Foxwoods 1/2 NL - First experience

[ZPinhead]

I went and sat 1/2 NLHE at Foxwoods today and was pretty surprised/confused and I'm hoping some of y'all can straighten me out.

Background: I play a fair amount of online NL (2-4 hours per day) at the low stakes level (.25/.50 & .50/$1) and do pretty well generally. PT has be rated as a SLAG but working on tightening my game up. I haven't played much B&M. Just some card room tourys and homegames in the Seattle area.

I travel to CT every couple of months so I thought I go sit 1/2NL (and 5/5 depending on how I did) at Foxwoods because I always hear how fishy the action is.

I sat today and the one thing that struck me was that the amounts of the raises seemed pretty out there compared to what I'm used to online (UB). If someone raised PF it was usually at least 5xBB, usually higher and Flop+ raising was usually pot to all-in. I caught some better than so-so cards the first couple of hands (it was a new table so no chance to watch the action) and got raised out by the flop (didn't catch anything worth an all-in call) which all but killed my stack. Played another couple of orbits waiting for a premium hand, caught one and ran into someone with a better one. I thought about reloading, but I'll have a chance to get over there later in the week, so I wanted to do come analysis and review to better plan my strategy.

My question is should you basically play (at least the 1/2NL tables) like $25/NL on PartyPoker (ie: supertight and expecting to get badbeats 1 out of 5 played hands) or did I just get a bad table (none of the guys seemed particularly fishy to me and in fact at least 4 were chatting it up and sounded like regulars) or am I just and idiot and should go 'work on my game'?

Any input would be appreciated. (please try to be at least a little kind).

Thanks.

[Autocratic]

From what I know about B&M, that is a fairly typical experience. You rarely hear about a tight table, and raises aren't at all related to blind sizes.

[BigRedAce]

I just had my first 1/2 NL experience in Vegas so here's what I saw (from Golden Nugget, Bally's, Trop- but that was a $1/$5/NL game):

- The preflop raise amount varied a lot but was rarely less than 5x BB. There were some tables where there was a lot of passivity and you could get a look for $2.

- Postflop bets were usually in the range of $10 to the pot. $25-$100 bets were pretty common.

Anyway, I was as surprised as you were by these huge pre-flop raises. My first hand I made the comment "overbet the pot a bit, huh?" but as it turns out, this was pretty standard.

All-in-all though, I found $1/2NL *much* more fun than limit hold'em (up to $5-10 it's a toilet bowl of suck-outs).

[Hotrod0823]

Were most players at the table a while before you got there?

I played on Sunday and it was a "new" table. All 10 players had 100.00 starting stacks so it took a while to get into full swing. Lots and lots of 2.00 looks. I took advantage when I could and played a lot more hands than I normally would have because I was seeing the flop realatively cheaply.

As the day went on I had grown to a rather large stack ~500-600 and was able to play more aggressively PF. Raises to 10-15 were pretty standard but there was the occassional limp round. Hitting hands made it a bit easier to play but I imagine that if you have just sat with 100 and there are a bunch of 200-300 stacks at the table you have to be more selective. But you should also note that the large stacks aren't necessarily only peddling the nuts.

I found the game rather enjoyable. Helps when you are winning though.

Hotrod

[ZPinhead]

It was a new table, so everyone had $100. Don't think I saw one limping hand and PF raises were $10-$20. With only $100 that kind of play seemed like it there wasn't much room to move. I felt like I was way short stacked right from the get go.

Again, maybe its just naive me being the 'sucker' at the table that took more than 15 minutes to figure it out. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[celticGreen]

The way you describe the game seems to be on-target, in that it is usually played that way. I sit at this game 1-3 times a week and generally try to play fairly tight/aggressive. Generally, unless I have a premium hand I'll throw it away aside from a few limp-ins with bad hands in LP (so my tightness isn't as obvious). It's a great game once you get a nice stack going (and a read on the table).

-Josh

[IgorSmiles]

Until Foxwoods allows the buyin to be $250 or at least $200, like every other baby nl game in America, that is going to be the texture of that game. And yes, play it just like a party $25, dont bother bluffing and dont be afraid to play top pair top kick for all your money. The 5/5 game allows for more strategy.

[ZPinhead]

Thanks for the input.

[belloc]

[ QUOTE ]
All-in-all though, I found $1/2NL *much* more fun than limit hold'em (up to $5-10 it's a toilet bowl of suck-outs).

[/ QUOTE ]

Or, it's a shimmering platter of profitable bets. If you'd rather have people calling your bets when they *do* have the odds to make their hand, more power to you.

But if you're like me, and you like getting your money in when you have the best of it (regardless of any particular outcome), then you'll put up with the occasional suckout (even when it seems to happen all night long) and joyfully watch as people call you down with their underpairs, gutshots, and every two cards in the deck, which does nothing in the long run but line your pockets with chips.

But you knew that.