Is This a Valid Strategy?

[etgryphon]

Alright Fellas,

I play at this home game every week. It really for fun and I am the best player by far at the table. It is a table of all calling stations and ULTRA-Passive. It is regular thing that we have family pots. You can barely scare people out of hands, so what I usually do is raise A LOT PF with my good hands in late positions because if people limp they are at about %90 call rate for any raise. They routinely play second or third pair on the flop as if it was the nuts. It really a great game, the only problem is that there is not enough money in play (.1/.2 NL).

So here is my question on viable strategy...Since, there is so much calling at this game and WEAK bets. It seem like it is right to play almost every hand. Is there a benefit to doing a minraise PF with speculative Suited Connectors to bloat the pot because you will possible get to see the turn for free or a very small BB bet?

Example: ( 10 people playing)

9 people see the flop for BB ( pot 9BB )
I get middle pair with 97s, someone min-bets 1BB
5 calls (14BB)

What if I bumped it PF to 2BB in late position got 8 calls (Pot = 18BB) then I can basically play up to 2BB+ bet on pure pot odds for the turn card and the implied odds are through the roof.

Is this a viable strategy to minraise PF with speculative hands because you KNOW that you are going to get a lot of calls and very little action on the flop?

-Gryph

[pho75]

It seems like you would be building up the pot with the worst hand or close to it, and that can't be good can it?

[etgryphon]

Not really...

It is garenteed to be not the best hand PF. I'm not advocating doing this with all hands just SC up to one or two gappers in LP. Easy to dump if you don't connect but pays off big against a table of calling stations if you play. The minraise PF is sort of a semi-bluff attempt to make playing later easier. I'm risking 2% of my stack and can be getting checked to on the flop or calling a small BB bet with 12+:1 odds for the turn. These guys will regularly betting 1BB into a 10BB+ with 5+ people in it as if it would chase anyone out.

-Gryph

[pho75]

But if you make your small raise and just one person folds you will have done two things that ARE bad for you, in order to get one that MIGHT be good.

Will be bad for you:
1. You will have cut down your immediate odds on your speculative hand.

2. Since there is one less person in the pot, you will have also cut down your implied odds if you do hit you hand.

Might be good or you:
1. You may get to see a cheap turn.


It just looks like you loose more that you gain. Does that sound right?

[NatalieR]

I play in a very similar home game every couple weeks.
It is completely different from online but almost exactly
how you describe.

The first few nights I played TAG and lost because the
calling stations would routinely suck me out. Then
I changed strategy. I now play every hand. Good hands
I still raise pf, along with random raises of tricky
hands like 67s, 68s, 33, etc. But my pf raises aren't
enough to shrink the number of calling players much.
(I might raise 3-6BB).

Then I sit back and wait. If I hit 2 pair or better
on the flop, or I have a monster draw, I charge the calling
stations to the river with unusually large bets.
Anything less, I play very timidly. Occaisionally,
I let myself get caught in an outrageous bluff.

Funny thing is, my table image is of a crazy bluffer.
They seem to base this on the size of my bets and
the occasional bluff I show, and they ignore that my
money is made by repeatedly showing down monsters
on the river. Also, nobody seems to notice that I play
every hand, or at least it's not unusual to them since
they play most hands too.

One reason I think this approach works better in this
setting is because the number of hands dealt during
our 3hr session is quite small. If I play tight,
I'm going to end up playing only a very small number
of hands in the whole night, and it won't be enough for
the long-term averages to punish those who would suck
me out. By playing every hand, I'm guaranteed to be
in the action whenever that monster flop finally comes.
Then I make them pay.

I usually walk away with the entire stack of at least
half the players at the table. Of course, this approach
online (or with better live players) would quickly make
me broke.

The main problem I have with this strategy is the worry
that they'll stop inviting me to play.