Patience and sticking to your Strategy

I know most of the people here play online a lot. I myself play online too but much prefer playing live games. It just seems more fun.

Now the thing I've noticed about playing live games is that you have to have a ton of patience in order to stick to any sort of strategy.

From my experience online playing SNG's you can easily play 50+ hands in around an hour. However in a home game with 10 guys all drinking, socializing, etc. we might take almost an hour to play 10-20 hands!

So one can easily sit there for an hour not even getting a chance to play a hand. Sometimes its even longer! I'll literally sit there for an hours and the best hand I'll see is a K8o. I'll sit and watch these guys trade their stacks back and forth playing just about anything. Guys will get busted and still have the nerve to razz me about not playing enough hands even though I still have a good stack in front of me.

I just find it interesting to see all these strategies for playing high ranking starting hands yet I can sit and play in a live game for 5 hours and see maybe one or two of these.

So my question for you guys is when playing live games do you ever have to loosen your play just to compete? Its frustrating sitting around for good hands. I'll wait for an hour and get dealt QQ only to have the flop come AAK and multiple people are playing it aggressively. :? Or better yet play tight for hours then just out of boredom start playing some marginal hands and piss away most of my stack. That's when I'll get dealt AA when I don't have any chips to make it profitable.

My success rate has been pretty good at my home games. I've been in the money 13 times out of 28 games. I sometimes just feel like I'm missing out playing so tight. Is this just the way it is?

Any thoughts, Anyone?

It sounds like you may be playing a bit over tight. Suited connectors, Ax suited hands, and hands like that also make for playable hands, especially with position. And really, in a weak game, on the button without a preflop raise, I'll call with some very average hands, and try to steal the pot if its checked around to me. Weaker hands are playable, you just have to be careful with them, and not assume your bottom pair is high.

And with your tight image you should be able to steal some pots, unless these guys are complete maniacs that'll always call you.

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Originally Posted by ShadySully

So my question for you guys is when playing live games do you ever have to loosen your play just to compete? Its frustrating sitting around for good hands. I'll wait for an hour and get dealt QQ only to have the flop come AAK and multiple people are playing it aggressively. :?

Any thoughts, Anyone?

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You are playing a tournament? This is what it sounds like. The number of hands shouldn't change. You are still playing with approx the same amount of chips and should have approx the same amount of hands until the end of the game.

My suggestion for brightening up the experience, be social. Talk. Gab. Chat. Drink. (we have a house rule, if you misdeal, you have to take a shot. I have misdelt on purpose just to get drunker faster) Laugh. Enjoy the time. Also, while you are doing this, play poker.

As far as your poker play, you could probably stand to loosen up a little, but be smart. Don't play too many hands to a Pre-Flop raise. Look at your cards, and position, and players, and play these hands post-flop.

as Toasty said in another post somewhere online here. No one ever notices how many times their 76 missed the flop, but everyone notices the AK. That's not because AK misses more often, just because we don't expect it to ever miss, and pay closer attention when it does.

It is most definitely a slower pace in a live game. DO NOT change your play. Don't play crap because everyone else is. You are still going to see your premium hands, horrible beats and lucky hits out of the blinds. If you are in a tournament, play your normal solid strategy. And don't drink too much!

For example, just finished a home tournament. Final table was a table of 8. I was one of the chip leaders going in. I got no playable hands for an hour. I did not play for that hour and let the small stacks go at it. If I was in BB there was always a raise or raise, reraise, so why play K5 out of the blind? I got no hands worth a raise, except for that 72suited come to think of it.

On the other hand, if you are a small stack you are forced to be more agressive and play more marginal hands.

I know exactly what you mean. This Saturday held a cash game and for the first 16-20 I didn't play a single hand, I even got raise out of my blinds. Since these are my friends and sometimes I like to try out my reading ability. I tried the following play.
I am on the button 106d
6 people limp before me and so I decide to lime in as well, the big blind raise 1bb everyone calls. Now we play 50 25 cent blinds WITH ONLY 10 dollar max buy in. So now there is a lot of money on the table and my stack after two orbits is around 8 dollars. So the flop com 345 off suite no D.. Everyone checks and I go all in. Everyone folds. It was a fun move which wasn't that bad since I had 8 outs and I was confident they would respect my image. In the end of the night I came out 27 dollars ahead which is nice for a 10 buy in. Hope this is helpful or at least amusing read. Gl to you.