Changing your game for tight tables and loose tables.

[frob23]

I was reading another thread about playing tight or loose and which is better and I started thinking about playing tight tables and playing loose tables. It made me think of the section in The Theory of Poker about this exact same thing.

In the book, and it does hold true to my experience as well, Slansky does recommend the standard advice of playing looser at tight tables and tighter at loose tables. But he says that it doesn't apply universally or in the way most people think.

At loose tables, you will need to be playing tighter... and you're going to have to bluff and semi-bluff less. You can't make those moves because they lack the equity that you get from folding... and you know you're very unlikely to get a fold. But at the same time, you need to be betting your medium strength made hands more often for value. You are less likely to be up against strong, solid, hands so your two-pair hands -- even your bottom two pair hands -- have more value and you should bet them. You'll get paid off on your very strong hands here and you'll make a solid profit playing medium strength hands for value. On these tables, you are tighter when it comes to making plays but looser when it comes to betting for value.

On the tight tables, you do play looser because you need to bluff and semi-bluff more often. You do this because you get a lot of value from these moves. In fact, this is where a lot of the value of playing on a tight table comes from. Think of a tournament table and why you're betting so frequently with weak hands... it's the same thing. People are likely to fold often enough that betting on the draw or when weak is probably the most profitable move. But, at the same time, a tight table is going to offer you less value for your strong hands and monsters. You want to play these less aggressively (short of the nuts) because the average strength of a hand that will play back at you is much stronger. And that assumes you get any action at all... it's likely you'll just see it fold around to a bet. But if you get action... you're likely getting the worst of it or against a hand of very close rank. So, at a tight table, you are looser with your action regarding semi-bluffs but tighter with your action regarding made hands.

Anyway, I am sure I butchered his ideas but I think I got the main points. Does anyone else agree with the general points about how to tighten up or loosen up based on the above? How does this conform to your experience?