How do you play this table?

[blahblah]

The game was 10/20 limit HE. I'm the small blind, the table is 9 handed. By the time it gets to me everyone has called. I look down to see two black queens. I raise. Everyone calls. Flop is 722 rainbow. By the time it gets to me, it's capped. I'm stunned and in disgust, fold. The winner is K2o. The caller to my left called my raise with 2Th.

Now, I've been at tables where there is a collective moment of insanity - where everyone plays a hand or two way too far and then the table returns to being "normal". But this type of play occurred literally all night. For six hours, the table was insane.

I sat and waited...and waited...and waited for good hands knowing that when I hit I would make a killing. I loosened up a bit to match the fact that my opponents were playing looser. I widened my gap a little. AJs, I raise. I'm against 7 opponents and lose to a straight on the river. I had very few outs either way on the turn.

But none of the cash is coming my way. For six hours I watch three big winners at the table raking it in with the worst cards I've ever seen. They must have had over a thousand each when I walked away down $300.

Can someone give me some advice as to how to play at this type of table? Should I have just realized that play was too wild and walked away?

This session really disappointed me. After months of reading books and studying (and generally winning) I had a bad loser and just can't figure it out. Any help (even comfort) would be much appreciated.

[Paluka]

Well it is very possible that you aren't a winning player yet. You are still very new to the game.
But what you have to realize is that in 6 hours at a table where 9 people see the flop, you probably saw less than 200 hands. 200 hands is nothing. Many winning players have had losing streaks that last 20,000 hands.

[sublime]

How do you play this table

a better question would be, how do you NOT play at this table?

you HAVE to learn how to accept that you will lose, and often. if you cant accept the fact that when you are at a table like this (and you WANT to be, this table is PERFECT) that you are going to lose to bad cards then you should stop playing poker.

[blahblah]

sublime, am I understanding what you are saying: I WANT to be at this table because when I am winning I will be winning big. But I should expect to lose A LOT at a table like this because of the reasons I stated above? Is that correct?

Also, any answer to the question you asked: how DO you not want to play at this table?

Thanks for the reply!

[sublime]

I WANT to be at this table because when I am winning I will be winning big. But I should expect to lose A LOT at a table like this because of the reasons I stated above? Is that correct?

you want to be at this table because these people are playing to many hands and going to far with them, or in other words making mistakes, which is how we make money. as a result of this, you are going to get sucked out on more and lose to terrible holdings. that is just a fact of poker that you have to learn to accept, and actually come to embrace.

a quick example. say you hold AA utg and raise:

with one caller you are a large favorite in a small pot.

with 9 callers you are a "smaller" favorite in a huge pot.

while scenario one is safer and less volatile, situation two is how you make more money in the long term, which is all that should matter.

do you own a copy of small stakes hold em? you should, it goes into this topic and much more.

[Freakin]

Correct. Playing at tables like this can drastically increase your overall win rate. But it will almost surely increase your variance as well. If I had my choice of online tables, they would all look like this.

Freakin

[buhler26]

At a table like this, instead of waiting for AA, KK, or whatever, you need to play more multiway pot hands. Like suited connectors, small pairs, Ax suited. If you know you're pretty much guaranteed a large multiway pot, you can even play some of these hands in early position. That way, you can be the guy drawing out on these large pots. Of course you still play your big pairs and AK aggressively, but you have to understand your chances of winning with these hands go down at tables like that.

[crimhead]

[ QUOTE ]
do you own a copy of small stakes hold em? you should, it goes into this topic and much more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Best advise you're ever going to get on this Blahblah