Asymmetric play

[zpele]

The best thing to do is have contempt for your opponent no matter who they are. If you are in the right place mentally you always have a chance at winning.

 

[PGHteacher]

I disagree with the more frequent safety idea against lower players. I'd rather a weaker player attempt to out-shoot me, because they'll most likely screw up and then I'll punish them. When I was lower rated in APA, getting a good safety in there could allow me to keep up with better players. Better players usually want to run out on you.. they best way to beat them is to stop them from doing that.

If you're worried about a better player responding to your safety, try thinking how a better player's going to respond to a flat-out miss.

I have just found over the years that I stand a better chance of outshooting a better player and a better chance of outmanuvering a weaker player. Also refer to my signatuet the bottom. I also tried to give the idea in my post that if I am staring at a 95% safe vs. a 5% offensive shot I obviously am going to play the safe against anyone, I was speaking exclusively about shots that I would be "on the fence" about. No matter what you do you will lose more in the long run to players stronger than you are and win more aginst players that are weaker than you are.

The whole point is to win the most as a % against the weaker players and lose the least as a % against the stronger players; I think this can be "fiddled with" a little by strategy. I do not discount that it may very well be that FOR YOU it works better the exact oppisate way, try to out shoot the weaker player (you will do that more often than not no matter what) and outmanuver the stronger player. This could be for a lot of reasons; mental state when playing a significantly stronger or weaker player comes to mind immediately. I was just answering the OP as to what works best FOR ME, and that is to try and outshoot the stronger player and outmanuver the weaker player. It may very well be that it works the exact oppisate way FOR YOU, if it works FOR YOU I don't suggest that you change in any way.