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My local casino has closed its poker room for renovations, so I decided to drive a couple hours and play some $1/2 NLH with some new folks.
What I noticed was an unbelievable amount of limping from all positions, with no real aggression (some exceptions).
A typical hand would go…. limp, limp, limp, limp… I’d open ($12 to $17 depending on limpers) from mid to late position… call, call, call, call, call.
In situations where there was an early position open, and a few callers… I was inclined to flat call rather than 3-bet in position with the majority of my standard range.
This made it extremely difficult to put anyone on a range… and that combined with me whiffing on flop after flop after flop, made for a VERY frustrating experience.
C-bet frequency of about 50-60% I’d say…
Another 25% of the time someone would donk bet.
I felt as though I should have been crushing these tables, but with being mostly card dead for my two 8-10 hour sessions, and not managing to connect with the board, it was a rough couple days.
Perhaps I should have been 3-betting more frequently; even with mid-pairs and suited connectors.
I’d like some advice on how to deal with soft games like this.
Thanks much!
MattTight range ,and bigger sizes when iso the limpers that’s my advice from experience ,I think that 3b with middle pairs and suited connectors wouldn’t work,and postflop abc with bigger sizes.
Tighten up your range, open larger, and 3-bet larger in position. This should narrow the field heading into the flop, and better define their ranges. Play with your open bet size to find a level where you can accomplish this. This can vary by room, opponents, time of day, and a number of other factors.
Most of these players want to see a cheap flop, so don’t make it so easy for them.
Also, take extra special note of those players that limp very strong hands. For instance in the room I play, I know of a couple players that will limp with AK, AQ, QQ on down. You will need to be mindful of that if you are against them post-flop. On the other hand, those same players will only open KK, AA, they are easy to play against if I see them opening pre-flop.
I sort of disagree. These games play more like home games in that guys just want to play hands.
The problem with raising big is one of two things – either you still get a ton of callers because 10x is only $20, or everyone folds and you win the blinds. You end up burning off a lot of your stack because it’s hard to continue when you miss and there are 3 or more callers. Maybe this depends on the table, and maybe it has changed over the years, but this is my experience in the lowest limit games. I used to play these games often, and it really made me a worse player.
Honestly, if you sit down at these games, it’s almost more about playing it like a home game and making hands post flop. Play your pocket pairs, play your suited connectors, etc. Don’t bother bluffing and don’t bother trying to hero call – it’s all about making hands and getting paid.
And someone else had a good point – some players will limp their entire range, even AA. I’ve seen guys limp AA in multi-way pots from the blinds (and then complain when they predictably get cracked), and do this more than once in a session. It’s easy to spot these players if you’re semi-experienced, but just know that they are out there.
Similar experience myself (in terms of game size and style) recently. I would have normally done what Tosho and Saul advised. I decided to change it up and did closer to what John advised. Played it like a no fold’em home game, not raising unless I had it and being mindful any two cards are in play at any time. No bluffing, no hero calling and shoving when I had the nuts – because you get paid off in a no fold’em. This isn’t poker to me and I would have chosen an option that is not discussed that is leaving and playing a better game later. Sometimes you just want to sit and play some cards. I took an approach that was results oriented to determine my quitting time (either up or down cash amount). A cautionary note is that I don’t recommend this for certain players because you have to understand this isn’t poker with thinking players and bad habits can be created and reinforced resulting in bad play down the road.
Hey Matt, I totally understand bro, it’s insanely frustrating. Back when I was playing poker on the regular I would stick to 5/10 and loved it. You could play strategy and make moves and it was great. When some major life changes occurred for me and I was stuck to 1/2, it made me crazy it’s basically 4/8 limit with red chips. Everyone called everything and the thing I realized is a lot of 1/2 players only really thought in the short term for a fun night or we’re old farts playing with retirement money. One thing that helped me survive was to try to think on their level as best as I could, kinda like playing with friends for “poker night” $20 buy in. It helped me for 1/2 but then made it a little hard to transition back to 2/5.
I would also just recommend playing free online poker for practice and study like crazy and plan a poker trip for some 2/5 or 5/10. Best of luck to you bro.
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