Changing gears-Definition and practice

Playing well in marginal situations is how we make our money at shorthand NL poker. Unlike full ring were our hand selection dictates that we will be in less marginal situations, good intelligent play with 6 or less players at the table requires: a wide opening range in position, a wide 3-bet range, and an understanding that your opponents are in the same situation. The past articles I have written up to this point have covered dealing with specific marginal situations whether its 3-betting light, dealing with continuation bet playback, or even making a timely double barrel/big bluff. While it’s important to talk about each of these concepts individually, each of these concepts has to be put together into a total game plan or approach. This is not to say that we don’t need to constantly adjust against our opponents but that solid aggressive poker is how we make our money and a similar methodology is required against all opponents.



Playing a well rounded poker game is similar to being a good football team. Good football teams are aggressive, they balance the run and pass, and they don’t make big mistakes. However, often a situation will occur where one team "matches up well" with another. For example, the Atlanta Falcons base their offense on running the ball with their running back and Michael Vick even in situations where he could be passing. The problem with this approach is defenses defend against quarterback and running back runs in the same fashion. They place more defenders "in the box" have 1-2 of them specifically spy the quarterback. However, on a running play these defenders are already in position even if they are spying on the quarterback! Although this is a massive simplification of the back and forth play calling that takes place in football games it helps us understand a huge leak that many players have playing poker.





You can’t be the team that calls too many offensive plays that are weak to the same defensive configuration. For example, if you’re an aggressive preflop player and open a lot of hands in position and are overly aggressive after the flop you will lose out on a lot of money. Why? Your opponents are starting the hand in a better situation; they will hit the flop much more often and are playing hands that don’t even need to hit flops a higher percentage of the time then you. In order to adjust you have to let go of post flop pots in certain situations that you normally would make a bluff because you are more likely to be called down. Your aggression hits a wall because they are using a similar strategy to deal with your aggression before and after the flop. If you are a player who 3-bets constantly, opponents will not give you credit and often make big plays on innocuous boards after the flop. Again your aggression style before and after the flop are similar.





In order to force your opponents to make difficult decisions and attempt to limit the ones you yourself have to make you need to mix up your game and understand your table image. I personally have two distinct preflop styles that I switch between whenever I believe my table image calls for it. The first is a 3-betting TAG, while in this style I don’t open many hands but I never cold call before the flop unless there is multi-way action and I create a lot of 3-bet pots. The other is a cold calling LAG, where I open lots of pots; try to outplay my opponent after the flop but almost never 3-bet preflop and only then with good hands. The reason for switching between these play styles is simple they are a different kind of offense and require a different mindset and defense to defend against. When you are aggressive with 3-bets preflop players respond with post flop plays in reraised pots and light 4-bets (occasionally). Now imagine if I had just switched styles so I am only 3-betting with good hands, often opponents will be making huge mistakes postflop because they believe my preflop range is wide, even though I have just tightened it. On the other hand if an opponent has not seen how I play in a cold called pot they aren’t going to respond well to post flop aggression even if its from a good hand. While players may attack a LAGish style with their own preflop aggression (lots of 3-bets), immediately when I switch back to a tight style they get into a lot of trouble preflop because I am only opening a higher quality of hands.





Now this may seem like mombojumbo. And I think to a lot of my readers it will be. Most players don’t mix up their game so consciously or modify how they play in such a strict fashion. However, I find that running two totally different offenses ends up confusing opponents and often having them give me a wider range in situations where it isn’t profitable for them to do so. Instead of focusing on "switching gears" as a simple way to tighten up after you have made a bunch of raises in hands that didn’t get shown down I believe you need to modify your entire game in order to take advantage of the changes in your image. It’s not as simple as "I just won a lot of pots recently so now I can fold, get a good hand and get paid" each poker hand is an individual situation and they often require a different approach to maximize their EV. What I’m trying to say here is instead of allowing yourself to fall in with the rhythm of the game you purposely break out of the mold and play creativity. Bluffs often fail because we make them at the wrong times, because we are attempting to make a bluff that follows game rhythm. My answer to that is instead of making plays based on whether or not our image will allow it, we instead purposely change the way we play in a non rhythmic fashion.





Our job is to put our opponents in spots where they can’t run the same defense, where they can’t merely playback because it’s their time to win the pot. Although it’s important to give post flop respect where it’s due, not allowing what is obvious playback to be successful is key to your success.