How to play loose
 

I'm currently deciding it it's possible (and if so, to what extent) to open and play a lot of plots early in a tournament like this where stacks are not that deep.


Party Super Thurs, very first hand, 7 handed.


Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (7 handed) [url:http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter]FTR converter on zerodivide.cx[/url]

BB (t1000)
UTG (t1000)
MP1 (t1000)
Hero (t1000)
CO (t1000)
Button (t1000)
SB (t1000)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t60</font>, CO calls t60, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises to t105</font>, Hero calls t45, CO calls t45.

Flop: (t322.50) A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets t55</font>, Hero calls t55, CO calls t55.

Turn: (t487.50) 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets t555</font>, Hero folds, CO folds.

Final Pot: t1042.50


Maybe this is boring. I guess I could have open limped, but for quite some time now, the thought of not playing this hand preflop (or worse hands like K9s or QJo) makes me sick.

I guess with relatively shallow stacks, a lot of limping and taking a lot of flops might give me more room to outmanuever people, but then the pots just don't get built. Yet putting in 6% of my stack preflop just doesn't seem to be getting it done. Maybe I'm not handling postflop properly, but without many chips to play with these raises just don't create the pot dynamics that I'm looking for postflop.

No real point, looking for any/all comments on the subject. Spill your guts.


This rant brought to you by EverettKings

Re: How to play loose
 

You should have folded preflop. It's ok to play loose, in fact, I recommend it, but you need to take position into account. This is a fine hand to raise in LP but not EP.

Re: How to play loose
 

My approach: I try whenever possible to play cash game strategy - limp with suited Aces, any pocket pair, suited connectors, etc. Your goal is to flop the nuts or a draw to the nuts (and try to put together a nut hand as cheaply as possible) - and then pick up some chips. Trying to bluff people out of the pots at this stage is silly - you win a small pot or you lose a big one. You can TRY ding it - but mostly for the purposes of gathering information about players - how do they react to a pot-sized bet? Half-pot? Check raise? (but you are better off sitting back and leting other people do your investigative work for you, so that you can reap the rewards later).

JMHO

Re: How to play loose
 

[ QUOTE ]
You should have folded preflop. It's ok to play loose, in fact, I recommend it, but you need to take position into account. This is a fine hand to raise in LP but not EP.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was one from the CO. Two people had position on me. I thought my position was good.

Re: How to play loose
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You should have folded preflop. It's ok to play loose, in fact, I recommend it, but you need to take position into account. This is a fine hand to raise in LP but not EP.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was one from the CO. Two people had position on me. I thought my position was good.

[/ QUOTE ]

err..my bad. I just saw "2 folds" and assumed it was a 9 or 10 person table. You played it fine then.

Re: How to play loose
 

Opening was fine because there're only 4 players left to act, you may very well best at this point, and you would have position on the blinds if they choose to play along at a discount. But when the BB raises you're behind; when he prices you in w/ a minraise knowing he's OOP you're way behind and your chances of outflopping him are slim and he's coming out firing.

Fold to his reraise.

Re: How to play loose
 

Your play looks fine to me.

Perhaps an alternative strategy with villians small flop
bet is to make a 3 to 4x raise and play accordingly.

If you're not going to open raise with A9s with your position you might as well have a nine year old play for
you and alert you whenever you get pocket Aces or Kings.

Bruce

Re: How to play loose
 

[ QUOTE ]

If you're not going to open raise with A9s with your position you might as well have a nine year old play for
you and alert you whenever you get pocket Aces or Kings.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yea... this is not loose. Im curious what you imagine is tight? AA only, KK in position?

Re: How to play loose
 

Careful Bruce,
the players are getting younger and stronger.

Re: How to play loose
 

[ QUOTE ]
Your play looks fine to me.

Perhaps an alternative strategy with villians small flop
bet is to make a 3 to 4x raise and play accordingly.

If you're not going to open raise with A9s with your position you might as well have a nine year old play for
you and alert you whenever you get pocket Aces or Kings.

Bruce

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that it's an auto-open. I was more looking for some general thoughts on how people find spots to make chips early. Playing TAG definitely doesn't get it done.

Everett

Re: How to play loose
 

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree that it's an auto-open. I was more looking for some general thoughts on how people find spots to make chips early. Playing TAG definitely doesn't get it done.

Everett

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea especially on Party since you only get 1000.

When I want to accumulate chips by laggy play I try to get myself in situations were I have many ways to win pots.
-Its crucial to have the initativ so raise/reraise preflop and get it headsup. This will help you to represent hands which you could have as a raiser, and win pots.
-Bluff; win without a hand!
-Semibluff; bet the turn if your flushdraw didnt get there, if your opponent seems weak.

Re: How to play loose
 

I might raise the flop and shut down to further action, barring really good cards (a 9, another ace, runner straight, etc.)
Part of playing loose early to accumulate chips also invovles playing aggressively. If villain is going to bet his hand this weakly on a drawy flop, let him know you have a hand and will fight for this pot.

(To be honest, my strategy for accumulating on Party usually involves shoving AK and TT+ preflop in the first 3 rounds. Worse hands call all the time.)

Re: How to play loose
 

Not a comment on this hand in particular, but my advice could be summed up as 'find fish, fry fish'. All the other situational advice people are giving is great, but nothing is going to help you more than getting into pots with bad players. I realize that there are a lot less of those at the level you're playing than where I'm playing ($1), but there are still going to be some people who fold to any bet if the flop misses them, limp and then call a raise with weak hands, make tiny cbets that allow you to call with any drawing hands, and consistently make all sorts of other easily identifiable mistake. Find these people, and find ways to get into pots against them.

Re: How to play loose
 

[ QUOTE ]
Your play looks fine to me.[ QUOTE ]




[ QUOTE ]
If you're not going to open raise with A9s with your position you might as well have a nine year old play for
you and alert you whenever you get pocket Aces or Kings.


[/ QUOTE ]

this is very contradictory

Re: How to play loose
 

I am going to disagree with everyone else here. With your A9s with four players left to act, did you know that there is a 23.4% probability that one of those four players has you dominated (AA-99,AK-AT)? I absolutely HATE raising here with such small blinds. I can see a limp to try for the flush, but you cannot be confident that flopping an ace is very good for you. If your raise gets called in late position you could easily be dominated, and you have built a sizable pot without knowing where you are at.

If I play this, (and I might not since drawing hands are so difficult to play OOP), I would just limp. Raising is just asking for trouble.

Re: How to play loose
 

If you were replaced by me in this hand, the exact same betting scheme would have occured.

That's my way of saying I'd have played the same way.

Re: How to play loose
 

PF: I think limping and raising are close here. limping allows you to win bigger pots, raising allows you to win more pots.

I will usually raise this flop bet, unless I am ready to commit myself to the hand (which I'm not here). The reason being that I may have the best hand, the odds of this getting to showdown without another significant bet are slim.

What I'm trying to say is, I am not convinced we are behind on the turn. Does AK really make that wierd 55 chip bet on the flop? Yeah, maybe, but it might be TT as well. The fact that he didnt get raised on the flop makes him think he might be good, and he comes to life on the turn. I realize that we are behind a good bit here, but I think raising to 200-250 and folding to a reraise leads to a better result than calling 55 and folding. The one thing that 55 chip bet wasn't designed to do was to blow everyone out of the pot. You can't expect that we are getting to showdown for nothing, so why bother even calling?

Re: How to play loose
 

You think 5% of ur stack is too much to try and get implied odds for stacking him?

Re: How to play loose
 

[ QUOTE ]
Fold to his reraise.

[/ QUOTE ]

hahahahahahaha