Winning No-Limit without calling (ever)

[ATrebek]

Discussion with a friend - would it be possible to beat an average $1/2 or $2/5 game without ever calling a bet?

Every situation is a raise or fold.

No limping preflop.
No calling on draws.
No bluff catching on the river.
Etc, etc.

I think you would be giving up way too much value when calling is the correct thing to do to make any profit, friend diagrees.

FYI other players are playing 'normally'.

[Gonso]

Easily exploitable... an OOP opponent would only need to check/call you to the river, and then put you all in. You can't raise or call, so you'd have to fold your hand and forfeit the pot.

[ATrebek]

[ QUOTE ]
Easily exploitable... an OOP opponent would only need to check/call you to the river, and then put you all in. You can't raise or call, so you'd have to fold your hand and forfeit the pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I should have been more explicit, since these scenarios came up in our discussion.

Hero must fold or raise *if allowed* Hero can call an All-In since he cannot raise in this case, hero can call if the betting isn't reopened to him.

Opponents do not know hero's betting restrictions unless they pick up on them through observation (ergo the "Average" $1/2 table part)

[killsadie]

[ QUOTE ]
Easily exploitable... an OOP opponent would only need to check/call you to the river, and then put you all in. You can't raise or call, so you'd have to fold your hand and forfeit the pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

wtf.... only a moron would think this. please next time use your brain.

[bbartlog]

I think a lot of people would play *better* with this restriction. I've actually thought about doing this deliberately in PLO8 for a couple thousand hands, just as an exercise. But in pot limit you end up with a lot of situations where you have 40-45% equity and should call a pot-sized turn bet, but raising would be a big mistake. So it would be a big handicap there. Now no-limit on the other hand... I bet you could win.

[KipBond]

Well, you can do this with your good hands (big pairs, AQs+) but otherwise you will be spewing chips. And once someone figures out your strategy, you're toast.

[SplawnDarts]

At a typical 1/2, you could win money this way. At higher limits, not so much.

[GittyUP]

shortstacking with this strategy would be sweet. not sure what proper shortstacking strategy is but I would assume it would be something like this.

[cpk]

Optimal shortstacking strategy is indeed very close to this. There are opportunities to limp in with a short stack in late position with small pairs and the like, though--so you'd have to give up on those, probably.

[T Money]

I would think that this stratagy would lead to losing much bigger pots than you need to, unless you plan on throwing draws out the window all together. With a strategy like this, on draws in particular, your building up pots which you're likely to lose most of the time. This is backwards.
At a micro limit or 1/2 game you might get a away with this from a pure stealing standpoint, but in the long run you're losing more money than you should.