the waiting game

is it normal to have to wait and wait and wait for a good hand in low limit??? ... i mean i see all these morons raise and raise and drag all these pots ... how can they all have good hands ... im used to nl tournaments where you have an array of moves you can make .... is limit .. especially low limit much more straight foward?.. is it a waiting game as well??? im really struggling here i need some help.

try playing another table

[Harv72b]

Limit HE is basically a game of math and patience, and of course of having the discipline to stick to the first two. It can be frustrating or even boring at times, but it is usually very profitable when played correctly.

Is it normal to have to wait and wait and wait for a good hand? Of course--the same is true in NL or Omaha or any other poker game. What separates the good players from the bad (especially in limit games) is being able to wait for those good hands, and not pressing just to get into the action. I folded my first 23 hands preflop on one table tonight, then saw A9 suited to spades from UTG+2. Folded to me, and...I folded. Because A9s isn't good enough to play from EP on the kind of table I was sitting on.

These "morons" who "raise and raise" and win "all these pots" aren't always going to be morons. If they can raise with impunity and nobody will spend the bets to call them down, then it would be moronic not to raise. If you're talking about more than one opponent, then they may not actually be raising all that often. Especially when you get into true small stakes where the games get more aggressive, you'll find that nearly every pot is raised preflop. Why? Because nearly every deal, someone has a hand that is good enough to raise with, whether because it's truly strong, they are in a good position to steal the blinds, or they just see that the table is playing tight/weak and they aren't likely to be challenged unless someone else has a truly big hand. Incidentally, it's very bad to think of your opponents as being "morons". Even if they are, in the most literal sense of the word, you can't think of them that way. Think of them as your customers, because just like the owner of your local drug store makes money off of little old ladies who think they have a severe case of everything, you (should) make money off of bad poker players who just can't stand folding.

Low limit hold'em basically is a pretty straightforward game. There are exceptions to that rule, of course, and part of doing well at the game is being able to recognize them and take advantage, but for the most part your opponents are going to be betting with a strong hand and calling or folding without one. It gets trickier as you move up in limits.

A waiting game? Generally, yes, especially if you're playing against full tables. The fewer opponents you have involved in a hand, the more you can loosen up your starting standards. To the point where, in a heads up match, you can play nearly everything. This is also the basic premise which allows you to loosen up your raising standards when it is folded to you in late position on a full table--the fewer opponents you face who have yet to act, the less likely it becomes that someone has a strong hand and therefore the more likely it becomes that you can get them to fold. Just like in NL, only you have to convince them to fold with smaller bets.