The inability to play loose is perhaps the most common leak I find in my students.
If you're a tight player you're going to have a hard time making money in today's games because fish play loose and you're letting them be correct more often than not when they make big bets and raises.
Here are some articles that delve deeper into playing loose:
WSOP Circuit Results - WSOP Circuit Ring Winners & PayoutsAnd of course the single best way to finally kick your tight-player habit is with personal feedback from a coach like the ones here at CardPlayer Cruises. Come on any of our cruises and you'll get a full week of workshops, coaching and non-stop poker with lots of feedback on how to loosen you up!
How Loose Is "Loose" Anyway?
First of all, when I say you need to play more hands I don't mean .
54%
You still need to be selective. What I'd like to see happen is for your game to look loose to a beginner.
As a general goal, most pro Regs put their ideal starting-hand requirements for preflop limping at something like 65o and higher. That means only about 54% of the deck qualifies as a limping hand!
Your folded preflop hands should be replacing themselves with new preflop hands at that same frequency.
In other words if you're folding every hand but AK, QQ+ and any suit of 65o or higher you're going to find yourself sitting with an empty hand a lot.
Your actual volunteered bets should probably be raised about 10%-20% of the time to maintain that same average strength of voluntarily put money into the pot.
Raising about 1 out of every 10 times you open for a raise is about right.
If you look around the table whenever an early position player opens for a raise you'll almost never see anyone raising more often than this. Most of the time it will be the button or the small blind.
Because there are three or four players between you and the button many times you and the button player will be the only ones entering the pot without a raise ahead.
For these reasons I suggest trying to raise about 1 out of every 10 openings.
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Why You Need to Play More Hands
So why do you need to play more hands? Isn't No-Limit Hold'em a game about discipline and only playing the good hands?
Yes and no. Discipline is certainly important; you do not want to be overplaying garbage hands.
At the same time you cannot afford to be underplaying the good hands. And if you're passing up the good hands, chances are you're also passing up a lot of mediocre ones as well.
Look around the table and see what hands the fish are raising with. After the bubble in most tournaments and in most online Ring Games , players are raising with just about anything.
AJ, KTs, 88, T9s ... the list goes on. These are not great hands but they win a lot of chips when played after the bubble.
Do you really want to be leaving the pot to players like that? I sure don't.
When you play too tight of a game you are letting the fish be correct too much of the time.
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How to Start Playing Looser
Okay, so you know you need to play more hands. What hands should those be anyway?
Generally I would rather have an extra suit of 76o in my hand than another ace. That may sound ridiculous coming from a guy who just wrote a book called but it isn't.
76o on middle position (Photo: Flopstars.com)
Take the example above. You are in middle position and receive .
You plan on calling the first couple of betters to set up a raise and reraise when appropriate. Some players even limp this from early position!
Now let's take the example a step further. You end up with $20,000 in tournament chips. The first prize is $18,000. It's heads-up and you are both at about 10 big blinds each.
Which hand is going to make you more money?
PPacheko reminds us that sometimes AA > 76o.
Proprietary material from Barry Greenstein's
Loose! Loose! Loose! As long as you are not three-betting and getting the rest of your stack in with lower pair-high kicker, I can't see a reason not to play even more loosey goosey than normal in a situation like this.
You might even consider opening for a raise with seven-six off-suit in this spot. Sure, you may get felted once and look stupid. But what if you double-up? You looked like a genius. By the time people realize what you are doing, it's already too late.
You made your move when they were expecting you to sit back and play tight like everyone else.
Another Example:
How about another example? KJ off-suit is about a 40/60 underdog to AQ. But KJ gets about a 3/1 (or more) price when you play it appropriately.
Play it appropriately I mean vs. a single opponent who is making a single continual bet size.
If he's betting one-third to one-half of the pot then KJ is a 3/1 dog. Raise and reraise him and all of a sudden you've got him crushed.
The point is, there are a lot more hands you can add to your range than most players do.
Of course there is a fine line here. Adding one or two more low cards to the list of hands I open for a raise with will not magically boost your earnings very much.
If you start adding worse and worse hands to your arsenal you are eventually going to start getting stacked more times than you profit.
Use the line "my range is loose" to your advantage.
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creek nation casino jobsUse Your Reputation to Your Advantage
This ties into another powerful concept you can use to your advantage: .
Reputation is everything in poker. If people believe you are a hyper-aggressive maniac they will not want to mess with you.
They will look down at some random trash hand and question whether or not they should even call your openings.
When you balance and four-bet with the hands they just called with, their respect for your game will fall drastically.
Your job just got a lot easier. Even if you actually are a hyper-aggressive maniac, it doesn't matter. If you are able to convince your opponents that you are, that is all that matters.
The hard part is getting them to truly believe it. Once you have fooled them, you just have to keep up the charade. It's like telling a white lie - once you say it, you can't go backwards.
