1-2 NL home game

[kurosh]

Buy-in is $50. Blinds are 1-2. I'm in MP. Most hands that have been raised are going 3 or 4 handed to the flop at a 10 person table.

Me: $40
EP: $40
Loose-Passive on left: $100
Solid on left: $40
Pothead on left: $11

EP min-raises to $4. I have 99 and reraise to $8 to isolate. Loose-passive and solid both call. Pothead reraises all-in for $11. EP folds. House rules let me reraise so I reraise all-in for $29 more to try and get it headsup with pothead.

EP's min-raise means he doesn't have a very strong hand, confirmed by his folding.

Loose-passive will call with anything to try and hit something. Even after the flop misses him he'll still call another decent sized bet.

Solid plays pretty tight preflop. If there's a lot of action unless he has AA/KK, he'll fold. He would have reraised with premium hands.

Pothead is just that... a pothead.

I also had an extremely tight image. The only hands I had showed down were AK, JJ and J8 with two pair in the big blind.

[kurosh]

Bu-bu-bump

[dmk]

This is read-based, but if you're very sure that everyone else will fold, I think its fine. There's definitely enough dead money in the pot to want to get it headsup.

[kurosh]

Meh I guess no one cares but maybe the results will get some more posts.

Loose-passive thinks for a long time then calls. Solid mucks AQs. Loose-passive and pothead both turn over KQs. Loose-passive hit a flush on the river and pothead hit a straight on the river /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Wayfare]

The fact that you have only 20x BB means that the game you are playing is not poker. It's look at my two cards and go all in game.

I don't think it matters how any hand with 20x bb is played. If you have a hand preflop and there is action go all in, and reload if you lose. Rinse repeat.

EDIT: This is one of the laest bad beat posts I can remember.

[Ben]

[ QUOTE ]
Pothead is just that... a pothead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good read.

[DavidC]

I'm just going to rephrase what Wayfare said here.

Stacks are shallow, which really sucks, so you're in with a coin flip with any action. You can't expect to win a coinflip more than half the time (though you're just a tad better than a coinflip).

Now, with those two guys flipping over the same cards (KQs) you should be jumping around you're so happy: you're getting much better odds against their pairing (for your money) than you would against one of them, of course, and flushes aren't that common.

You lost, which sucks... see if you can get them to buy in for more or to reduce the blinds, this will let you really clean up.

I'm in a game where the buy is 50xbb, and I hate being so restricted. I would prefer to buy for 200xbb, though I'm willing to buy for 100xbb...

I have to convince the guy at the table who's most adamant that "buying in for the amount of the largest stack is unfair" that any amount that he holds over the second-highest stack is dead money.

The problem is that I don't want to explain it to him in too much detail, or he might figure out something about the game. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

--Dave.

[Richie Rich]

...you were actually asking a question in your original post?

[kurosh]

The people I play with always make it so the blinds are 20x or 25x the BB. They're don't understand the concept and think it's fine. Can't lower the blinds because it'd be too little for them and can't raise the buy-in because it'd be too much. I don't know how to explain it to them that 20xBB isn't very much room to work with. They just don't listen.

Oh yeah, and I DID forget to ask a question. Was I right to reraise all-in or should I have seen a flop and pushed in on a favorable one?

[Triumph36]

I also play in a 20 BB buy-in game regularly. The game can be good when it's four to six handed, but any higher and it means throwing away all the trap hands and looking for only premium hands, with no room to manuever. But it's also possible to win 4x the buy in fairly easily.

What's remarkable about a game like that is that stealing the blinds adds 1/15th to your stack.

[kurosh]

Could you give me some advice for playing in these types of games? Sometimes we're short-handed and sometimes we have a full table.

[Kips Bay Kid]

[ QUOTE ]
Could you give me some advice for playing in these types of games? Sometimes we're short-handed and sometimes we have a full table.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do tourneys, still buy-in for $50 but give everyone "$500" in chips. Setup a payout structure for finishes or set a timelimit, after 2 hours divy up the kitty based on chip stacks.

[kurosh]

I can't change the game structure. I'm asking how I can best adapt to it.

[Triumph36]

It depends what kind of game it is. The players in the game I'm at went from loose/passive to loose/aggressive in the past year. Last year there'd be anger if I raised pre-flop, now it's rare to see no PFR.

This game really depends on the character of the game. If people are passive, it's best only to raise and bet with made hands, and a made hand in 20 BB NL is top pair with a good kicker. Often in these kind of games, the most incorrect plays are made with draws; drawing hands are awful unless flops are not bet strongly, but often flops aren't bet strongly, and by the time the turn makes the drawing hand, the former 'made hand' is now pot committed.

If you get raised pre-flop and have a hand worth re-raising, get it all in. Hands come so few and far between that people call big raises with marginal holdings like KQ, A7, and 66, because they're bored with folding hands for an hour. Most of the raises in my game are still 3 BB or less, so often I can play hands for set value, but if the raises are larger, it's a raise-or-fold situation for a hand like 99 or JJ.

A full table means folding all the time, especially out of position. There's no room or reason to play drawing hands. It looks like it's still a very loose game so that means make your raises big when you do have something, but I think it means if you think you can outplay people, limp with things like KJ and QT, but still only do that close to the button. It only takes two or three pot bets back and forth to commit both people.

But if it is that loose, just wait to get paid off. NEVER bluff past the flop, unless you've picked up a tell. Semi-bluffing all-in is also foolish, people will call all-in bets with MPTK.

Players in my $10 buy-in game will often buy in three and four times, and they will end up being short stacks, since they've stacked off to people still at the table. That's another thing: if they've been playing for a while and you show up, I wouldn't sit down. Buying in with $50 at a table where the average stacks are $100 and there's nine other players is asking to get slaughtered.

Usually by the end of the night, there's only a few people left playing and they have stacks of 50-120 BBs, and the game becomes completely different.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh yeah, and I DID forget to ask a question. Was I right to reraise all-in or should I have seen a flop and pushed in on a favorable one?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see what a favourable flop could be for you, other than one containing a nine. Push PF.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
Buying in with $50 at a table where the average stacks are $100 and there's nine other players is asking to get slaughtered.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know... depending on how loose/aggressive they are on the PF, having half the buy could be a great advantage, as you can pick your spots to double up by going AI pf and hoping for the best.