- My open sizes when I have limps in the pot has been amped up. I'm opening .65 for one limper + .1 for each additional limper. This shortens stack depths significantly and forces my opponents who are looking to limp call into making very large mistakes. Getting the stack depth down to a 10:1 call instead of 15: or 20:1 is a big change and makes the flopped pots much much larger. It also makes my mistakes (i.e. shoving AK high into a 7 high board) much more palatable. To my opponents, in those instances, I look like a huge fish even though they're the ones calling off after limp calling 73o for example.
- My 3bet sizing is MUCH larger - with very short stacks afterwards. A typical open to .3 from my opponent will be met with a response of 1.35 or even 1.45. An open plus a cold call will get an even bigger 3bet. I realized my opponents are calling very large 3bets PF, and my 3bet range is usually WAY ahead of their open range. It's such strange behavior; I've seen some players play a short stack of $4, open and call $1.25 only to fold a fairly innocuous flop. Seriously? FWIW, 4bets will go half stacks.
- Keep my opens smaller. It makes me look like I'm in a TON of pots when I'm constantly opening for .3 - which is pretty true. My opening range is roughly 50/50 their limping range. If I open, I can usually pick up the pot with a cbet when they miss, frequently when I'm up against a hand that dominates me because we'll both have missed. As an aside, I believe that I get so many callers when I've opened a pot because they think that I'm over the top aggro and playing too many hands. Ironically, they're play 74s or 92s or 76o...
- Fold out my opens when getting 3bet. Obviously this is hand dependent, but .3 is sorta a "suck me" bet as an open. If I'm getting 3bet, the vast majority of the time I'm beat because this player pool is so weak passive. They're generally not 3betting air though I've caught quite a few who ship it with T9s, etc.
- Stealing for .5 when I have a very loose caller in the blinds. The more likely my opponent is to defend at any cost and c/f flops, I'm upping my open sizing to .5. Simple cbets will get them to c/f flops.
- Out of position opens are always .75 for one limper and +.1 for each additional limper. If I'm opening out of position (e.g. the blinds) then they're going to pay for it.
It's just such a wild wild west rodeo out there... One of my poker buddies put it succinctly: they're playing "street poker" where it doesn't matter the cards they're holding...
Second post of the year! Don't call it a comeback!