1/2 NL

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I doubt that 1/2 games have that many $50 pots pre flop.

[/ QUOTE ] You've never been to Tunica I take it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope. I play in Los Angeles. For a $50 pot you'd have to have almost everyone calling a raise PF or else have a few people calling massive over-raises. Sure, it happens but that much?

[AlienBoy]

To get $50 pots PF, raise from early position 2 or three times in a row (my standard raise is around 12) - everyone folds the first time or two - and make the remark - Jeeze you guys - ya gonna let me steal the blends EVERY time? Or is someone gonna get the balls to call?!"

The next time you raise to 12 you'll get 3 to 4 callers, and it's on.


It's hilarious when one of them leads the flop with $5. Make it $30, all fold, rinse, repeat as necessary.



AB

[pig4bill]

Not that hard to get near $50 PF. $3 in blinds, 2 limpers, a $20 raiser with 1 caller = $47. Very common in Vegas 1/2 that I've played in.

[sards]

[ QUOTE ]

I doubt that 1/2 games have that many $50 pots pre flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, $50 pots are somewhat rare pre-flop, but are very common on the turn and river. $50 was just an example though.

[ QUOTE ]

Very nice first post. Welcome aboard, and let me also say that I think your approach makes a lot of sense.


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the welcome.

[Cactus Jack]

[ QUOTE ]
Very nice first post. Welcome aboard, and let me also say that I think your approach makes a lot of sense.

[ QUOTE ]
I crushed my local 1/2 NL game for a few months before moving up to 2/5 and 5/10. Here is a brief description of the way I played: This game had a $300 max buy-in, and I would always buy in for the full $300. My reasoning was that there would often be weak players at the table that had caught some cards and built big stacks; I wanted to be able to make them risk as much of their stacks as possible. I preferred to start out playing fairly straightforward, tight agressive poker. This allowed me to get a feel for the table and build up a solid image. Also, playing straightforward meant that I wasn't making any high-risk plays that could jeapordize my stack growth. Playing this way, I would usually steadily increase my stack, and as the size of my stack increased, I would open up my game more and more. Note that I established a tight solid image, so the table would take a while to notice that I was making more moves. Once my stack reached $500 or so, I would be playing full on LAG style. The idea behing this is that playing LAG allowed me to take advantage of my big edge in post-flop skill, while my big stack allowed me to absorb the risks associated with LAG play. Preflop, my LAG mode involved
1) Limping almost all of my "unplayable" hands if I didn't think that it would get raised. This was true from all positions but I was slightly more likely to fold the worst garbage from early position than from late position.
2) Raising almost all unraised pots from mid to late position with the top 50% of my hands. My typical raise amount was anywhere from $7 to $12 depending on my mood and table conditions.
3) Calling in raised pots with any semi-decent hand. I was more likely to call a raise with a borderline hand if the raise was small ($6 - $8) than if it was big ($12+). Also, if a good player was involved in the raised pot, I was more selective.
4) I rarely reraised preflop except with premium hands. I preferred to see a flop and use my skill advantage there than to reraise and either take down the pot or be in a much more difficult situation on the flop.

Post-flop, I tried to play an aggressive, tricky game. I bluffed fairly often, utilized the check-raise when appropriate, and bet my big hands aggressively. Most players at this level are very easy to outplay after the flop. The advantages of my playing style were that 1) I saw a LOT of flops, where I could take advantage of my skills, and 2) most of the pots were raised preflop (usually by me), so I could win more.

One other thing that I should mention is that at the $1/2 NL level, most players have no clue about how much to bet after the flop. They typically make tiny bets, like $5 or $10 into a $50 pot. You probably already know this, but most of your bets should be in the 50% to 100% of the pot range. Learn to take advantage of your opponents' small bets.

This post is becoming much longer than I had planned, and I'm sure most of this stuff has been covered elsewhere, so I will stop now.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Add one more ingredient. Most play pretty straightforward. If you get resistence on the flop and turn, let it go, unless you've got a big hand. If they can stand the pressure, they've got something.

Nice job on your first post. Welcome aboard.

CJ

[usaftrevor]

Rottersod:

I think the reason you might not see many $50 pots pf is the min/max differences in LA vs other places that are $60-$300 buy-in for $1/$2 NL.

In AC Cardrooms it's not uncommon for it to go $12 pf five way action to the flop ATLEAST 30% of the hands / orbit.

It all depends on how bad everyone feels like playing that day... but it's still pretty easy.

[MVPSPORTS]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Very nice first post. Welcome aboard, and let me also say that I think your approach makes a lot of sense.

