Been seeing heaps lately about how everyone "should" be playing now — tiny flop bets, random-looking check backs with strong hands, overbet turns in spots that used to be dead simple. Feels like every stream clip, coaching vid and poker Twitter argument is pushing the same sort of robot stuff, and honestly I reckon a lot of players are copying it without having a clue why it works.
My probably unpopular take: for most live games, especially the softer ones, half this modern theory chat is getting butchered by blokes trying to look sharp. They start 3-betting way too light, c-betting boards they clearly shouldn’t, or doing those tiny "range bet" sizings into people who are never folding a pair anyway. Then they act shocked when they get looked up by some mate in a hoodie who just wanted to see another card. If your table is full of callers and sticky punters, trying to cosplay high-level online play is just lighting chips on fire.
Not saying the newer stuff is useless — some of it is deadset good if you actually understand the spot — but I think loads of regulars have gone too far with it. Bit less solver worship, bit more paying attention to who’s in the hand, yeah? Keen to hear what others are seeing lately. Are your games getting tougher because people are studying more, or are they just making fancier mistakes now?