If your entire table is playing loose and you are not prepared to join them then you will find yourself being hustled out very easily. They will have a much better idea of your hand then you do of their's. I tend to play a lot looser at a B&M game because people who (i figure) play online regularly will often come in and play conservatively expecting the gameplay to be the same. If you dont fancy yourself any good at reading other people (which I assume, as you play conservatively that you dont) you're prolly better off sticking with party-poker. Moving up in limits is an idea but more than likely youll just get stomped quicker. Whens the last time you heard a WPT braclet holder describe his play style as tight and conservative.?
The whole idea of poker is to be able to be dynamic iwth your playstyle, if your feeling like the table is too loose for your liking, and your not prepare to spend a bit of money improving your game, jump around the tables until youve found your kin. You do realise that conservative players rely more on luck than their agressive foes, you might as well be playing blackjack.
However if you find yourself at one of these tables and cant move for whatever reason heres a couple of pointers..
1. Drop your bloody standards! if theres 6 people at your table you dont have to wait for one of the top 10 starting hands to go in, if someones scared off the rest of the competition with a medium raise pre-flop.. consider calling it with your mid range cards.. you can quite comfortably put him on med to high cards and milk him for a whole lotta money when you pair up and hes sitting on ace high with just "the conservative guy" to hussle out looser players will love 1v1ing you if you playing tight so if you do catch them out youll drain their fundage considerably.
2. If you can identify the player/s who seem to be really agressive raise them up when you get good cards on their big-blinds. Theyll be more likely to call or even try to re-raise high to scare you off.
3. Youvs got a conservative reputation ..use it. The loose/agressive players advantage is that he will win more off his good hands. And the tight player gets the luxury of 2-3 bluffs that will be mighty dangerous for anyone to call.
If you just wait to play your good hands only then you are bound to lose.. You are playing odds and percentages and there is a rake on the table.
Good luck to you.. you will need it.  |