to get called/shoved lol.

Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I'm playing small stakes on pokerstars. I was recently playing 45 man sit and gos with 10min blind levels as this was kinda close to my league structure (around 30 players and 15 min blinds). PokerStars recently made these 30 man sit and gos with 5min blind levels which I hate. Another reason I played these was that I could fit them in, in the morning, before work, as they would take a couple of hours max. With the Stars change, I have stopped playing these, but I am still playing in my league (2nd last night, field of 34, so not big numbers, but still ). Most of the LAGs I play against in my league are reasonable I guess, but not what I would describe as "good". They are for the most part, the go hard or go home types so have a huge amount of variance, though they are not complete muppets, if you know what I mean. If they sense weakness, they go in for the kill, so sometimes you can let them hang themselves I think a lot has to do with my table draw. Most of my league opponents are loose / passive limpers, so I get ample opportunity to try out my new style when they are at my table. With LAGs at my table, not so much. Now that I have more time to play online (recently retired, though still busy!), I will be looking for some tournaments with a better structure, though scheduled tournaments can be a pain in my time zone (new zealand). Cheers

WrongUsername said:

loosen up if they playing too tight

Click to expand...

For the most part my league opponents are loose / passive. A lot depends on my table draw, if I get a table full of these players, then I can open up a bit in the later positions cheaply. If I get one or two LAGs at my table, I tend to get pushed around if I do play, or tighten up too much. Thanks.

machinm19 said:

I have a few of his books myself in my collection and he talks a lot of sense. I agree with the consensus here about loosening up.
Adding more hands into your pfr is essential as many players are bluffing high volumes of hands which exploits tight players.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I do like Mr. Littles approach and his demenor (and of course his results!). I do find his books a little hard to read at times and I think he could do with a new editor. I'm not sure how I would describe it, but quite a bit of the time, I find his prose doesn't "flow" as well as it could, which is not to say the information is not valuable. I much prefer his videos and webinars which I have started downloading and watching offline.

Flyer35 said:

I think your new approach is sound. Just be ready to bail if you get much resistance from otherwise tight players. They often have AA or KK when they wake up out of a deep sleep.

Click to expand...

Indeed. Most of my opponents are loose / passive, doing a lot of calling. If they start betting, then yep, I'm outta there Conversely, being tight, when I raise PF or continuation bet, I don't get a lot of action. Against these opponents, I can do a bit of stealing at the higher blind levels when they start to nurse their dwindling stack. As I mentioned I tend to get severly short stacked towards the end of my league tournaments, so sometimes I have to just pick a hand and play it like it's Aces Cheers

LUKADONCICMVP said:

tight is still right, do the simple.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I am still fairly tight, but opening up (playing more hands that is, not necessarily raising) if (a) I have a hand with potential (b) the price is right and (c) I'm in a later position. Those three things don't always line up frequently, so I still get viewed as tight, but still I do get to play more hands with this approach and of course if I miss, which is mostly, I still have a positional advantage ie. can bluff due to my tight image.

NAP2025 said:

Thanks for the pointer. TBH I haven't looked around the site terribly much, but I will see if I can find the course of which you speak.

Click to expand...

Found the link and will check it out. I have Mr. Moshmans Sit and Go book Cheers

NAP2025 said:

I'm playing small stakes on PokerStars. I

Click to expand...

Well, makes sense, why you'd encounter better LAG players, Stars probably have the toughest field of all places.

NAP2025 said:

Most of the LAGs I play against in my league are reasonable I guess, but not what I would describe as "good". They are for the most part, the go hard or go home types so have a huge amount of variance, though they are not complete muppets, if you know what I mean. If they sense weakness, they go in for the kill, so sometimes you can let them hang themselves

Click to expand...

Now I haven't seen the exact plays they do, but I would suggest you could counter-exploit that. Feign weakness with reasonable hands (even mid-strength like 2nd pair, or even Ace-high, etc.) and catch them. Basically loosen up a bit and set traps. Once they catch onto it, mix it up.

NAP2025 said:

Hello, newbie poster here.

In Jonathan Littles booklet “Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Tournaments” he describes me, the player type that plays too few hands too aggressively. Such players subscribe to “tight is right and overplay marginal made hands such as top pair and over pairs”.

In the fast paced, short stacked, small buy in league tournaments I play in, this is strategy, which often sees me severely short stacked towards late stages, is no longer working against the younger, more aggressive players, who play more hands. As one of them said to me, you can’t win, if you don’t play and he has a point.

I’m trying to open up my game. Specifically I am trying to play more hands in later position, when I can see a flop cheaply, and where a hand has potential (pairs, suited connecters, decent Ace, decent flush, picture cards). I’ve had moderate success mainly by taking pots down because of position (most of my league opponents still view me as tighter than a ducks butt).

For context, I am recently retired, so have some time to study the game. I’m practising this strategy tweak in online micro stakes SNGs that have a similar sized field to my league. I play mainly for recreation and socialization, but winning always makes things better right?

Relatable advice or pointers anyone?

Thanks,
-David

Click to expand...

Opening up in late position is definitely the right direction, especially in fast, shallow structures. Start adding more playable hands on the button and cutoff, but keep your post-flop decisions simple - one good c-bet spot and take the pot. Also try mixing in more steals and pressure vs tight players. You don’t need to go crazy aggro, just widen your ranges a bit and use your tight image - it’s still your biggest weapon