[MMMMMM]

Hi Mason,

First off, two things seem intuitively obvious: that one must tighten up a lot in early position in a time pot, and that raising from the cutoff or button should have a better chance of stealing the blinds (assuming the blinds are decent players--if they are very loose players or are newbies, trying to steal would probably be terrible;-)).

The more difficult aspect of the question seems to be whether one should open-limp or open-raise when in early or middle position (if one is going to play). Of course, I can't think of too many hands I would like to play from early position in a time pot;-)

By raising a premium hand early, you make it more likely that you will win uncontested, but if you do get played with, you may find yourself wishing that you had instead called in order to encourage others to enter the time pot (odds). If the table is loose I would not be as inclined to raise early position.

All in all, my feeling is to tend to tighten up overall, and to raise less early position. Since you will be tightening up overall, and since raising from steal position against decent players should have a better than usual chance of success, perhaps those two factors approximately cancel each other out--meaning it might be right to play about the same as normally from the cutoff and button if you are against decent players. However in this case I would still alter my stealing frequency in accordance with how I perceived the blinds' proclivity to defend.

By the way, I usually prefer to pay my own time (except at a very loose table) in order to avoid having to deal with just such considerations, and because I don't like to feel that I should be folding far more often than usual, thereby depriving me of some chances to outplay certain players. I am interested in your take on the whole thing, and whether you generally prefer time pots or to pay your own time.

One advantage I see in paying one's own time is that many other players will be altering their play due to the time pot and it may be possible to take advantage of this. For instance, if you pay your own time while everyone else does a time pot, you may be able to steal more liberally but without the accompanying penalty.