Hey guys,
I am new to the turbo HUSnG scene, coming from a zoom poker background. I play the $3.5 on pokerstars. My sample is absurdly low but I feel the need to discuss a few things I have caught on.
A good % of the players I played against, up until now, are using reckless aggression to intimidate villain but, after carefully studying their moves, it feels like quite a few of them are "afraid" of playing post flop, doing reckless moves, pushing hard to finish the hand as soon as possible using pot sized and overbets, raises and reraises like there is no tomorrow. This kind of aggression doesn't usually bother me too much as I manage to fight back most of the time unless I am seriously card dead. Still, I don't really understand the idea behind such relentless aggression, it seems to me that it is just increasing variance in an already quite variance heavy game. Is that a micro level thing or is it the norm in turbo HUSnG?
The way I see it, open raising x2 or x2.5 is ideal because it allows flexibility on the board but I caught on the fact that more aggressive players use x3 to x5 open raising, especially IP. I'm having troubles understanding that, it seems to me that this kind of bet sizing has an adverse effect since most villain will tend to fold weak hands and reraise big with strong ones, mostly canceling the position advantage that is key in HU.
At this point I ask myself, and you guys, if I am missing something. I understand the fact that having the effective stack in this format is a serious disadvantage, especially after a few blind levels and that many players consider they should take the advantage as soon as possible, but it still feels like they are "hiding" behind the relative comfort of having a bigger stack that makes them feel like they are in control. Do I make sense or am I utterly wrong?
I am aware of the fact that because of my cg/zoom background I need to adapt to this new format with quite different dynamics. That's why I posted this thread. I would like some thoughts on that level of aggression that seems quite common at this micro level. My most pressing question is : should I, myself, adapt by becoming as aggressive as them at these stakes or is my intention of developing an exploitative style the best approach?
Any thoughts are welcome.
