Hi,

Everyone at CR knows ABC poker, at least the principles, that's the basis from which you branch into your own style of play, much like chess.

And we all know give or take ABC is differentiated ranges from utg to the btn, giving optimum stats of 21/17/5 or there abouts, 3-bets 4-6 %, Flop cbets 70%, turn cbets 40%. Table selection, looking for fishy targets, and avoiding confrontations with regulars (TAG or LAGs), and keeping the maniacs on ones right. Set mining is standard, as is raising 3X when first to bet.

Well that's sort of the ABC basics, at least in the micros.

Now back to the title. well we all run like GOD once every 50K of hands or so, and today was one of mine. with 8.5 buyins up in 900 hands at 98 bbs/100 give or take.

Mostly big pairs bought in the $$$, but with considerable help from the fish.

Of late I've been stepping away from ABC poker to some degree, because its just one stye of play.

Given i'm not good, but even the likes of Durrr, Ivy, Cole South, Townsend, Hastings, Raptor. and others evolved a style of play to suit their temperament and skill level, that no doubt deviates from the ideal.

I don't know what style of play I will end up with, but one only finds out by experimenting, like CTS raising every hand on the button experiment, or playing the maniac for a few rounds then switching gears, ala Townsend's vid example.

My current journey at the bottom is one of experimenting to find out what does and doesn't work for me.

I've got a database currently of 243 K of hands at the level im playing.

The one thing about poker is there IS no one way to play, no correct approach. as everything depends on the level, quality of opposition, and ones ability at that level.

I don't know what the numbers are, but few people get above $1/2 and win that is a fact.

So that said, my favorite CR pro currently is VitalMyth.

In a one of his leakfinder vids, he emphasized the need for a good ratio between ones bet size and the stack of the opponent, simply because to make the average hands be it 44, AJ or JTs one needs to be able to win above and beyond the hands that don't hit, so to speak, and he talked about the std 3X into a 100bb stack. giving 33:1 like odds.

Which one may say, well yer, obvious enough. But when some of the players are short stacker's to some degree, this changes the whole dynamic.

3X 22 into your average 20-50 bb short stacker, doesn't give one a lot of leverage to recover the losses from the first 7 X 3X bets, obviously.

Of late ive been focusing on suited ranges and where and how to play them effectively.

The current experiment has me playing all suited hands from the CO, Btn, when there is not raise bebore i get ot act, and selectively playing then ALL to 3X raises from the SB, and BB since the price is right so to speak.

Now i know my recent adventure is going to get people saying im a lunatic, but i want to find out the merit or not of more or less limping everything, when its not raise before hand.

STUPID, not ABC, well that's definitely true.

BUT there are math consequences worthy of consideration.

And it goes without saying that putting someone on a hand who limps 26% isn't easy.

Now the math is worth considering, from the point of the experiment.

What ever the probability of "hitting" is by the std. 3X its is THREE times that when one limps.

Take the most useful examples say T9s, and A9s for the sake of a selection to make the point.

http://www.checktheodds.com/flopodds.html

Give odds and % for specific types of flops.

So looking at T9s first, it hits a flush draw 10.9% of the time, an open ended str8 draw, 9.6% of the time, two pairs 2% of the time trips, and 99X flop 1% of the time, and flopping a flush 0.8% of the time.

Add them all up and we get 24.3% chance of hitting one of these flops.

So we 3X and 24,3% of the time we hit a hand or a draw.

Now if we limp, in theory we get to see the hand 3 times over, so for the same $$$, we get 72.9 % chance of hitting a hand.

No lets look at A9s, there is 13.5 % chance of an XXA flop, and the others we have above giving this hands a 3X basic of 28.2% chance of hitting a hand or a draws, and like wise limping obviously give us 84.6 % of hitting a hand of sorts for the same money.

Now i'm not saying this is better, as the after the flop situation and position have there say, but so does the math too.

So today i thought i'd add this obscure, very fishy approach to my game, or a least the current phase of its experimental evolution.

So the 8.5 buyin win, where did the money come from.

Well one has to run like God, and the fish have to be in a very generous mood to say the least.

But let me back up a bit. Lets say for instance one opens say 11 % of hands utg. 22+, ATs+, AJ+, KQs, KQ.

Now from my whole database PFR these hands gave 2011 I elected to play. which in total faced 316 3-bets, so 15.7%. Now regardless of which hands one calls or folds its still a lot of folded $ down the drain.

However, regardless of how crazy limping might be, one can pretty much call any raise to 3X or even 4X, and yes some of which will get 3-bet too. So that that sort of means is one can extend ones range a bit for the same $$$. So now playing utg and limping all, 22+, A2s+, AK, KQs, JTs, T9s, 98s is an interesting alternative at 11.6% and its cost a lot less too.

It's just an experiment.

So where did the $$$ come from, well you might guess, AA, KK, QQ, AK bought in 6+ of the 8.5 buyins.

Of the rest T9s got 1 buyin, KTs another, and the rest balanced out the loses to a plus of $0.9.

That left some 200 suited hands, of which 115 were played, winning about 1 buyin.

Total # of hands dealt was 892, of which 274 saw the flop and 74 went to showdown, winning 10 buyins.

AND for my std wins/loses of =>50bbs the loses were ZERO, and the wins 10, mostly 3/4 to over a buyins.

So not your average day.

Whenever I get a flush draws, ive taken to aggressively betting into them.

Today's hands saw 16 flush draws, 9 were winners, TWO hit the flush and bought in just under one buyin a piece, and overall netted one whole buyin.

208 suited hands were dealt, 120 saw the flop 57.7%, winning 2.5 buyins.

I've still got lots of work and experimenting to do, buti i'm winning for a change so i must be doing something right.

Tony