Unorthodox Plays Either Makes You Play Too Loose, Or Too Predictable

First off let me state that this advice excludes players who employ the loose/aggressive strategy and focuses on poker’s “Grinders”, the players who play a tight/aggressive style. Also, I have geared this advice towards Limit Hold’ Em play, although it is just as applicable to No Limit play.

Stating that unorthodox plays make you too loose or too tight is a bit of an oversimplification. But, every time you do something against the grain when you are playing poker you will have to balance it out with another against the grain play, or else you will become very predictable. However, all of these added ’strange’ plays usually wind up destroying your strategy, causing you to turn into a loose-cannon type of player, and basically make you the type of player your normal strategy exploits. For example:

If you limp/re-raise with Aces from Under-The-Gun, you will not only have to limp with other hands from UTG, but you will also have to limp/re-raise with other hands from UTG! Basically, by trying to extract a couple extra small bets you are broadcasting exactly what you are holding unless you start playing so unorthodox that no one knows what the hell you are doing, including yourself! And this is a common “mix-it-up” move that players make.

In order to perpetrate this balancing act you will find yourself limping in with 55, or 89s; limp/re-raising with hands like AJs or 99; in addition to the normal randomization you have included in your game. By the time all is said and done, you will be just another loose player, who over-plays a lot of hands from early position.

The better strategy is to simply randomize the hands you play, instead of messing around with the way in which you enter the pot. Here is an example of a player who is completely unreadable from UTG even though he never limps-into a pot; all this player does from early position is fold or raise:

Play-range = AA/KK/QQ/JJ/TT/99/AK/AQ/AJs/KQs — Randomization = Any red pocket pair 22-88 and any Suited Connector of Spades 56s-QJs

This player will still be seen as an extremely tight player, but will also play just enough lower ranking hands to keep his opponents honest on small or mid-sized flops. By including a select number of hands that will be played, this very tight player will be unreadable (every hand is played in the exact same manner), and your opponents will not be able to simply move you off of low/ragged boards.

So, before you start mixing in limp/re-raises and other unorthodox plays, remember this: There are easier, and better, ways to mix-up your play. In fact, the best way to mix-up your play is to always do the exact same thing!