Breaking limit habits... transition to NL...

[mastin1]

A little background, I have played limit holdem for almost 8 months. I buried myself in the game and learned as much as possible starting at 2/4 and moving up all the way to 100-200. After a little evaluation I decided to move into the realm of NL.

I've been lurking here for the past week or so reading and gathering info (the SS FAQ was a HUGE help) and have finally started to post some hands that have been confusing me (mostly because my instincts automatically default to FL situations)

I've been able to break a few habits, but one hand in particular had been bugging the heck out of me. KQos...

How do we normally evaluate the strength of this hand (specifically UTG and CO).

I've experimented with a few different lines and have reached mixed results (small sample size maybe 10k hands so far)

UTG... tight table, do we normally make our standard 3x bb open or is it safe to just fold here? I've gotten better at folding against pre-flop resistance (unless deep stacked) but still get torn on what to do here.

CO... lets say 1-2 limpers (frequent in my games) here do we opt for a limp as well or do we place a little pressure on people who like to limp small pairs / suited connectors / one gappers. I've had more success with this hand (naturally I have position) but still feel like later on this could be a leak and want to prepare myself for further growth in this game.

If more specific examples are needed I will provide, again this forum has help me develop tons so far and I want to thank anyone in advance for any contributions to this thread.

[Margin Of Error]

I hate playing OOP so KQos UTG and sometimes even UTG+1 is always a fold for me.

I'm only playing PP's and big aces from UTG, though I'm somewhat of a nit so take that with a grain of salt.

[The White Rabbit]

I assume you're playing 6-max?

If you're not comfortable, it's perfectly fine to fold marginal hands from EP, KQo is def. one of them.

However, if you decide to play it, you should come in for a raise, whether there are limpers in front of you or not. You should basically never limp in 6-max (an exception is when one or more limpers are shortstacked or you have a hand like Q4s after 2 or more terrible limpers), raise to pick up the blinds or isolate weak limpers (playing HU pots IP against weak limpers = $$$$$).

[Sorcerer808]

I suggest watching a couple of vids from here or cardrunners or w/e. It will def help you a lot!

[mastin1]

Yes I am playing 6 max, and as far as the amount of the raise goes, due to the limpers do we increase a small amount? My standard raise is $8 lets say, do we shoot for $10 - $12 maybe and be happy with the $7 already in the pot?

[The White Rabbit]

Standard recommendation is raising 4BB+1/limper + 1 more if you raise out of the blinds.

[Brad1970]

I don't like playing KQo OPP either but if you could limp with it, then go for it. You never know what the flop might bring. In the CO, I'm much more inclined to raise an unopened pot or a pot with only 1 or 2 limpers with KQo.

I still play limit from time to time & if I had to give one tip to improve your NL game, it would be to know when to get away from a hand in NL as opposed to limit. Limit poker in most cases will give you good odds to draw all the way to the river, while a NL game with solid players will come after you & skew the odds so you can't chase. In short, you have to know when to find the fold button...

[orange]

Hey,
Pokey had a great transitioning from limit to NL post in the sticky I think.

Anyways, they are two different games (I'm sure you realize that) and I wish you GL. Post some hands and participate in the forums.

[lucky_mf]

[ QUOTE ]
You should basically never limp in 6-max (an exception is when one or more limpers are shortstacked or you have a hand like Q4s after 2 or more terrible limpers), raise to pick up the blinds or isolate weak limpers (playing HU pots IP against weak limpers = $$$$$).

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree with the the general statement about never limping in 6-max. Limping, particularly over-limping when multiple players have limped, is perfectly fine IMO.

What you don't want to do is open limp in early- and mid-position because someone will likely raise behind you. If they do you end up with bad choices:
(1) fold;
(2) call their raise and donk the flop;
(3) call their raise and fold to their flop bet;
(4) or call their raise and check-call out of postion; or
(5) call their raise and check raise.

Depending on the flop (2), (4), or (5) might be good options, but for typically flop none of them are good.

All this stuff about how limping is not necessarily bad, I typically raise KQo UTG (75% of the time - folding the rest of the time). I'm not sure that playing KQo this way is profitable on its own (although I am showing a profit with KTs,KJo,KJs,KQs, and KQo from UTG never limping), but if you are playing against people that are paying attention (and I have been) it is somewhat important to not have an extremely narrow EP range. Raising hands likes KQo helps widen this range and makes you more difficult to play against.

Lucky