[MisterKing]

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How large was the ante compared to the initial bet? I'm guessing, since almost everyone saw the flop, that the ante was one-half the size of the small bet. That's pretty crazy. Was this limit or no-limit? I'm going to assume limit - this would be truly insane as a no-limit game. Also, I'm assuming the game is hold'em (at first I thought the game was "wako" which I was unfamiliar with [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ).

Let's see if I can figure this out.

Any player who folds preflop when there is no raise is making a mistake, I think. It may even be a mistake not to call a single raise.

Most players will have odds to play deep into the hand. Unless the board is very scary and there is heavy action postflop, you are going to want to take almost any decent draw or made hand to the river. This is almost like a hot-and-cold simulation.

If you get lucky and find yourself in this game with weak players, you should make money. But this type of game is a loose-passive player's dream, so prepare to lose to some crazy drawing hands that call you all the way.

It would actually be hard to play this game correctly by being the aggressor. Since most of your opponents are getting the proper odds for their draws, protecting your hand with bets and raises isn't going to be correct in the long run. In this game, bets and raises are used to get money into the pot since you'll almost never be able to deny proper pot odds.

I could be completely off-base here, so don't take this for much than conjecture.

Regards,

T

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Sklansky's TOP informs us of the proper strategy where the blinds and antes are large relative to the bets. Hero should loosen his starting hand requirements substantially, as Sheridan has pointed out. Calling two cold preflop now becomes much less of an issue. More importantly, hero should shift the mix of hands he is prepared to play AWAY from offsuit high cards (e.g. KTo) and TOWARDS sooted connectors and other draw-heavy hands (e.g. A2s, 46s). Small pairs will probably also become playable in almost every situation, since you'll nearly always have the odds to draw to a flopped set. Essentially, you want hands that play well multiway and will benefit from all the extra money in the pot/going into the pot...

Google "Morton's Theorem" if you want -- it explains very nicely certain multiway situations when the FTOP doesn't apply. FTOP says that when player A makes a mistake, it benefits player B who is holding the best hand. But in situations covered by Morton's Theorem, player A's mistaken call benefits not Player B with the best hand, but Player C with the best DRAW. Miller covers this somewhat in SSH as well. So you want to be draw happy in this uber loose game, and in fact, when you have the best of it early on in the hand (say with nut 4 flush on non paired board, or OESD to the nuts), you'll want to raise and re-raise to cash in your equity overlay. With 6 opponents in a hand where you have 8+ untainted outs to the nuts, you have a HUGE equity overlay (since you "own" about 20% of the pot, but are "paying" only 14% with each bet).

Proper strategy in these games will lead to massive variance, but fantastic results if your opponents play poorly.