Been tightening things up a fair bit on the small-stakes tables lately and, honestly, cutting out the fancy stuff has helped more than anything. I used to fire second and third barrels way too often just because a board looked scary. Turns out heaps of players at those limits just do not care and will peel with any pair, any draw, sometimes nothing that makes sense at all.
What’s been working better for me is pretty basic stuff — playing stronger hands from early position, opening up a bit more on the button, and putting more focus on who’s in the blinds before I even click anything. If the table’s passive, stealing more has felt solid. If there are a couple of sticky callers, I’ve had better results just value betting them properly instead of trying to be clever. Sounds obvious, yeah, but I reckon loads of us drift away from that when we’ve been grinding for a while.
Another thing I’ve found is reads online are a different beast to live poker. You’re not getting the same physical tells, so timing, bet sizing patterns, and showdown hands matter heaps more. Multi-tabling also made me sloppier than I wanted to admit... good for volume, not always great for decision making if you’re half asleep in the arvo trying to squeeze in a session.
Curious what the rest of you are doing these days. Are you keeping it pretty straightforward on the smaller tables too, or still mixing in bluffs and light 3-bets when the spot’s there? Keen to hear what’s actually holding up for people, not theory that sounds good and then gets snapped off by some bloke calling with middle pair.