[ QUOTE ]
I crushed my local 1/2 NL game for a few months before moving up to 2/5 and 5/10. Here is a brief description of the way I played: This game had a $300 max buy-in, and I would always buy in for the full $300. My reasoning was that there would often be weak players at the table that had caught some cards and built big stacks; I wanted to be able to make them risk as much of their stacks as possible. I preferred to start out playing fairly straightforward, tight agressive poker. This allowed me to get a feel for the table and build up a solid image. Also, playing straightforward meant that I wasn't making any high-risk plays that could jeapordize my stack growth. Playing this way, I would usually steadily increase my stack, and as the size of my stack increased, I would open up my game more and more. Note that I established a tight solid image, so the table would take a while to notice that I was making more moves. Once my stack reached $500 or so, I would be playing full on LAG style. The idea behing this is that playing LAG allowed me to take advantage of my big edge in post-flop skill, while my big stack allowed me to absorb the risks associated with LAG play. Preflop, my LAG mode involved
1) Limping almost all of my "unplayable" hands if I didn't think that it would get raised. This was true from all positions but I was slightly more likely to fold the worst garbage from early position than from late position.
2) Raising almost all unraised pots from mid to late position with the top 50% of my hands. My typical raise amount was anywhere from $7 to $12 depending on my mood and table conditions.
3) Calling in raised pots with any semi-decent hand. I was more likely to call a raise with a borderline hand if the raise was small ($6 - $8) than if it was big ($12+). Also, if a good player was involved in the raised pot, I was more selective.
4) I rarely reraised preflop except with premium hands. I preferred to see a flop and use my skill advantage there than to reraise and either take down the pot or be in a much more difficult situation on the flop.

Post-flop, I tried to play an aggressive, tricky game. I bluffed fairly often, utilized the check-raise when appropriate, and bet my big hands aggressively. Most players at this level are very easy to outplay after the flop. The advantages of my playing style were that 1) I saw a LOT of flops, where I could take advantage of my skills, and 2) most of the pots were raised preflop (usually by me), so I could win more.

One other thing that I should mention is that at the $1/2 NL level, most players have no clue about how much to bet after the flop. They typically make tiny bets, like $5 or $10 into a $50 pot. You probably already know this, but most of your bets should be in the 50% to 100% of the pot range. Learn to take advantage of your opponents' small bets.

This post is becoming much longer than I had planned, and I'm sure most of this stuff has been covered elsewhere, so I will stop now.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Add one more ingredient. Most play pretty straightforward. If you get resistence on the flop and turn, let it go, unless you've got a big hand. If they can stand the pressure, they've got something.

Nice job on your first post. Welcome aboard.

CJ

[/ QUOTE ]

If by "straight forward" you mean "can't let go of TPNK or 2nd pair or ANY draw" and if "unless youve got a big hand" means TPTK, then I agree whole heartedly...

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
To get $50 pots PF, raise from early position 2 or three times in a row (my standard raise is around 12) - everyone folds the first time or two - and make the remark - Jeeze you guys - ya gonna let me steal the blends EVERY time? Or is someone gonna get the balls to call?!"

The next time you raise to 12 you'll get 3 to 4 callers, and it's on.

It's hilarious when one of them leads the flop with $5. Make it $30, all fold, rinse, repeat as necessary. - AB

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure this will work in the 3-5 or 5/10 blind games so I want to step down in limit and try this since it sounds like fun. I need to change my buttoned down look though I think.

~ Rick

[xxrod17xx]

[ QUOTE ]
als everyone who limps for 2 dollars insta calls a bet of 10 dollars no matter what the situation (with hands such as k2S etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes this happends all the time, this is the reason I don't play any sort of loose style in the low limit games. When I raise in any position its not usually to thin the field out because it is impossible in these games. You are raising to build a pot. If you miss the flop and dont have a hand where you want to build the pot up just give it up. Also in later position when there are a lot of limpers I would make a much larger raise than $10 pre-flop as that is probably a average open raise at this level, I would probably make a larger raise somewhere between 15-20. Again I'm not raising to pick up the limps I am trying to build a big pot with a big hand in position.

[jmc999]

I agree with MVPSPORTS's observation that players will call a preflop raise and then refuse to release a dominated TPNK hand if they connect on the flop. I've seen players gladly go broke with one pair in both raised and unraised pots.

As a general question to more experienced live players, is it generally better to check the turn (pot control) after firing on the flop w/ TPTK, or is it better to continue betting (I want to stack someone who's willing to go broke w/ TPNK, flush draw, etc.)? I'm going to guess this depends heavily on your relative position, stack sizes, and opponent tendencies (make some assumptions for me here).