Local Game, strange spread limit structure. Any thoughts?

[CMReedy]

Well, the place where I play at live we started out at .05/.10 No Limit. Soon the stakes started to rise to .25/.50.

Then the guy who ran the game, who I guess got pissed at donkeys moving in on dumb hands, changed the structure. Now the blinds stay at .25/.50, but there is a $5 limit. So basically anywhere from .50 to 5.00 is a legal bet. All raises must at least match the last bet/raise.

To make it more intresting there is a cap of 3 raises preflop, note that this doesn't count the call, and 3 bets/raises on all streets after. Min buyin is $5 but average is about $10-$20

So for example, there are 2 calls, and I look down at JJ or whatever and make it 2.00 total, then another person reraises me 5 and I can call, fold, or raise 5 more and cap.

Note that most of the players are mediocre to bad, but it just seems hard for me to come up with a winning stragety in this game. It's usually me and another tag, a maniac, a tight mousey player that will sometimes just blow up, and the rest are calling stations or just bad. The raises are usually less starting out, about 3 big blinds with the call to six, but generally increase as the night wears on when people lose patience and the stacks are deeper.

I was showing consistent profit in this game until I started reading, playing online, and posting at TpT. I think I am misapplying limit books to this and getting too used to regular limit. What do you think about this game? Should I play it much looser preflop because of the implied odds? Plus what kind of bankroll would you want for this/what would be a good buy in(note it is live and usually played about 1-3 days a week)?

[aK13]

In my opinion, a very big generalization about any spread limit is that preflop and flop tend to be more like NL, but the turn and river end up being like limit. This is due to the fact that say you raise to 2.5 preflop, get 1 call, pot the flop for 5, and get 1 call. Pot is 15 on the turn , and as such you're pretty much never betting less than 5 into this pot any longer, and has hence turned into limit, in theory, when preflop and flop you might actually put in a bet that was <5.

For a home game, the rules are just retardedly complicated.

And saying that learning more about theory and practicing by playing online and that you can't make money even though there are terribly bad players is just completely retarded.

I would buyin about 20, since it seems like you would want to be able to pull a max bet on every street if possible. Deeper stacks really doesn't seem like it should matter at all in a game like this.

EDIT: And from the stance of a limit player, preflop and flop play are probably the only two streets I feel like I play well in NL, and would much rather play the turn and river as limit.

[CMReedy]

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And saying that learning more about theory and practicing by playing online and that you can't make money even though there are terribly bad players is just completely retarded.


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Note that I didn't say I can't win money or that the reason is because I'm reading and playing more online, I'm just saying that I'm having trouble at it (might just be a bad downswing, who knows) and that I MIGHT be misapplying the lessons learned from Sklansky, Miller, and Harrington bibles.

Thank you for your response though. I'm guessing that most pocket pairs and suited Aces/connectors should be gold if paid for cheeply (for implied odds purposes).

On the other hand, with this small of a blind structure(.25,.50) wouldn't most game theory say that I should play as tightly as possible?

[nichtsnutz]

Post this in the limit forum and you are likely to get good answers. I'd say you want to play hands, that are great preflop and on flop like PPs and high cards as opposed to hands that are better on later streets like suited connectors.

[Aaron W.]

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On the other hand, with this small of a blind structure(.25,.50) wouldn't most game theory say that I should play as tightly as possible?

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No. It depends on what the other players are doing. If the blinds are small, but lots of players are coming into the pot, you should be coming in often as well (not as often as them) because you're not just chasing the blinds, but you're chasing the limpers' money as well. You also have large bets relative to the size of the blines on later streets, which means your implied odds are much larger than in limit (unless someone throws in a large raise on an early street, then implied odds go down due to the raising cap). Also, if they are willing to call large bets/raises with weak hands without considering the size of the pot, then you've got a monster advantage.

[bozlax]

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Then the guy who ran the game, who I guess got pissed at donkeys moving in on dumb hands, changed the structure.

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Any thoughts?

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Yeah. You've got the wrong guy running the game. If this is really why he changed the structure, it's completely ridiculous (as anyone that's played a dealer's choice home game can tell you, the easiest way to get the worst player at the table to put all his money in is to propose the most complicated game you can think of). I'm guessing it's more likely that your host changed the structure becuase HE isn't a very good player, and was losing under a normal NL structure...I'm also guessing there was no buy-in limit, and people were allowed to pull bills out of their wallets mid-hand.