Adjusting For Nitty Games

[WhiteKnight]

I think the limit scene at my current venue sucks.
Last night I played $4/$8 for two hours, and it was honestly like 2.75 to the flop on average... last time I went seemed pretty tight too... I might need to learn NL [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

What adjustments can we make to our play in these circumstances? There were a couple of old passive players on my left so I'd pretty much steal the blinds whenever I had a reasonable (K7o is reasonable?) hand by raising and firing barrels straight through the turn where they pretty much always gave up.

Also, it seems that speculative hands like low pocket pair and suited connectors lose a lot of value... does anyone else have any recommendations for this sort of situation?

Edit: Shovelling chips in with AK unimproved all the way through the river in a 3 handed pot has won me a fair number of pots over the past little while, but nobody really likes this eh?

[Fnord]

Find a better game because a Live rake will probably be murder at that level.

Otherwise, I play it that same way I play online, except I expect a lot looser play out of the blinds.

[Xhad]

Usually you can find a better game. And yes that game might be some other structure. Otherwise, the important thing is to figure out what they're doing wrong and exploit it.

If people are limping a lot preflop but playing tight/passive after the flop, PFR more. This both punishes their loose limping more, and makes postflop pots big enough such that their tightness isn't as good and their passiveness becomes a huge mistake.

Sometimes a lot of preflop raising can put the nits on tilt. Then they loosen up, only to play even worse because they end up in all kinds of unfamiliar but marginal situations. If they're doing a lot of folding preflop, steal their blinds and see how long they put up with it. If they're limping more, raising a lot of drawing hands is almost guaranteed to anger everyone into lagging it up against you.

[Hair_of_the_Dog]

I had the same thing last night. I changed tables and everything turned around. I went from pulling $10-20 pots (TP table with 2 calling stations) to pulling $50-$140 pots (Loose slightly aggressive table with many calling stations) playing 3/6 kill.

[Scarmiglio]

Live 4/8 is nearly impossible to beat with only 2-3 players per hand. The rake will eat you alive. Find a better table or play a different game.

[ProfessorBen]

FLOOR!
TABBBLLLE CHANGE!

[Mike]

Sounds like a main game at a must move room. I move to another limit if I do not have the option of another table. Moving to a lower limit works well, my bb/hour goes way up and my relaxation level does to.

Otherwise, I think it is best to leave and try a different time of the day. I have found (roughly) there is the startup to three pm game, a three to six pm game, the six to eleven, and eleven pm untill it breaks games. They all play differently. I have found the early game to be the softest, and the afternoon and late night games to be the hardest.

There is not much you can do to get them to play looser, they have seen it all and they will wait you out.