Live poker 10 handed preflop strategy

Hey guys, so I've hit the casino tonight and I definitely plan to go back since it seems I get to play tables with 1 or 2 other regs at most and 7 fishes (mostly stations, haven't seen whales yet). I wonder what kind of preflop strategy I should employ since I have no experience in this kind of field, and preflop sizings. I am also limping and open limping a lot since there doesn't seem to be much FE preflop, thoughts?

so people dont fold... so you dont bet, that doesnt make any sense.

If people dont fold bet for value and dont bluff

limping along a lot of small pairs and hands that can flop really well is very profitable in smaller stakes live poker with fish.

On November 20 2015 06:40 Baalim wrote: so people dont fold... so you dont bet, that doesnt make any sense. If people dont fold bet for value and dont bluff

I am not sure I understand what you mean. If you are referring to the limping comment I am talking about limping certain hands I want to see a flop with but benefit more from bigger stack to pot ratio.

On November 20 2015 19:44 Trav94 wrote: limping along a lot of small pairs and hands that can flop really well is very profitable in smaller stakes live poker with fish.

Thanks, that's what I also think at the moment but have no experience performing this strategy. Preflop bet sizing when I'm not limping or with some inbetween holdings is something I'm a bit confused about though. Like if I hold KJo in UTG+2 should I raise small, limpcall, raise big anyway? Hard to say.

Ok, so the entire point of poker is to maximize EV from each hand. As people play more aggressively, raising more, larger, etc. That destroys the tiny EV most hands have. So you have to fold more hands in that dynamic.

In your stated dynamic, you have 3 profit centers

Part 1
The more passive, weak people play preflop, the more hands you can take to the flop by doing as you said, limping, over limping, whatever it takes to play as many hands as cheap as possible. The more hands that realize their equity instead of being folded is a major profit center. Especially when you are in the blinds.

Part 2
your edge comes from them calling way too wide of ranges on the flop/turn/river OR they are simply folding too much in limped pots. Either way, usually their mistakes deviate wildly from GTO, making it pretty easy for you since you definitely have no idea what is GTO with your ranges. As long as you are more solid in your understanding of ranges or their mistakes.

Part 3
Their calling preflop range is going to be way too wide vs your raising size/range. As dynamics shift towards no one folding preflop, your range HAS to decrease with increased sizing.

Conclusion
It is GTO to play very tight ranges with very large sizes and then limp the rest, given your dynamic.

Edit
Part 1 and Part 2, your ranges are going to be messed up and your Postflop play is going to be so far from GTO but none of that matters because Part 3 is such a huge mistake by the other players, you literally have to fuck up massively in Part 1 or Part 2 to not profit overall.

That is why you will see these massive rock nits, who literally do nothing and just blast the pot 3-5% of hands. They literally are crushing the game by doing that. Combined with the common BB that gets limped to and they flop the nuts another 5% of the time.

Just bet your hand when you got it and rarely bluff. You are getting called so often in live it's ridiculous sometimes. 1/2 your table probably doesn't even know what a range is.

Never bluffing makes no sense, there are tons of fish that will always fold when draws hit, even fish that hero fold 2nd set because they think you must have top set.

On November 21 2015 00:59 Highcard wrote: Ok, so the entire point of poker is to maximize EV from each hand. As people play more aggressively, raising more, larger, etc. That destroys the tiny EV most hands have. So you have to fold more hands in that dynamic. In your stated dynamic, you have 3 profit centers Part 1 The more passive, weak people play preflop, the more hands you can take to the flop by doing as you said, limping, over limping, whatever it takes to play as many hands as cheap as possible. The more hands that realize their equity instead of being folded is a major profit center. Especially when you are in the blinds. Part 2 your edge comes from them calling way too wide of ranges on the flop/turn/river OR they are simply folding too much in limped pots. Either way, usually their mistakes deviate wildly from GTO, making it pretty easy for you since you definitely have no idea what is GTO with your ranges. As long as you are more solid in your understanding of ranges or their mistakes. Part 3 Their calling preflop range is going to be way too wide vs your raising size/range. As dynamics shift towards no one folding preflop, your range HAS to decrease with increased sizing. Conclusion It is GTO to play very tight ranges with very large sizes and then limp the rest, given your dynamic. Edit Part 1 and Part 2, your ranges are going to be messed up and your Postflop play is going to be so far from GTO but none of that matters because Part 3 is such a huge mistake by the other players, you literally have to fuck up massively in Part 1 or Part 2 to not profit overall. That is why you will see these massive rock nits, who literally do nothing and just blast the pot 3-5% of hands. They literally are crushing the game by doing that. Combined with the common BB that gets limped to and they flop the nuts another 5% of the time.

Thanks, this was very useful. The regs I have seen so far were in fact big nits compared to the online games I play so they knew what they were doing

yea either u are playing lag vs nits or nit vs fish. i show all my bluffs vs nits so the fish will call me down :D

occasionally some lag comes in and i let him do his thing .. not sure wtf to do aside from just playing very tag, and just calling his iso
not sure where to sit either, but if overlimping is part of ur game then sit to the left of all aggro players

These are also good suggestions. It's interesting that the showing hands dynamic can be exploited to great effect live, also being able to get somewhat decent and solid body language reads could be helpful. With all the factors combined it's easy to see how longterm winrate in live poker can be higher than at any online table.