I play mainly NL online, but have made a few recent forrays to the local cardrooms here in northern CA and played $3/$6 limit.

My question relates mainly to live limit then, but possibly also to online.

Do people really see any value in playing anything but a totally straightforward game?

I have had all winning sessions, and in the last session in particular I think I check-raised one time in 3 hours. Other than that it should have been obvious to anyone at the table what I held in virtually any situation. This would be death in a good NL game, but these guys seemed not to care. They call down with any draw and second or even third pair. The one check-raise was a weak top-pair on a 3-flush flop. The funny thing was the guy to my left, who was a good player, actually figured it out right away and called my hand for me!

I guess what I am wondering is do people see situations where one might try to disguise a hand or are the games so straightforward that disciplined, obvious play is a winning strategy?

at 3/6 live there is no reason to play tricky. You need to understand that at that limit most people are there to have fun and kill time, they are not looking fill leaks and push their edges. Most players you find at 3/6 will be loose and passive. When you have a hand, even top pair, bet bet bet. If someone wkes up and raises you, give them credit for at least two pair. But, you can't just wait for premium hands, feel free to open up a bit preflop and check muck if you miss a flop. Bluffs will not work and A-high is a showdown hand( in certain situations).

Yah I basically relaxed starting hands in mid-late position, called most pre-flop raises in the BB, and only raised PF with premium hands or against 1-3 limpers in LP. I did not get a lot of premium hands this last session... in fact I think I only PF raised once with AK suited on the button. The pot was 3-bet and I missed my flop. I folded to some pretty heavy action. Turned out 3-bet had JJ, and two callers had 88 and QQ. 88 hit his set and took down a monster pot with qq fish calling him all the way to the river, even raising the river. That was the only time I lost more than $6 in a single hand all night. Sometimes it is better to get mostly crap cards, since all my decisions were easy.

3/6 live? Yeah, that's still in no-fold-em-hold-em territory. With respect to online, you're likely to find a lot more people working at those levels though.

I have cerainly not been impressed with the sheer poker skill at the $3/6 live level. I saw a guy cr a river last night with a weak paired ace on a flush and paired board. He seemed genuinely shocked with the guy called and turned over trips.

It seems that the avg player will call down with any ace or any pair, and of course any draw. It's also amazing how many of them seem to believe that 2-pair is the nuts, even on a straight or flush board.