LAG game hand selection

[DavidC]

In a $2/$5 homegame in town, flops are often 6-8 way capped.

The flop is loose passive to loose-aggressive (dep on who's in it), and the turn and river are almost universally loose passive to tightish passive (calling standards: any pair, even multi-way, unless it's raised).

Question 1)
Am I going to experience higher variance here than at the 2/4 or .5/1 game on party? (I would think so, though I would expect to make more at the home game.)

Question 2)
What kind of hands should I be looking to play in a 6-way capped pre-flop?

(My guess: AA-TT, AK-AJ, AKs-ATs, KQs, QJs.)

Question 3)
How important is my position? Are there any hands that I would play in LP that I would not play in EP in this game?

[DavidC]

... bump.

I don't think that SSHE specifically addresses this kind of game.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[einbert]

I believe HEPFAP addresses a very similar situation. According to it, you can probably profitably enter those pots even with pairs and suited connectors (since they have high implied odds in large multiway pots), but your variance will be much lower if you stick to AK and AA-JJ. Your variance in this game is going to be relatively high regardless (much higher than any party games I think), but the game should be more profitable over the long term. Maybe not per hour, but certainly per 100 hands.

[Harv72b]

I was going to give that answer earlier, but then I started thinking about the rest of his post...the players tend to get a lot tighter after the flop, so even if he hits his draw he's not guaranteed a huge payoff, or at least, not big enough to offset all the times he pays 4 SBs to enter the pot but doesn't hit (or has to call to the river with a strong draw that doesn't make it).

If the other players are routinely throwing away hands like TP after being raised postflop, it would seem that you could get away with some bluffs in this game.

TOP addresses playing in games where the late streets are much more expensive than the early ones, but I'm not sure if the jump from $2 to $5 really qualifies.

[einbert]

I think he'll make a lot just from PF equity by sticking to AK and AA-JJ. If he includes the drawing hands, the times he makes a flush draw or OESD he'll surely be able to bet them for value and many of the players will be forced to call on the flop with weaker draws and hands like middle pair because of the size of the pot. If they don't (correctly) call with these holdings, a lot of bluffing and semibluffing after the flop is called for. I guess the problem is that at least one person will make a semistrong holding on the flop and call down with that, which could indeed be problematic.

I think if you fold everything but AA-JJ and AKs and simply value bet the hell out of your big pairs and big draws you'll be a big winner in this game. I think the variance and basic waiting nature of the game would be boring and generally not fun, but the game would be very profitable. Your PF equity is huge and compared to it, you are paying almost nothing in blinds to wait for hands to play--similar in practice to playing a game with a kill I guess.

[PokerMike]

My local 10/20 plays like this, which is great, but the swings are painful. If you understand the concepts discussed in SSH/HEPFAP then you should do well in this game, even though it is not specifically discussed at length in the books.
Also the type of LAG's in my local game aren't really that laggy. What i mean is they'll do wierd/retarded shit preflop like limp-reraise with QTo, cap with K4s etc... but they just turn into calling stations postflop.

[DavidC]

Thanks for your comments, all of you.

(And cool Av, pokermike!)