Half blinds starting hand adjustments?

Hi all,

Before I discovered this site I played a mixture of limit and NL at various stakes but wasn't very consistent. After discovering this site I decided to focus my live game energy on 2/4 limit and my online game time on .50/1 limit. I've now spent about 3 months hammering my local 2/4 game and I've decided to move up to 4/8 (BR is fine for 4/8).

One of the interesting differences in the 4/8 game at my local place is that the blinds are $1 and $2. That means you can limp into a hand for $2, or raise it to $6. I've only played that game 3 times now, but when the table is passive there seem to be lots of opportunities to see a flop for the $2 minimum. Does this mean I should limp with more hands than usual? The game overall is relatively tight (3-5 players max seeing the flop), so suited connectors and Axs types of hands are actually questionable in terms of pot odds, but I'm wondering if the cheap price to see the flop actually increases your implied odds enough to make limping with things like 45s profitable.

What I've been doing to this point is limping with the marginal hands and throwing them away if someone raises. In a normal blind structure game I would only fold to a single raise after limping preflop in really rare circumstances, but it seems to me in this game it might make more sense to play this way. Any thoughts?

Oh, btw, I've really been trying to take position into account on the 2/4 game, but it never seemed to matter much because the tables were so passive. In the 4/8 game I'm seeing how important position is and I'm glad I practiced being aware of it at 2/4. Smile

Thanks!

You certainly should be playing 22-55 UTG in this game.

Ok, I've been playing a bit too tight. Smile

I'm out of position in this case so I'm risking a raise behind me -- do I call it?

Thanks Fnord, I'll make those adjustments and go ahead and start playing a few more hands.

Normally I hate limping on the button...any hand that I would normally play I tend to play for a raise on the button. But with the half blinds you think it makes sense to limp with sketchy hands in case you hit something?

3-5 players seeing the flop in a 2/4 B&M game is a freakin' pipe dream at my local casino. It's more like 5-7 usually. Where do you play?

Yeah, I would prefer if the game were looser. The 2/4 game certainly is and I've done really well there over the last few months, but I'm hoping the combination of the slightly better players at 4/8 and tighter average table doesn't kill me. I've tightened up considerably during this transition (I'm about 17% VP$IP online and I would guess about the same at 2/4 -- but since moving up to 4/8 I've been trying to keep my variance low by tightening up even more), but I'm about to start adding these hands that Fnord recommended (at the risk of a bit more variance, I'm sure).

One of the really nice things about a very loose table is that it covers up a few of your mistakes (draws that would be seriously -EV in a tight game can get close to even money in a loose game). And while it sucks to get drawn out on, a lot of times you do the drawing out on people and that's fun. Smile

Brodie what casino are you playing in?

I think he means being afraid of multiple limpers is silly. Of course it's as good as it sounds. I hear this time and time again. Your not alone. A lot of people are frightened by a loose table with an increased suck out ratio.

When your at a table like this, to me you have to focus more on your own cards. I know that sounds weird, but your now playing for value. Only put your money in the middle when you have a great hand or your drawing to a great hand. TPTK is less powerful. Just make the appropriate adjustments and you'll dominate.

Have you ever played Super-Hold Em? It's like hold-em, except you are dealt three down cards. I play it with friends when it gets down to three handed, so that we can encourage action. It's great practice for loose games. You either have a straight or better brewing, or you fold to any heavy betting. I'm not saying it's exactly the same thing, but it's along the same lines as playing an extremely loose suck out game.

Hagakure:

It's just a local card room, not a casino...

Mike Caro discourages check raising in a game like this, where people are just "having fun". It makes you an unfriendly player in a friendly game, and makes it harder for them to give you thier chips.

Isn't schooling fun? Turns a bunch of really bad calls into marginally bad calls. TPTK-like hands go way down in value in these games. Sets and strong flush draws are where it's at.

Is it really 4/8 with 1/2 blinds or is it 1-4-8-8 spread limit? While they seem basically the same, there are enough nuances to spread limit to screw you over if you play your standard limit game. Like Fnord mentioned, you should limp in with small pocket pairs in EP that you might otherwise fold with larger blinds. You have to be more careful with draws though because there will be 1/2 he amount of money in the pot going to the flop as there would be if the blinds were 2/4. If 5 people limp into and see the flop and then someone bets $4 ($14 total pot minus rake) your 4 flush doesn't look as near as nice as when the pot is the $24 it would normally be.

Right, that's one of the things I was concerned about. I'm going to give limping with more hands a shot this weekend, though.

And yep, it really is 4/8 with half blinds. Weird, I know.

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Half blinds starting hand adjustments?