Need Help with No Foldem Holdem

Okay so I play low limit internet games, as well as small tourneys wit friends. I call these games 'no foldem holdem' because 4+ see every flop (blinds never fold). I've been studying up on these types of games and have learned a little but was curious about your thoughts here at FTR.

There isn't a lot of lit around on these games IMO.

Some facts about games I play- really loose and mostly passive. Preflop basically any two, continue from flop with gutshot, mid pair hoping to get 2 pair, etc. Basically mix of calling stations, with some maniacs (agression w/o selection). If you have any general strategy for these games that would be great.

I play on a table like this weekly now, think Ive played about 10 games. Came first or second in all but one.

My advice is play as tight as you can relative to position. Always
make it expensive for them to call with their mediocre hands preflop if you have a decent hand. If you miss the flop pretty much always C-bet

When hitting a monster flop never check as these fish will likely call you down with top pair.

Some fish last week i played didnt even re-raise me with QQ preflop, then folded on a crap board like 352 lol

I think you have to make the standard adjustments to loose passive games which are reducing your bluffing frequency to only the most profitable and highest FE situations and value betting much thinner.

For example you may want to check back a lot of flops you miss instead of cbetting if your opponents are passive and going to call you with any piece of the flop. Also you should be betting top pair for value 2 or even 3 barrels if your opponents are going to call down with midpair. Finally you should rarely slowplay or try to be tricky. If you have a hand your line should be: bet, bet, bet.

Preflop strategy should be to get in cheap with speculative hands (good ones, not "any two") like suited connectors/gappers/small pps and make strong value raises with your good hands. If you play loose passive you're playing their style and trying to beat them at fish poker. Tight aggressive style dominates loose passive games.

Against maniacs you generally make a hand worth a showdown and just let them hang themselves. The wilder they are the lighter you can call down. TPTK looks really good when your opponent is routinely 3 barrel bluffing with air.

thx for the advice- yes i agree the speculative / drawing hands are good in loose passive. A lot of your advice makes sense. However- two questions:

1. If stacks are shallow, like 25-50M- how speculative do u wana get? at this level are we playing offsuit paint here or the small pp / sc's?

2. What do you think about gappers and 2-gappers (offsuit or suited)? Are these utter crap or playable?

opinions wanted and appreciated

Originally Posted by bigslikk

thx for the advice- yes i agree the speculative / drawing hands are good in loose passive. A lot of your advice makes sense. However- two questions:

1. If stacks are shallow, like 25-50M- how speculative do u wana get? at this level are we playing offsuit paint here or the small pp / sc's?

2. What do you think about gappers and 2-gappers (offsuit or suited)? Are these utter crap or playable?

opinions wanted and appreciated

I'm a bit different. I want to be aggressive, whether I'm on a table of calling stations or not. I just bluff less.

1. Preflop raise with AQ+ and 77+. Raise whatever amount it takes to get the pot to heads up or at most 3 way consistently. If that means a 15BB raise, so be it raise 15BB. If someone limp-pushes you call with AK, JJ+ I guess.

2. Heads up, you should cont bet only about 25% of the time you have a weak (less than TPGK hand). With AK, that means you'll bet with TPTK+ about 1/3 of the time and you'll bet a total of about 1/2 of the time. Any more cont betting is probably spewing, especially if you make the large preflop raise I suggested.

3. The objective of the game is to make TPGK+, bet 3 streets with it. If they show you a better hand, say "nh"

4. Call anywhere with all pocket pairs if there's gonna be 4 players in the pot. Call 1/10 * stack of PFR with a suited connector if there's 4 players in the pot already. Call 1/20 * stack of PFR with a gapped connector or if there's less than 4 players in the pot. If not a lot of raising pre flop, you can limp suited connectors. Sure it telegraphs your hand if you raise with 15BB with top 10% and suddenly limp. But they ain't good enough to exploit that. And if I have AT on the button, I can't raise you *even if* I've been observant and put you on 67s if another 5 players have limped in between.

Make money by
A) raising lots with good pre flop hands
B) betting 3 streets at least 3/4th pot and maybe pot with TPGK+. Bet whatever they'll call
C) hitting a set
D) playing a lot tighter than them