March Summary

Not a ton of time, but I'll put my results up. I'll get some pictures up, then hopefully follow up with a bit more detailed PT review.


It was a good month overall, and I think my game has come a long way this year so far. The month ended on a bit of a downer...a mixture of running less hot (but not terrible -- just less worse than the beginning of the month), some poor plays in big pots, and a little bit of experimentation that didn't turn out like I'd hoped.


I'm still playing on the nitty side of TAG overall. As my position stats will show, that's mainly due to being extremely tight in EP. I've run this by a few different people, including a couple coaches, and clearly I need to open up at least a little in EP. My range for a bit has been 22+, AQ+, KQs. I think for some balance, I'll start including some suited connectors and maybe AJs. Hopefully, I'm competent enough to recognize when decent regs are playing back at me after I take initiative from EP that they're not just making moves.

My WtSD and W$SD are both much more in line with my preflop style than they have been for the last several months. Playing so tight, I should on average be showing up with better hands than my opponents, and I am finding ways to show down more (winning) hands than previously.

My aggression factors are a bit lower than usual. A big part of it is that I am trying to think through my c-bets....and in fact I may now be c-betting to infrequently. One of the experimentation pieces I alluded to above is the delayed c-bet, which I use when I don't think that the board is likely to hit my opponents. I may be overusing this tactic, but I've found it to be pretty successful.

Using PT3, you can see 3-bet percentages. I'm not sure where mine stacks up in the spectrum, but I *think* that it's pretty good. It shows I'm definitely going beyond premium hands (but so is everyone else). The good regs I've come across seem to be anywhere from 4% - 8%, and I'm in the middle of that range.

Finally, my steals are a bit low. I think that may have to do more with who is in the BB than anything else. Still, I need to stay on top of that.



I already talked about the biggest problem here, which is actually playing too tight in EP, not balancing my range enough. At one time, one of the prevailing guidelines in the CR forums was to have a 3x difference between UTG and BTN. In effect, you were fooling people who just looked at your overall VPIP and PFR. There are two problems with this approach, now. One is personal, and that is that I don't get out of line enough in CO or BTN to give an overall impression of someone a bit more LAG, so I don't get enough deception, and my strong hands in EP are a little more face up. Second, the people who you want to fool have learned how to figure out who is positionally aware, and exploit it.

Harrington talks about raising suited connectors in *full ring* EP sometimes for balance. If it makes sense for there, it certainly makes sense for 6-max. I guess maybe I'll have to buy a watch (HOC reference).

The next biggest issue with my position stats is the gap between VPIP and PFR in the SB. I'm completing a lot. Smallish sample, so it may be OK, but again, something to watch out for. I will say that with good table selection and better postflop play, there's a case to be made for completing a bit wider. Also, one of the other things that Harrington talks about is being more willing to open complete in SB, and then call a raise, rather than just opening for a raise. I need to think this one through a bit. I understand why he advocates the approach, just not sure I agree with it.