Extremely Loose Table

[copa]

Tonight I was playing in an extremely loose table, with 9 players max(limit). Most of the time there would be only one person folding preflop and everyone would call a preflop raise. Most would call to the river and there was constant raising. I am wondering how my play should be varied when playing with such loose players. Should I try to play a little tighter than them or should I stay playing as tight as I normally do?

Thanks

[a500lbgorilla]

Play more draws. Top pairish hands, two pair and sets go down in value becuase so many hands are drawing againstly them but straight and flush draws go up in value becuase the pot odds and implied will be well in your favor and these draws will rake you big pots.

Just riiiide the wave.

-'rilla

[Lucid]

First of all, I would increase the size of my raises pre-flop but I would not raise hands like AQ and AJ and KQ offsuit and 99 very hard pre-flop. I would raise very strong hands like AA KK QQ AKs AK and AQs hard to reduce the amounts of callers. I wouldn’t raise a hand like AQ or AJ very hard because I don't like to build big pots with these hands. I like to build big pots with very big hands.

If people arn't giving you any action because they notice that you don't raise with anything but primo hands then start to raise lessor hands in late position but be aware that if alot of people call then your top pair may not be good and you cannot steal the pot when you don't make a pair. But crappy players may not even notice your playing tight agg and will call your raises.

If there is alot of raising pre-flop then you may consider just calling with KK and AA in very early position and waiting for someone to raise in later position so you can re-raise him big and possibly go all-in pre-flop.

If lots of people are seeing the flop then the top pair that big cards make lose value and suited cards and connectors increase in value because of their ability to make straits and flushes. Hands like K10 off suit and Q 10 off suit become complete trash. Big pocket pairs are valuable if you can weed out people pre-flop or take down the pot early. The more people that are in the hand the less you want to slow play. Don't slow play sets on the flop; take them down right away against a heard of opponents and make people pay alot to see more cards.

Pre-flop position becomes especially valuable with lots of raising because you want to sneak in with pocket pairs and suited connectors but you don’t want to pay much to see the flop so your going to want to be in late position with an unraised or min raised pot to call with these hands. Pocket pairs become especially valuable in an environment with people who are passive pre-flop but aggressive post-flop.

With a very loose game you are basically monster camping. You must be patient and wait for bigger hands then you would normally because with the increased amount of people seeing the flop/turn/river the greater the likelihood of someone having bigger cards.

You are also trying to isolate especially bad players that overvalue mediocre hands.

You must also distinguish between the loose player that is seeing lots of flops but plays smart post-flop and the player that both sees lots of flops and calls down with weak cards like medium pair or a gutshot draw. The latter will pay you off big time and if the former only shows big cards at the end and if he keeps calling you then you might be beat.

Axs becomes worth more in these situations because of all the people that will see the flop with hands like Qxs because they will go all-in with you in a flush war.

In a multi-way pot where everyone starts going all-in with a paired and suited board don’t get involved with just trips or less than an ace-high flush because Ace-high flushes and full-houses always seem to win these situations.

In a loose agg game you want to loosen your requirements for suited connectors and Axs and Kxs in very late position and blinds with an unraised pot while increasing your requirements in early position. Toss hands like KJ, AT, and QJ in early position.

Also suited cards like Axs and Kxs are godly post-flop in games where someone raises post-flop and everyone else calls all the way around because you can just drop if your pocket suit doesnt match the board and play them with great pot, effective, and implied odds if they do match.

Drop any notion of bluffing and respect a re-raise.

[cartilago77]

good post, Lucid, but most of the situations you described are for NL games and Copa was questioning the limit game. Hard to wait for your big hand and push it all-in in limit.

[copa]

I was able to triple up on them last night, they were some of the worst players I've ever played against. I became a little more careful with my hand selection, due to the countless preflop raises. Often there would be 5+ callers to the max raise preflop. These players never picked up on my tight play and I made them pay for it.

Thanks for the info.

[Lucid]

good post, Lucid, but most of the situations you described are for NL games and Copa was questioning the limit game. Hard to wait for your big hand and push it all-in in limit.