Nooooo limpers at this cash game table(1/2 and 2/5). Advice

[CrackingYou]

I'm heading out of my direct area to get some more action this upcoming weekend. I'll be playing $1/2 live, min. buy-in $100 max $300. I figure I can sit down with $200-250 and be safe.

I've played maybe 10 hands with 2-3 of the players that'll be there, and there should be 25 there soooooooo that info is pretty pointless. Other than this. They never limp. I talked to respected players in my area who've played with this other group in the 1/2 and 2/5 games they have and said the same. Said they refuse to ever limp, even with an average hand, consistently. They chase to a degree as well.

So my initial thought in this situation is to not even get involved in a hand unless I have 1010-AA, AK-A10 suited. Their game is basically the continuation bet style, raise pre flop and continue it even when they miss.

I'd like some suggestions as to how to dominate my table in this situation. I consider myself pretty able to get a read on people when playing live, so add that into your thinking when writting a suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

[SteveO]

I think you severly limit yourself with that hand selection in live play. You may not see a hand in 1 1/2 hours that fit your suggested range but it could work out for you since you stand to bleed chips calling repeatedly in raised pots.

I would open it up to all pocket pairs for sure.

Isolate preflop. Re raise w/ your pairs 88 and up to go heads up.

Take pots away from them on the flop. If they constantly fire continuation bets come over the top of it when you have a good piece or something like 2 overs and a flush draw.

Be prepared to use your whole stack as a weapon. If you buy in for 250 and pots are 50 preflop you'll be committing it all a lot.

Float em. Call their continuation bet on the flop and push the turn.

Be prepared to rebuy a few times.

[Chicago_Kid]

I play in a live game like that every couple weeks.

Good advice by SteveO, particularly about bankrolling. Have 3-5 buyins each night and don't be afraid to go to the felt, and rebuy again. A good way to control your variance a bit is to play ruthless in position. Call/raise in LP, probe for weakness and figure out who slows down and who cannot. Should take you an hour or so to figure everyone out in that regard.

[Fnord]

Buy-in for the max. Bring 1.2-1.5k with you.

You should be seeing flops with any pair if they're too loose post-flop.

You're worried too much about stuff that isn't very important.

[Rondavu]

You'll see solid players chase more in live play because the bad players are paying them off more when they hit.

Use fold equity against solid players who know you're solid, and stay passive with outs, folding more without them against the bad players.

[Lithium]

Your range is definitely too tight for that size buy in cash game. You play that tight and you are going to be pretty easy to read and will also be fairly easy to push around both pre and post flop.

All pocket pairs should be played, as well as a suited ace, and down to suited K10. You may also want to play a bad ace some times. Don't be afraid to reraise with AJo or better. When you catch a flop, play aggressive. Reraise with TP and a decent kicker.

Don't be afraid to lose pots, as you should be collecting your fair share of pots as well.

[Fnord]

My EP range for full ring live games:
AJ+, ATs+, KQ, 22+ Tens or better suited.

I limp them all UTG for balance and pot control unless the game is deep or a small raise is the norm. I want to not be noticed when I open a pot and keep down the pot size when out of position against an unknown set of players. I really like the open limp against bad players because it provides validation for their looser limps, gives me more credit when I go aggro with position (until you see me play a lot of hands) and encourages other players to try to take the initiative in the hand (spew off their stack because they can't find the breaks.)

If the game is pre-flop passive you probably could add Axs and scs. If the game is pre-flop TAggy, drop some of the smaller pairs and AJ (or just find a better table.)

Once in position (HJ, CO, BN) I open it up and start (re)raising depending on what I want to do with the hand and what weaknesses I'm exploiting.

[CrackingYou]

Thanks everyone, I'll let you know how it plays out. Though I feel confident.

[BankItDrew]

This type of gameplay avoids postflop play as much as possible. It's a sign of poor postflop poker, so take as much advantage of it by getting in as many pots as possible.

Start to recognize which players shut down on the turn after a c-bet they made... target them and begin to float.

Against the 'raise only' crew, limp. I know this doesn't make much sense because they will raise and you would have to call, but do so because your postflop skills are better than theirs. Also, if you limp every single time, they will eventually get sick of it and begin to limp in their hands as well, trust me, they will.

The idea on the second point I made, is to change the dynamics of the game to suit your game. Do not only raise if entering a pot, this is their game. Limp more often than you normally would against these guys, especially your bigger hands... looking for a limp re-raise. Whenever possible, try to have the game play around your style ie limping lots of pots to outplay weak players postflop (where all of the big pots are won and lost).