Experimenting

I've been experimenting with a few ideas the last couple of days. I've run into so many calling stations, loose/passive, loose/aggressive, and tight/aggressive players over the past couple of weeks that I have been thinking about some new things to try. So I've been trying to do a couple of different things. First, it's been hard to get players off of hands. Three betting with AQ, AJ, small pairs, nothing has really worked. I've been getting called by weaker hands, then they either push in on the flop or check-raise the pot. It's been pretty funny and frustrating at the same time. At the new level, I thought players would respect re-raises and signs of strength. But they don't, and I refuse to sit and wait for the nuts before putting any money in the pot. So I have been trying a few things, with some marginal success so far.
First, against calling stations you can never bluff. Bluffs will very rarely work. To give you an example, I had AJ in late position. A player minimum raised in middle position, I knew he had a marginal hand like A10, KQ, KJ, or a small pair. A player called in between and I wanted to isolate with position. He raised to 100 with blinds at 25/50, and I re-raised to 350. The first player folded, the second player called. The flop came 8-8-6 with two diamonds. He checked and I fired a continuation bet of 500 with 2300 behind. He called. The turn brought another 6. He checked, so I checked behind. A jack hit the river and he checked again. Do I fire a value bet? In this spot, there really aren't very many hands I can beat. If I bet and he check-raises I have to let the hand go. There's 1875 in the pot, so I checked behind with jacks and eights. He shows K5 suited, didn't even have a flush draw. This example illustrates how you just cannot bluff a bad player or a calling station. Try to tag those players and know that you must have a hand against them. Don't try to push them out of a pot, because they will call with third pair or even king high.
Second, against loose/passive players the same pretty much holds true for calling stations. Against LAP's you can bluff them a little more, but you want to have position against them. I'll fire two bullets at them, but with wet boards or if I can put them on a decent hand I'll tend to shut down. Against a LAP I've been semi-bluffing with big draws and have been making information bets against them. I'll fire my standard bet or raise with top pair, second pair, primary draw, or monster draw and see what they do. Against loose/passive players, I have been trying to play position against them. I saw one player in particular limp in early with AK, AQ suited, jacks, and tens. The only time he would raise was when he had AA or KK. So I knew that if he bet the flop out of position, he probably had hit the flop pretty hard. If he checked, I would make a bet to try and take the pot down right there. The key to playing in position is to not try to run multiple players out of the pot without a hand. I mean, you cannot bluff more than two other players out of the pot. You want to have a decent hand in position. It's just stupid to try to bluff through more than two other players. The likelihood that one of the other players hit the flop is pretty high. Plus, I think a lot of players overvalue bluffing in poker. Yes bluffing is a part of the game, and getting caught can be very valuable later on when you have changed gears. But I have seen so many players try to bluff every hand they play. They play marginal hands and try to push players out of pots with no pair, no draw. So monitor your bluffs and know who can and cannot be bluffed. Calling stations cannot be bluffed, LAP's can be bluffed from time to time.
Next, against tight/passive players I have been trying to play position and have been trying to trap them with big hands. Tight/passive players are not willing to put any money in the pot unless they have a hand. It can be tough to get money out of them, it's like trying to get water from a rock. They will usually check-fold without a hand, and check-call with a hand. So I take a lot of stabs at pots against them to see if 1) they have a hand, and 2) take the pot down right away. Too many times I see players check behind a tight/passive player thinking that they are being trapped. Yeah, they might be setting a trap. But you have to remember that you will hit the flop about 1 out of 3 times with unpaired cards. So if they check, you should fire out and see if they have anything. You shouldn't try to bluff them all the time. You want to have some kind of hand, but your bet will accomplish a couple of things. If they call, you can gauge how strong their hand is by what draws and pairs are possible. You can eliminate some possible starting hands they might have, and you can go from there. Second, if they check-fold a lot, you can win quite a few blinds so that later on when you do have a good hand with a draw, you can take a shot at eliminating them with the money you stole from them.
Lastly, against tight/aggressives I have been trying to play small pots against them. TAG's are solid players that can be quite tricky. Sometimes they will have a hand, sometimes they are willing to bluff. They change gears and if you have position on them, you can really get a good line on them. The key to playing them is to know their range in each position. I'll give you another example. I'm in middle position and a TAG makes a standard raise, I have AK suited. The table had been playing pretty tight and raises have been getting some respect. Early on, 4 or 5 players would call a raise to see a flop. However, the blinds had gone up and now they were at 50/100 so raises were getting a lot more respect. Usually only 1 or 2 people would call the raise to see the flop. I knew I would have position on him. The two of us saw a flop and it came 5-6-9 with two clubs, I had AK clubs. The range I had him on was 10's+, AJ+, and KJ+. There was 850 in the pot and he bet out 600. He was quite aggressive and most of the time when he had a hand he would just hit the bet pot button. I looked him up and he was playing 8 tourneys at once. On this flop with his bet I figured he had a pair, maybe an overpair. If I call his bet I'll have 1400 behind, but if I miss my draw I am almost pot committed. I know that I have 15 outs, which makes me a 54% favorite at this point in the hand. So I push in and he snap called me. He had 10's. A blank hit the turn, and a king hit the river. Again, if I had simply called on the flop, I don't know if I would have called the turn. The turn brought a 2, so it didn't really help my hand, and I'm sure he would have fired a big bet into the pot. Sometimes you have to go with your read and take a shot at getting a TAG to fold or take a slight edge and try to get there. If I didn't hit a big draw like nut flush draw and two overs, I would have ditched the hand and still had about 2000 left.
I know a lot of what I'm saying is pretty standard. Some of the new things I have been trying is floating flops against tight players that fire bets on dry boards to take them away on the turn and pushing edges on loose passive players. Again, probably pretty standard. But I'm just starting my experiment. Right now I'm data mining players and watching how they play hands out of position and in position to see how their bets and raises give away the strength of their hands. Online you don't have physical tells, but a bigger indicator is betting patterns. There was one player in particular that would bet the pot most of the time. Then I got in a hand with him and suddenly he was minimum betting to the river. I called down with second pair just to see what he had. I wanted to find out why his bets were suddenly so small. Sure enough, he had second pair with a weak kicker. I continued to watch his patterns and it was like a huge neon sign giving away his hand. He would bet the pot with a strong hand, like top pair/good kicker, set, straight (any), flush (any), or two pair. He would bet minimum with second pair, draws, and bluffs. So I took note of it, and whenever he would minimum bet I would float him to the turn, then push on him.
I'm going to keep working on different things and try to come up with some new thoughts and ideas over the next couple of days. Let me know of some thoughts you might have.