Q about extreme ante structure

[notAtAllPro]

In my country there are only a few casinos where I can find a poker game and none of them is really low limit. I am doing quite well on limits up to 5/10$ online.

The smallest real game I can find within 2 hours driving distance is 10-20 split limit 7CS high only - with 5 ante and 5 forced bet, giving a pot of 4.5 SB before the first player decides to call the bringin or to complete the bet. I am studying all the fine books but nowhere did I find a reference to such an extremely structured game.

On the first night I was in that game it seemed that I was the only player at the table who threw a hand away on 3rd street when it was less than two raises to call cold ;-)

My question now is: how loose should one play on third street ? Are those "wild players" even playing correctly when they call two cold with any old rubbish they like [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] ?

I can see that it is wrong to wait for the few premium hands in this game because the ante will eat up my stack and big pairs lose some value because the action is almost always four-way or more (and often with capped betting on 3rd).
I can tell that ante stealing is not an option - you will not steal the pot for one small bet or one raise as there will always be some people who get the right odds to defend.

How should I approach this wild game ?
(If you think I should find another game - the only ones I know of are all 7CS high only: 30-60 5 ante 10 bringin, 50-100 10 ante 20 bringin and pot limit 10 ante 20 bringin)

thanks in advance for all your thoughts [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[thebroker]

save your money up for the $30-60 game.

[Michael Davis]

You should probably raise near every hand in an attempt to eliminate players. If the hand is dead, you should still fold. But junk live hands are probably playable.

Mike

[Andy B]

Holy f'in wow, Batman, that's one big ante you got there. If you can steal that ante, by all means do so. If you can knock players out early, do so. It sounds like you can't though. In an ordinary game, there will be times where you'll raise in order to get people to fold. If you're in a game where people won't fold, don't raise for that reason. Tend to raise only when you think you have the best hand and you want to get more money into the pot.

If the game is loose, you are probably going to have to show down the best hand. Thus, you probably shouldn't loosen up as much as you may think. Paying $5 a hand may seem excessive, but chasing hands that aren't worth it is only going to make it all the more excessive. Just know that when you do get a big hand, you should get paid off handsomely.

With the pots that big that early, I don't think I'd slow play, even first in with rolled-up Aces.