How (And Why) You Should Play Looser

Welcome to the first episode of The Official Red Chip Poker Podcast! We start this podcast by exploring a crossroads that all TAG players eventually face: how to play a looser style. How to break away from our nitty upbringing, our boring TAG ranges, and expand into LAG.

This, of course, is NOT meant for players that are newer to poker. This is for players who have an established skillset and are looking for new ways to make money at the table. If you are still improving your play with hands like AJ, small pocket pairs that miss the flop, and drawing with suited connectors, save this podcast for later in your poker journey.

Hosted by James "SplitSuit" Sweeney

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Why do we want to play looser?

1. Utilize your edge: If we are much stronger than our opponents, wouldn’t we want to add more hands into our ranges? We don’t need to go nuts and start opening 73s from EP, but if we could play ATs profitably, could we also play ATo and A9s?
2. Take advantage of certain tables: Loosen up on tables where players are folding way too much (either preflop or postflop). On looser, spewy, tables, be very aware of things like shallow vs deep stacks and reverse implied odds.
3. Improve faster: By playing looser you will encounter more situations and get accustomed to making profit out of a wider range. You won’t improve very quickly by just playing a normal ABC range, but when you are seeing many more flops, 3-betting more often, and contending for more pots, you have no choice but to improve quickly.

In this section we mentioned the Aggression In Live Games video by SplitSuit & Soto (grab a PRO Membership to watch that video and lots more!)

How do we add more hands?

1. Position first: Start by looking to add hands on the button, then the cutoff, and onwards. This will keep you adding hands slowly and in the right spots.
2. Normal range, fringe range, wider range: Fringe hands are just outside of your normal range. Focus on adding these hands into your ranges first. Once you get comfortable with those hands, then expand to a further fringe. And rinse/repeat until you find the point where your range is simply too wide.
3. Open wider: Start here. Where can you open wider? If this is the right spot to raise wider, how wide could you go? Think ahead, and see if the spot is right.
4. 3-bet more often: Look for spots where you can 3-bet wider. Hammer on players who fold too often when you 3-bet. Against spewy players, could you 3-bet a wider value range and include hands like TT, 99, AQ, etc.?
5. Be solid postflop: You will go postflop more often as you add more hands into your preflop ranges. So you need to expand your abilities when it comes to flop play in 3-bet pots, playing HU pots OOP, and double barreling. 
6. Grab your shovel: Learn how to dig yourself out of bad situations. As you get looser, you will find yourself in a ton of awkward spots that you are unfamiliar with. Embrace this feeling and understand that you are growing as a poker player each time you do this. 

An exercise I suggest for online players looking to learn how to dig themselves out of bad spots is to move down to the smallest possible stake and play 100% of hands. The point isn’t to make money; the point is to expand your poker brain, experience some new spots, and increase your skills with your shovel. Once you can dig yourself out, there is nothing to fear.

This episode was heavily influenced by our popular post: How To Play More Hands Preflop

Thanks for Listening!

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Thanks again for hanging out with us today, and we’ll see you back soon for another conversation!