Zones and Hand Selections

[aimar21]

I read the zone part on HOH vol 2 but still I'm a little confused about some zones. I know the green zone you are free to play your own style even though playing conservative is better. I have lots of trouble in yellow zone. It says you have to get aggressive but don't play suited connectors and low pocket pairs. I understand why not to play them because implied odds are not so good since your stack is not so big. But what does get aggressive mean there I mean should I be raising with K9 in the early position. I didn't get it. I understood how to play in the red zone and the first-in advantage. but still didn't understand the difference between orange zone and red zone. when should I go all-in in orange zone etc. If someone can tell me the hand selections for each zone I would be very thankful. cheers

[GaF]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections Sorry - somehow I missed this post :unsure I'll come back to it later :ok (am about to start multitabling)

[aimar21]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections no problem mate I'm playing freerolls anyways so it doesn't matter if I suck at it just a bit longer :lol .

[aimar21]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections anyone? I really need to learn yellow zone. thanks :)

[GaF]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections Ok - lets try and tackle this....TO start off with, I confess I'm not very good at it either ...... I'm either in "green" or "red" - like you, I need to be more aware of the mid zones..... I presume you've read pages 133 to 136 of vol.2? This talks of 3 strategy shifts as you move from Green to Yellow. 1) Get more aggressive with high pair and high card hands. An example given is a conservative player opening the pot with ATo from 2nd position. You talk of K9 - that's IMO way too weak in 2nd position. 2) You want in general to be more aggressive, but more conservative with small pairs due to the absence of implied odds. This also aplies to small suited connectors. You seem ok with this. 3) Certain moves are too expensive and cannot be played (example given is "longball"). You need to be playing smallball moves. Get in, win the pot, but get out when you encounter reisistance. So your issue seems with shift 1? I would say, don't make huge changes, just a slight weakening of your standards from Vol. I (p174 - 191). It sounds like you want to overdo the changes... :unsure Not sure how to help - maybe you need to post some specific examples for discussion?

[aimar21]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections I'm confused with the word aggressive, because I learned it first as a betting style. Like if you bet all the time even when you don't hit on the flop (probe bets, etc.) you are aggressive. When you don't bet into a pot because you are scared of smt else although you might have the best hand then you are passive. So my question is actually what does getting aggressive mean? As I get it from HOH, it is different from what I understood before. It's lowering hand requirements which I learned as being "loose". Is that true or smt else? thanks for your time mate

[GaF]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections Yes, you are confusing the terms. Tight/Loose refers solely to the number of hands you play Aggressive/Passive refers to how you play the hands you are involved in - do you raise or do you call? So a tight and aggressive player is one who doesn't play many hands, but generally raises when he does play. A tight and passive player is a player who doesn't play many hands, but when he does he calls frequently A loose aggressive player plays lots of hands and raises a lot A loose passive player plays lots of hands, but calls a lot

[aimar21]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections I think Harrington uses the word aggressive instead of loose in his series. Because at observing the table section, he mentions that when a player plays 4 hands in a round he is aggressive, 6 or more super-aggressive. He doesn't say anything about betting there. Also he calls lowering hand requirements as being aggressive. So great book by the guy of course but he actually fckd my mind because I learned it as "loose" before. :lol so which one does harrington advice in the yellow zone finally? a) calling with hands like AT KJ more than before and giving those hands a chance. or b) still playing premium, conservative hands like AK or AQ but raising them harder like 6 to 10 times the bb to gamble more. If I still can't understand it I'll just keep playing the green zone poker only dropping implied odds hands (the only part I understand) until the red zone.:lol cheers..

[GaF]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections My impression of the Yellow zone is to play slightly looser AND slightly more aggressively - BUT not too much so!!! Will try and reread a few sections of the book later to double check harringingtons use of the terms .....

[aimar21]

Re: Zones and Hand Selections ok mate thanks a lot :cheers