.25/.50 small table question

[FreakDaddy]

Hello everyone. I'm still a fairly new player to the game and I recently decided to try playing online after a buddy convinced to give it a go. I've played for about a year in Vegas(once a month) at $2/$4 tables and I've done pretty well, but I know there are lots of holes in my game.

My question is this, when playing online at .25/.50 or .50/1 I've noticed how amazingly loose these games were. I've read several people talk about this, but I couldn't believe how open these games are. If you're playing on a table with say 5-6 people in these loose games, how much should you deviate your normal pre-flop play to see consistent action while still winning? Ex: I wouldn't normally play Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] from middle position, but is it that bad to call these hands in these games?

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

[Sasnak]

Q9s would be close to the lower end for me, J9s I'm not comfortable with at all. K9s I'll go with. I try to stay close to the 2 suited cards of T an above in MP and maybe go with the suited paint/9 in LP.

If you haven't yet, grab a copy of SSHE. I'm about ready for my second copy and I sent my son a copy for Christmas.

[milesdyson]

Are you talking about shorthanded tables when you say "small" tables?

Anyway, 2/4 in Vegas is looser than .50/1 or 1/2 online. I play .50/1 and an above average table has a 40% VPIP, whereas in live poker, say 1/2 or 2/4 here in Southern California or 2/4 in Vegas, the VPIP is usually higher than that.

[FreakDaddy]

Yes, I have SSHE and it's a good book. It's helped me calculate pot and implied odds better, but everything else I've learned from just playing games at home or playing in Vegas. The book doesn't go into situational play too much, so I thought I'd ask people who have experience with online play what they think since I have a whoping one day of experience. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[FreakDaddy]

Yes I mean shorthanded tables. Well, I don't have enough experience online to compare the two, but $2/$4 in Vegas is pretty loose. My friend suggested that I play .25/.50 and see what I think and then try .50/1. He said the same thing basically as you though and he thought .50/1 was slightly tighter than Vegas $2/$4.

Do you have any feedback about my question because I don't have enough online experience to know if I should play those hands or not? I would sometimes play them in Vegas, depending on the table. I just don't know about online.

[2thy]

I am not blessed with much online experience, either, but Q9s middle is not a bad play in a 'middle of the road' game. If you expect frequent raises/rerai behind you, then I would give it up. Obviously, if you don't luv the flop, wait for the next one. I have played limit hold-em a long time, I'm just a newbie on the net. The best lesson I ever learned is; 'There is always a next hand".

[FreakDaddy]

Thanks for the response. It doesn't SEEM bad, but every chart I see seems to advise against it. If nothing came on the flop I drop the hand of course, but I'm curious to snuff out any holes in my online gaming experience before they become bad habits. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]