Generic Advice for 1 - 5 spread limit?

[habsfanca11]

I've got a co-worker that I'm mentoring in poker who will be going to Vegas next week and playing in O'Sheas 1-5 spread limit game. I would like to pass on some advice but am really unfamiliar with this game. Does it play like 3/6? Do you bother varying your opening bet? Say like Aces, Kings and Queens are $5 but A,K is $3? Looking for any thoughts or considerations. As mentioned I have no clue about this particular game.

[Xhad]

The goal in spread limit is to exploit your opponents' loose play. If they aren't playing loose on any street then you should leave the game.

If they're coldcalling preflop, figure out how much they're coldcalling and bet that. Sometimes you'll have to "milk" for 3 if you're the one open-raising, sometimes you can go the full 6 preflop and they'll call anyway.

Raise a little less for equity reasons than you would in a regular limit game since you're risking a lot more relative to the pot, unless your opponents fold too much in raised pots too much, then you should raise a lot in position and do a lot of cbetting.

Postflop never bet less than $5 unless it's a tiny unraised pot.

[jesse8888]

Most spread limit games I've played in seem to have the following characteristics:

1. More people try to limp in for the minimum 1 and 2 dollars, with the thought that they can make up more with bigger bets if they flop big. This is sound logic, but obviously they take it too far and play stuff like J7s from utg and the like.

2. Almost all the bets on the last three rounds are for the maximum.

In order to make money at this game, as Xhad says, you need players who will call bigger bets with bad hands on the flop and turn.

[habsfanca11]

Thanks Xhad. Appreciate your response.

Would you say a big bet ($5) has much of an impact pre-flop or on the flop? Is it possible to use a $5 bet to protect your hand? Or is it a donk-fest like most 3/6 games?

I think you've intimated that it is very player dependent, but if you have any other generalizations it would be appreciated.

Thanks again for your considered response.

[Xhad]

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Would you say a big bet ($5) has much of an impact pre-flop or on the flop? Is it possible to use a $5 bet to protect your hand? Or is it a donk-fest like most 3/6 games?

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It depends on the game. One of my favorite spread games to play in is one where everyone calls any raise once they've limped, but then tighten up on the flop (this is something I forgot to mention btw, you should be limping a lot of drawing hands for implied odds but be willing to fold if someone makes a max raise pf and no one else is coming along). For example: 2 people like I just described limp, and you make it $6 in the cutoff with Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], only the limpers call. They both check an A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] flop and you bet $6 and take the pot. If they are doing this constantly (as in they almost never fold pf after limping and always give up on the flop without a hand), you can raise a ton of hands in position like this and rob them blind.

Other games are exactly the opposite, where people play somewhat sensibly pf (or maybe they limp a little more than they should), but they're used to limit so they call too much after the flop not realizing how small the pot is compared to the money they're putting in. In fact I'll sometimes exploit this on purpose. Example: I limp, 3 other people limp and we end up seeing the flop 6handed (including the blinds). Flop is KJ5. I bet $6, 2 people fold, the button raises, the blinds fold, I 3bet and button calls. We go to showdown and he has K8o, which he would not have folded had I raised my KJs preflop. This kind of game is pretty nonstandard though.

The most common at a limit that low, people call too much pf, and postflop. In that case just value bet them to death. You're only paying probably $2/round in blinds, plus the occasional $1 limp. Usually when you put more than that into a hand, it's as a huge favorite in a multiway pot. You can win a lot of money in these loose-passive games with very little variance, which is one reason you don't see much spread limit except at these piddling low limits.

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1. More people try to limp in for the minimum 1 and 2 dollars, with the thought that they can make up more with bigger bets if they flop big. This is sound logic, but obviously they take it too far and play stuff like J7s from utg and the like.

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QFT, strangely enough you can't play that much looser UTG than in a regular limit game despite the postflop bet increases because it's hard to extract OOP when you flop well; if your J7s hits a J77 flop and it checks around, there's a good chance you will win no money postflop, while if you bet you may realisitically just take the pot down. In position on the other hand it's a lot easier to make sure money goes in without scaring everyone out and so I will often limp otb with things like 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (this also has the side effect of putting some people on tilt when they don't understand what you're doing).

[habsfanca11]

Anybody else have anything to add?

Thanks to you both for responding.

[Gap23Razor]

your 1/5 spread limit game play ought to play tighter than the conventional games of say 1/2 or 2/4...the reason is you don't have the implied odds from increased betting limits on later rounds...

also, the blind structure could effect how the game is played as it may be that the game has only a big blind...that also makes the game tighter

in general, a spread limit game favors a skilled player more than the fixed limit game

my only similar experience was playing a 2-6 spread limit game, and it was more tight than a typical 3/6 or 4/8 game, and more often than not hands were finished without a showdown

gl

[MTDog-7]

I play almost exclusive spread limit games as most of the 25-30 rooms we have in town play a spread limit. My favorite is 2-10 with single $2 blind, Next is 1-5 with single $1. You can see lot of hands for $20 on one of these tables, I like to pick my hands and spots to play them. You can take your time getting the "feel" of the table. I like limp in if the table is some what passive late position with hands like 8Ts,97s, even 36s. When you hit straights, and boats it sets some folks off. I played 9Ts called guys ALL IN made the flush and he went ballistic for an hour. Took $200 from him [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]. If your not and ABC player you can do real well. You needed to be able to switch gears as players change. Also don't be afraid to raise and re-raise your good hands, drive out the draws if it's too cheap you get the suck out players handing in for gut shots, and runner runner flush draws, also a lot of players won't fold any Ace until the river unless you raise the heck out it. One guy I know will play any Ace and he will know he's out kicked but will got to the River hoping to pair his weak kicker, and he hits more than he should. Players like that you need to get position on them so you can raise when able, but he'll check it to you. Getting in cheap seems to draw out the suck out players cause they think "any two cards are worth a buck to see the flop". Be fore warned!!!

[Xhad]

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My favorite is 2-10 with single $2 blind, Next is 1-5 with single $1. You can see lot of hands for $20 on one of these tables

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If you are seeing "a lot" of flops for $20 in the above structures you're playing the game wrong.

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If your not and ABC player you can do real well.

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Spread-limit is easily the most nit-friendly form of texas holdem there is.

[MTDog-7]

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My favorite is 2-10 with single $2 blind, Next is 1-5 with single $1. You can see lot of hands for $20 on one of these tables

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If you are seeing "a lot" of flops for $20 in the above structures you're playing the game wrong.

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NO NO NO, you can be see a lot of cards and throw away the hands you don't like and the blinds don't eat you up.
In a 9 handed game you can see 9 hands for $1 with single blind. So if your card dead you see 180 hands for $20. A game with Two blinds a small $1 and large $2 blind you can only see 63 hands for $21. For TAG player the single low blind is an advantage. I consider the blind SEAT RENT, the chance to have cards dealt too me to decide if I should play the hand or not. Now I think you can see more flops than a 3-6 game because of the structure. Lee Jones in his Small stakes book thinks so too when he addresses spread limit games.