I might be WAAAAAY off base here...

[Ironman]

The other night I'm playing at 1/2 UB when all of a sudden I'm dealt

2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

in an early to middle position.

I threw it away as fast as my little hands could get to the button. I don't think I've ever played trips in my life, I wasn't going to start now with this miserable hand.

Then...I started to think about it while I watched the play unfold.

What if I raised instead. Hmmm. I'm representing the A 2 which surely, it is very unlikely anyone has.

What if I changed the 10 to an 8 or lower? Would that make it more appealing to anyone so that when the low does come, then it's not a complete bluff.

2 2 2 3 becomes a very powerful raising hand.

Ok, I still probably don't try it unless I'm in late position with no limpers ahead of me.

I am perfectly willing to hear from everyone that this is the craziest thing ever. Just thinking out loud.

Dave

[grandgnu]

You made the right play. Bluffing rarely works in low limit games like that, and you don't have much of a hand that you can make.

Even if you represent A/2 for a low, the board might come high cards or someone may chase their straight or flush, etc. And you don't have a low going for you, period.

Now, playing like this is perfectly acceptable if you're against me in a pot, since I'll take your money. w00t!

[Ironman]

Ha! Yeah. I agree with you.

But I could see an early position raise of this hand and getting 1 or two callers with some high cards.

If low cards hit...then you bet out.

In the end, the reason you probably don't do this with anything but 2 2 2 4 or better is because there isn't much of a pot and it's not worth it to take the risk.

I still like it with the low cards though 2 2 2 4 or less.

Dave

[HajiShirazu]

The problem with this is that in most of the games I play in, even though I basically only raise with A2 and AA + wheel card, people continue to cold call with A4Q9 and KJT2 and the like, and then these people chase any low draw and any straight/flush draw to the river for any number of bets.

[GooperMC]

It might work if everyone is paying attention but if you are at a table where that is the case I would suggest finding a different table.

The vast majority of the time I play ABC poker and anybody paying attention could really narrow down my possible holding yet only a few players seem to be paying attention. For example I am playing A23 in LP and I raise. The flop comes all low, checked to me I bet. Turn checked to me I bet. River checked to me I bet. I am screaming nut low with my play and people still call me with A3, 23, A4 and other garbage.

All it takes is one calling station to ruin a bluff and there are a ton of calling stations playing O8.

[muse21]

This is the same basic idea as snowing in lowball draw or 2-7 KC lowball draw. In fact, Doyle Brunson says in Supersystem part 1 that he has never failed to snowball w/ 4 deuces.

The problem here is that it's a split-pot game and there is, of course, incentive to play for the high half of the pot. If someone flops a decent high in a three-way pot especially, they aren't going anywhere, and you're screwed. Hell, it's hard enough to get half the pot when you actually do have the A2!

The looseness of the UB 1-2 is overated. While it can be a good game, it can also be very rocky. This play may actually work on these tables, but I wouldn't bother. Limit poker is about saving bets.

By the way, this idea works well in triple draw. I have stood pat with hands that contain trips/quads of key cards (aces and deuces in A-5 and deuces in 2-7) with great success.

[dcasper70]

IMO, anything worse than 2224 is a waste at low limits. There just seems to be too many people who play mediocre low hands and just don't know enough to fold to what you're representing. I would suppose this would work at higher limits enough to be profitable, but that's just a guess from someone still stuck on the fifty cent tables... [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
I like 2223, and would probably play it in good circumstances.

[Wintermute]

You adjusted the thinking cap you got on a little too tight, man.