Adjusting for live play

[ddubois]

I normally play 400nl and 600nl online, and I've started playing in home games where the play is so much looser and wild that I feel out of my element. I thought microstakes might be the right place to ask for advise.

Besides the standard ridiculously loose play, these games feature people playing post-flop in ways I just don't understand: Like betting 1/5th pot, effectively pricing people in to draw correctly; or like value betting hands that should only get called when behind. (On the other hands, sometimes I see someone value betting the whole way with 88 on a K9547 board, and then win at showdown. So maybe they understand their environment better than me)

Here's an example hand, where I'm concerned my conventional MSNL thinking caused me to make play that might not have been the best optimal for the circumstances: CO open shoves 15bb, I'm 90 bb deep and have TT on the button, with two loose goobers behind be, one deep-stacked. At 400nl/600nl, I would never try to 'isolate' a 16bb shove, I would just call, and if SB/BB doesn't have AK/JJ+, I should get headsup without risking more chips for those times SB/BB wakes up with a monster. But, apparently, at this game, just calling 16bb invites KTs to come along (BBV: KK6 flop).

Now I'm confused... on one hand, I want KT in the hand when I have TT, but on the other, TT fairs much better heads up when I have to fade 1-2 overcards rather than 3-4. Should I just be shoving in that spot, and let them worry about whether they want to call any two broadway?

I guess what I'm asking is, when the players are silly loose, what kinds of plays do you make that you wouldn't make at a tight table?

Do I need to start valuing hands like ATo+/KJo+ more strongly than I normally would, even though it's full ring, just because people are in with face rag so much more often?

[Bowlboy]

Ok, here's me giving an MSNL'r advice /images/graemlins/smile.gif I play a regular game usually once a week and the play is as horrible as you describe. We do $10 sng's and the play is really loose. I normally place in the money if I can flop top pair twice before I get blinded out. In the TT hand, you should definitely reraise to isolate. You'd prefer to get this HU obviously and a lot of loose home players will call behind you because they view CO's shove as a desparation/tilt play and assume that their Q9s or KT in this case is a good enough hand to play. They dont see your call as a show of strength as they should so raise it up. You can extract a lot of value from hands like AJ or KQ when the flop comes all rags. People think that in these spots their junk is just as good as your junk and will draw to top pair.

Try playing .01/.02 on stars for practice. It's all about ABC poker. When you make a hand take it to value town. Sounds like nobody at your game has an idea of what the pot size is a lot of the time. Abuse this. Make a hand and overbet the pot slightly. Mix up the denominations of your chips so that it's visually deceiving too. Home games like this are usually rich with tells as well.