Example #1:
You min-raise under the gun with . It's just tricky enough that your opponents will start asking themselves some questions before they decide what to do.
They will wonder if you are actually weak and trying to trap them, or if you are making a semi-bluff. Either way it's a plus for you since you were planning on calling down anything they bet on the flop and turn regardless.
Example #2:
You make it a habit to open under the gun with any two cards. Believe it or not, this works. Find the right two cards to help sell the bluff and you will hit them eventually.
When they catch on and you actually do have the goods, you'll look like a genius. People will be putting their tourney lives and bankrolls on the line versus you - you better look loose!
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The Power of Semi-Bluffs
Every poker player knows what a semibluff is. You try to represent a strong holding and also have redraw equity.
The more credit your semi-bluff gets, the better off you are. Unfortunately, most players do not understand the power of the semi-bluff.
They will fail to make the proper follow-through bets necessary to keep up the disguise, or they will cease c-betting levels too soon because they "missed" on the flop.
If you truly want to become a loose cannon, you must understand the power of the semi-bluff and you must commit to your actions.
Remember, loose players make large bets and raises with all sorts of hands. Some of which they bluff with entirely!
Example #1:
You min-raise UTG with J♦ 8♦ . Someone calls in the cut-off and the blinds fold.
Flop comes 8x6x2dx. Your opponent leads out with $15 into $25 pot. You raise to $50.
Your opponent folds and asks you what you had there. When you tell him, he shakes his head in disbelief.
He had top pair, top kicker and was willing to fold to your raise?! Yes. Welcome to my world.
Did I get lucky? Absolutely. But I also put myself in a position to make a premium river bet to a check-representative and my opponent folded the best hand.
This type of hand and play might not work twice in a row, but I can nearly guarantee you that it will win in the long run if you are able to find the right hands and sell the bluff properly.
Example #2:
Open UTG with K♣ 2♣ . Get min-raised on the button.
Already being out of position and facing a min-raise, it makes no sense to try and see a flop cheaply.
We are attempting a semi-bluff here so we want to give ourselves the best odds and put maximum pressure on our opponent. So we ship it back over the top.
Our opponent thinks about it and calls. His range here is super wide. He expected to be heads up to a flop with a decent hand hidden.
To be faced with a re-raise right away throws him off balance. He has to ask himself, "What kind of maniac would re-raise here?"
PPacheko: Loose cannon. (Photo Flopstars.com)
Find an angle you are comfortable with and run with it.
Flop comes down J♠ 10♠ 2×. Our opponent leads out out for $25 into the $320 pot. We waste no time and raise to $100. Our opponent thinks for a bit and then folds.
Again, did I get lucky? Of course. But I also put myself in a position to make a premium river bet to a check-representative and my opponent folded the best hand.
Balancing Your Range
The key word in "" poker is balance. You can't just open with every hand under the sun; you will quickly become too easy to read.
When your opponents know you are always opening with trash, they will stop making any real decisions against you until you change things up.
What's the point of playing loose if you are always getting stacked?
Balancing your range means raising with both strong hands and weak hands in relatively the same percentages. This does a couple things for you.
#1: It makes it extremely difficult and guessing for your opponents to pinpoint your holdings.
#2: It forces your opponents to proceed with caution every time they are faced with a decision involving your action.
The second point is by far the more valuable attribute. As long as you are making it tough for your opponents to figure out what you have, they will have to regularly ask themselves, "What kind of maniac would do that?"
The true power behind loose play comes into play here. Because you have been convincing your opponents that you are a nuts-only, super-tight player, they are now having nines shake them to their very core.
Tough decision. (Photo Flopstars.com)
They are used to getting these kinds of hands in against loose players, but they assume this can't be another loose player since you have been showing them repeatedly that you are the opposite.
All of a sudden you look loose. And when you balance your range, you are crushing it preflop with a huge amount of equity.
Then when they catch on and you actually do have the goods, you will still look loose and they will still be scared (hopefully). This is the power of loose play combined with range balancing.
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Balance Your Post-Flop Action Too!
Don't forget about c-bet statistics either. Make sure you are properly balancing your c-bets and following through with proper aggression on later streets as needed.
Be aware of your stats! (Photo Flopstars.com)
Just as you need to be opening with a wide-range of hands, you need to be c-betting with a wide-range of hands, and following through on later streets as well.
Don't fall into the trap of changing your post-flop game based on the cards you hold. If you c-bet 60% of the time with K♥ T♠ , you had better be doing the same thing with 8♥ 3♥ !
The Real Goal Here is Confusion
The real goal here is confusion. You want your opponents confused about what you are doing and what you hold.
If you achieve this state of mind in your opponents, you are well on your way to becoming a loose cannon.
From there you simply need to capitalize on the opportunities presented to you and stay disciplined with your own game and hand strengths. Easy, right?
Good. Now go loose!
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