what about spread limit games?

[ImCrazy]

I am a newbie here and to poker and I have not been able to find very much info on spread limit. the only live game near me is in Wendover, NV where the game is either 1-5 spread or 2-5 spread with a kill. What I want to know is what strategy changes do you make for a game like this. Do you tighten up more, or loosen up? do you defend your blinds more? I know alot of it has to do with my opponents, image, etc. but purely based on the game what changes do you make? do you make additional changes on games with a kill? are they more advantageous to luck players or skill players? Thanks for your help..

[bobbyi]

A $1-5 spread limit game is much more similar to a limit game than a no limit game. However, it differs from a limit game in some important ways. Here are some ideas:
1) If you can see the flop the minimum, you can play a lot of hands. For example, in a $1-5 game, if you can see the flop for only $1 and you flop something big, you can now charge people $5 for the next three rounds. In a regular limit game, say $1/2, you would pay the same amount to see the flop but would only be able to charge your opponents $1 and $2 bets if you flopped a monster. So it is worth playing some real longshot hands if you can get in for the minimum and hope to hit the flop hard (be careful not to lose a lot of money if you catch only a small piece of the flop).
2) If you limp in for $1 with a weak hand and someone raises $5, you will often need to fold. This is different than in a regular limit hand where after limping you would never fold for a single raise.
3) Unless you have a very good reason not to, when you are betting or raising, you should always bet or raise the maximum. Your opponents will probably fail to do this, and this is where some of your edge will come from.
4) In a $1-5 game, plays like raising the flop for a free turn card or slowplaying until the turn with a monster are much less useful than in regular limit because the bets on the turn are the same size as on the flop.
5) You will need to keep track of how many dollars are in the pot and do some math to figure out what pot odds you are getting at any given point. This is more difficult than in limit where you can just count how many bets have went in (since they are a fixed size).

[ImCrazy]

so, if you were in this game would you add all pocket pairs (paticularly 22-66) , and suited A's and K's to your preflop hands in EP since using your logic you could try to get in for cheap and then fold the worse of these when max raised? Or would you stay disciplined to your structured game preflop requirements?

[GHL]

Some random obversations I have had playing in spread limit games in Vegas (mostly the 2-4 / 4-8 game at Luxor)...

When I am betting or raising I always make it the max. I consider it a 4/8 game..... this way it is harder to get a read on what you bet strong and what you beat weak..... it is a great feeling when a tight older player has bet the minimum for the last 3 days and all of a sudden bets out the max.... after 3 days!

Other players will not be doing this... giving you better drawing odds a lot of time when holding drawing hands like 56 suited and such... for example if you limp in late position for $2 and there were 5 callers... ($10 in the pot) and you flop an inside str draw... people will frequently bet out $2 giving you 6+:1 on your money.... maybe even 8:1 depending on how many callers are out there. This gives you a great oppourtunity for profitable semi-bluffs when you flop so mething better like an OESD + backdoor flush draw...

I think you should see a lot more cheap flops with hands like suited connectors and smaller pairs hoping to flop a big pay day.... because at a limit that low people will be paying off your hands with TPnK.

[BWillie]

I've also been playing spread limit at the boat in my area, ($2-$5). It depends on the limits to determine what preflop hands you should play, and of course who you are playing against. Obviously when I play $1-$5 or $2-$10, I'll play more flops than I would $2-$5 but I've found that in early position I stick to playing still pretty tight as in $3/$6 or other low limits, but exponentially playing looser as my position improves. In late position without a raise behind me, you can play all kinds of $hit, especially in a $2-$10 game.