Let's face it, it's tough to play OOP. It's hard to get paid off with big hands, and with marginal hands, you are folding more than your share. It just sucks to play OOP.
But one thing I am working on more is to hand read better OOP. I think that's something that is overlooked in my game because it's definitely not as profitable hand reading in position. Actually, the truth is that it's a lot harder to hand read OOP than in position. A guy calling/raising in position can mean so many things, but a guy checking/betting/calling/raising OOP is pretty revealing.
As I play more, I realize that my OOP play is lacking. I don't feel that I'm getting max value with my big hands enough. This is all due to not maximizing my lines OOP. Sometimes I would put villain in position a good but not great hand, but surely I will get a bet out of him by leading. That's a good situation, I got value from a worse hand. But in many levels, I really believe I'm missing value in those river situations.
Of course, I definitely do not want to make a ton of fancy lines because then my value bets will always be my decent to good hands. But I should open my game so I can do more c/r lines. This will open up the possibilities of making some creditable river c/r bluffs. One thing to keep in mind is that fish are usually either calling too much or folding too much. If you c/r the nuts against the calling type, it's very possible he would be making tons of hero calls because your line makes very little sense. But the folding type, I probably would not c/r bluff much but lead bluff more. This will maximize my edge OOP and use my hand reading abilities to my advantage. As long as I know what I'm representing and I know where the villain's range stands in the hand, these lines should help maximize my expectations.
Here's my last but most important thought, don't play OOP.
3 comments:
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Greets Peter
Great post. Every time I try to get fancy and play OOP, I get put in tough situations too often where I would have to call raises OOP or I get coolered too much b/c my opponents have less respect for my table image. You increase the number of marginal situations that you put yourself in OOP. Marginal situations are great when you are ahead, but the more times you are put to the test the more likely you will make a wrong read and the more likely it will put you on tilt.
The check raising oop as a bluff or for value requires pretty good opponents to be executed well imo.
Against worse opponents I find value betting to be more effective.
It's good to mix things up though obviously and still check raise at times to confuse your opponents.
I agree on also thinking about improving hand reading oop though.
Although it's tough there are still some players that are pretty profitable oop, I guess I am thinking about Antonius mainly there.
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