from 5/10 to 10/20 t o15/30

[Nitrayn]

This is my first post on this forum.

I have been playing poker seriously for over a year now. I live outside of Chicago, so the live card room scene is not that great. I have been to Tunica 2xs and Vegas 3xs in the last year. I play mostly NL...the limit I have played has been 5/10 and I have had a hard time adapting.

I realize that you need bad players making bad calls for you to profit in poker. But every single hand in 5/10 it seems has 4 people going to showdown...at least 3. So, if you get a hand, say JJ, and raise...get 3 callers...and dont get a J, now what? or even if you flop trips and there is 2 to a flush or straihgt, its been my experience that 1 if not 2-3 people will chase whatever the hole way and usually get lucky. It drives me NUTS

I almost jumped into a 10/20 game at the Mirage last week in Vegas, to see if people would lay down some crap(or atleast 1/2 the table will) Does it make a difference, or at any lower stake do people just call and call and call.

My motto is, you want 2 or 3 bad players at every table, not 6 in every pot

[sweetjazz]

No offense, but you don't have a clue about limit HE. It's clear from your post that you have a NL background and you are approaching limit from the same perspective. Hands in limit frequently go to showdown and often many of the people who make it to the river are right to get that far (excluding their usually attrocious preflop calls and cold-calls).

Read Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones to get some good basic guidelines and then read and reread often Small Stakes Hold Em. It basically will show you how to take advantage of the bad players, especially when there are many seeing the flop.

[wardnine]

while we're on the subject of SSHE I was wondering what people think about the starting hand selections in that book? Don't you think they're a bit too loose, especially the hand selections they have for loose tables? I know it all depends on the situation but still...

[Black_Angler]

Before I respond, I should note that my experience in small stakes is almost exclusively live games, so if you are referring to online play you should take this with a grain of salt.

I think if you are getting the players on the flop that they assume in the book, you are fine. Usually low limit live games always have the players (the looseness hardly ever dries up, except if you are playing on the days where it seems like they are offering a free Senior Buffet). In low limit you just have to watch the aggressive games. Sometimes a table can shift from passive to aggressive and if you don't react accordingly and very quickly, you could leak some bets. So I would say so long as you aren't in a game that has gone hyper-aggressive, the starting hand requirements are pretty good.

I also like to watch my relative position. So if I have a borderline late position starting hand from SSHE, and the blinds are aggressive players, I might let it go (even though I have position).

But that's just my opinion [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

DW

[HoneyBadger]

for online games $3/6 and up SSHE is too loose. (the tight chart)

[DrMega]

[ QUOTE ]
for online games $3/6 and up SSHE is too loose. (the tight chart)

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. Online limit games are generally much, much tighter than live ones. I've played .50/1 games online that are tighter than the 10/20 I played live Monday night, and certainly tighter than every 5/10 game I've seen since the local casino opened up poker (chop the blinds? what's that? [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]).

[tewall]

Like you said, you want people to make bad calls. That makes you profit.

Do you have Small Stakes Hold'em? If not, that would help. If so, take another look, and take courage. If it weren't for bad beats, people wouldn't play the game.

[TripleH68]

You do make a valid point. If your point is that a full ring game with two poor players in it can be easier to play in(possibly better) than a full ring game with five or six poor players.

[NedForrest]

You just need to adjust your starting hands. When 1 pair doesnt win you can pretty much play JJ like 22. These loose passive games are incredibly profitable. JTs is a better hand than AQo etc. You just have to draw to more than 1 pair and you ll crush the game since most people go too far with weak hands.

[HoneyBadger]

[ QUOTE ]
JTs is a better hand than AQo etc

[/ QUOTE ]
Wrong. AQo still has more equity in the general case.

Similar case: how many opponents would you like when you have AA? Most people will say 1 or 2. Wrong. You want 9.