AKQJ10
12-30-2004, 09:01 PM
I'm may ramble a bit but take the following as a request for advice from anyone who knows how to play spread-limit well.
Last night I played in a quasi-home game that was 2-10 spread limit hold 'em: blinds of $1/$2, and each round betting or raising any integer from $2 to $10. I've only played 2-10 once before, and didn't do too well in a very short session, but last night I made out OK. I probably won't be back there soon because of bankroll issues (I went the first time more from curiosity), but it made me wonder about spread-limit:
1. Bankroll issues
The 300 BBet mantra is fine and dandy, but what do you use as the big bet? $10, for a bankroll requirement of $3000? That's probably slightly conservative but the variance of 2-10 is probably more similar to $5/$10 than $2/$4, at least with last nights' opponents.
2. Starting hand requirements
I wondered this when playing the 1-3 at the Excalibur in Vegas, too -- If the game is sufficiently passive, can't you limp in with much worse hands, like suited queens or medium suited semiconnectors out of position? The idea is, as long as you don't expect to be raised preflop you can expect much better implied odds if you do hit your hand than in a structured-limit game. Does this logic hold up?
3. Preflop raises
I wanted to be conservative because I was underbankrolled, but my first few hands included QQ and KK, and i raised the max. with both. I've heard that it's usually best to raise the max, and with a $3000 bankroll i might have done so always. In the end I decided it was best to pick something like $5 and stick to it so i wouldn't be tipping off my hand.
4. Postflop
Same considerations as before... the problem is, if you bet your really good hands for the max, then you've gotta bet your semibluffs for the max too (despite extremely loose starting hands, this game was semibluffable) -- semibluffing for $10 a round is a psychological hurdle when you're used to playing B&M 2/4 or 3/6! But of course a $10 bet will get people out where $2 or $5 or $7 might not.
Anyway, my feeling is that spread-limit is substantially more complex than fixed limit, unless you want to just ignore that part of it and bet the max each time. At the bottom i'll post a link to a thread with some material about spread limits. Also Sklansky and Malmuth have a bit about spread limits in HEPFAP.
Finally, the most bizarre spread limit i've heard of was in Casino Arizona near Phoenix -- apparently their tribal gaming compact forbids no-limit hold 'em, so they play $5-$150 or some such instead! /images/graemlins/smile.gif
_________
Here's the link. Unfortunately, the bulletin board seems to parse the link tags wrong, which was making my post way too wide! Took me a while to pare this down to a reasonably-sized link:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Number=1275704
Last night I played in a quasi-home game that was 2-10 spread limit hold 'em: blinds of $1/$2, and each round betting or raising any integer from $2 to $10. I've only played 2-10 once before, and didn't do too well in a very short session, but last night I made out OK. I probably won't be back there soon because of bankroll issues (I went the first time more from curiosity), but it made me wonder about spread-limit:
1. Bankroll issues
The 300 BBet mantra is fine and dandy, but what do you use as the big bet? $10, for a bankroll requirement of $3000? That's probably slightly conservative but the variance of 2-10 is probably more similar to $5/$10 than $2/$4, at least with last nights' opponents.
2. Starting hand requirements
I wondered this when playing the 1-3 at the Excalibur in Vegas, too -- If the game is sufficiently passive, can't you limp in with much worse hands, like suited queens or medium suited semiconnectors out of position? The idea is, as long as you don't expect to be raised preflop you can expect much better implied odds if you do hit your hand than in a structured-limit game. Does this logic hold up?
3. Preflop raises
I wanted to be conservative because I was underbankrolled, but my first few hands included QQ and KK, and i raised the max. with both. I've heard that it's usually best to raise the max, and with a $3000 bankroll i might have done so always. In the end I decided it was best to pick something like $5 and stick to it so i wouldn't be tipping off my hand.
4. Postflop
Same considerations as before... the problem is, if you bet your really good hands for the max, then you've gotta bet your semibluffs for the max too (despite extremely loose starting hands, this game was semibluffable) -- semibluffing for $10 a round is a psychological hurdle when you're used to playing B&M 2/4 or 3/6! But of course a $10 bet will get people out where $2 or $5 or $7 might not.
Anyway, my feeling is that spread-limit is substantially more complex than fixed limit, unless you want to just ignore that part of it and bet the max each time. At the bottom i'll post a link to a thread with some material about spread limits. Also Sklansky and Malmuth have a bit about spread limits in HEPFAP.
Finally, the most bizarre spread limit i've heard of was in Casino Arizona near Phoenix -- apparently their tribal gaming compact forbids no-limit hold 'em, so they play $5-$150 or some such instead! /images/graemlins/smile.gif
_________
Here's the link. Unfortunately, the bulletin board seems to parse the link tags wrong, which was making my post way too wide! Took me a while to pare this down to a reasonably-sized link:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Number=1275704