General Advice for Fishy Non-Standard Game?

[IcemanDan]

For the 2p2ers who live in New England (and are under 21 like me and cannot play at Foxwoods) you may have heard of Seabrook Poker room in New Hampshire. They are a dog racing track with a growing poker room that has SnGs, tourneys, and cash games on the side every day now. They are legal because they donate some of the vig to charity (i think).

The cash games are Limit 2/2: blinds of $1 and $2, and betting in increments of $2 on the flop, turn, and river with a 4-bet cap on all rounds.

As one might assume, nearly every hand takes at least three or four players calling all the way to the showdown, and the winning hand is often a rivered inside straight or ragged two pair.

There are plenty of fish in these games, although their strategies might not even be that -EV due to the decreased price on the turn and river. One regular I've seen several times calls 90-95% percent of his hands down to the river with or without improvement.

On one hand, in which I held 77, I flopped a boat (board Q7Q) and was heads up OOP against one other opponent. He capped on all rounds and then showed down an unimproved AJo.

So my question is: what are the specific strategy adjustments necessary to beat this game? The response to wild loose aggressive opponents is usually to tighten up pre flop, but that just can't be correct with the discounted flop and turn.

I'm interested to hear peoples thoughts on this.

Dan

[KitCloudkicker]

[ QUOTE ]
For the 2p2ers who live in New England (and are under 21 like me and cannot play at Foxwoods) you may have heard of Seabrook Poker room in New Hampshire. They are a dog racing track with a growing poker room that has SnGs, tourneys, and cash games on the side every day now. They are legal because they donate some of the vig to charity (i think).

The cash games are Limit 2/2: blinds of $1 and $2, and betting in increments of $2 on the flop, turn, and river with a 4-bet cap on all rounds.

As one might assume, nearly every hand takes at least three or four players calling all the way to the showdown, and the winning hand is often a rivered inside straight or ragged two pair.

There are plenty of fish in these games, although their strategies might not even be that -EV due to the decreased price on the turn and river. One regular I've seen several times calls 90-95% percent of his hands down to the river with or without improvement.

On one hand, in which I held 77, I flopped a boat (board Q7Q) and was heads up OOP against one other opponent. He capped on all rounds and then showed down an unimproved AJo.

So my question is: what are the specific strategy adjustments necessary to beat this game? The response to wild loose aggressive opponents is usually to tighten up pre flop, but that just can't be correct with the discounted flop and turn.

I'm interested to hear peoples thoughts on this.

Dan

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LOL at tighten up PF.

play all pockets, suited aces, suited broadways. with the exception of small pockets look to get as much money in the pot preflop as possible in any way possible (i.e. if doing so requires you to limp-reraise ATs or KQs then do it). if you hit top pair/flush draw then raise/3b/cap it. also in these pots, unless the board totally sucks, dont fold middle pair or even bottom pair til the river cuz it'll be cheap to get there relative to the pot size.

you'll have high variance but should crush this game in the long run.

[Xhad]

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LOL at tighten up PF.

[/ QUOTE ]

It actually makes sense with total drawing hands; in general you'd rather be able to make big bets on the turn and river than have a decreased price to draw on the turn when you have a draw. I know when I played spread limit regularly I never bothered to play SCs worse than T9s in raised pots.

[KitCloudkicker]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
LOL at tighten up PF.

[/ QUOTE ]

It actually makes sense with total drawing hands; in general you'd rather be able to make big bets on the turn and river than have a decreased price to draw on the turn when you have a draw. I know when I played spread limit regularly I never bothered to play SCs worse than T9s in raised pots.

[/ QUOTE ]

i agree here....i just meant dont sit and wait for AA/KK/QQ just b/c the preflop price is high.

[Xhad]

Ah, got you. Actually the preflop price is not high, the turn/river price is low. There's an objective difference b/c of the blind structure (i.e. if the blinds were .50/1 and the bets were still $2 each then you could correctly say that the structure is now more expensive and it becomes theoretically correct to play tighter preflop).

[Smasharoo]

So my question is: what are the specific strategy adjustments necessary to beat this game?

A pulse. Honestly, there are no adjustments necessary to beat that game. The flattened turn and river structure make decisions much simpler. Nearly every hand will be shown down, nearly every raise will be called by almost anything. Bet or raise when you have equity, call when you have odds to draw, which will be often, and fold when you don't.

You could eliminate very speculative drawing hands from preflop play because of the smaller implied odds, but when it's regularly 7 handed to the flop those hands are likely still profitable. My biggest problem in that game is mostly not falling asleep.

[Diana Ross Fan]

What is the rake in their cash game?

If it's like the last few charity rooms I have seen, the best strategy is to stay away.

[Smasharoo]

What is the rake in their cash game?

10%ish. Certainly beatable.

[shane88888]

From a Ms. OmahaGal in B&M:

To the poster who asked about card rooms near Boston. There are some legal options located in southern NH (just over the border). Not far from Boston and much closer than Foxwoods is distance/time is an issue. If not, head to Foxwoods.

I play at Seabrook, NH (www.seabrookgreyhoundpark.com) and Rockingham (http://www.rockinghampark.com).

Downside: $2 limit cash games [$3 min rake/$5 max]unless you play NL tournaments. If you MUST get a poker fix and don't want to drive all the way to Foxwoods, these are options. Go to the websites for all the details on SNGs, Tournaments, etc.

Rockingham Park (Salem NH) is closer, but not as good as Seabrook in almost every aspect. Rock is right up Rte 93 (about 20 miles north of boston) exit ONE (in NH). While similar to Seabrook there are not as many players so not as many tables running and they have a much older crowd. The room is dingy, somewhat dirty as opposed to Seabrook.

Foxwoods would be my first choice in this area if bigger games matter more to you than distance/time.

[shane88888]

BTW, Rockingham is harness racing.

Seabrook features the pooches.