by growlers » Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:07 am
I advise a style somewhat different than I think most are alluding too. Most of these people are really passive in these games. I play very aggressively especially preflop in position, for instance raising A9o after three limpers. I raise AJo in the big blind 6 handed, etc.
There are many benefits. You rate to have a better hand than people playing any two, and therefore it is +EV from a pot equity standpoint.
Also, these passive people tend to think you are full of shit when you do have a hand like QQ or AK and and A flops, and call you down with middle pair.
The thing you don't want to do is play trash just to play trash. And especially don;t limp with trash.
But play very aggressively and raise alot preflop. When you do get involved be the aggressor.
Note that the presence of say, two aggressive tricky players, invalidates the above. What you want to be doing is to be raising a bunch of passive limpers preflop with 55 and then feeling a collective groan from them when an A or K flops as they toss their J7s or 88. What you don't want when people raise you is to have to wonder what they might have. So having more than one aggressive and/or tricky players gets problematic. But alot of these low limit live table are so passive, when they checkraise the turn you KNOW what they have.
I have played many a 4-8 passive table where I play maybe 25% of my hands but raise 90% of them and don't get to showdown more than 2x/ HOUR! When you get AA or something show it faceup when they fold on the river to your bet and tell them "good fold". Keep them thinking you always have great cards.
Note this is totally different than online. People are MUCH more aggressive online and it is harder to run over a table. People that play only online will read this post and think I am nuts but you just don't realize how passive some of these tables can be.