LHE Strategy Against Novice Players

Every major holiday my family gets together to play some poker. The only game we play is Limit Holdem. They're to scared to play No Limit.

It's like a cash game. Each chip is $1 and it has $1/$2 blinds. (I had to teach them about blinds, before we had $1 antes! I was like WTF, I can't fold hands then).

The maximum bet is $3 during each betting round. Luckily you can re-raise...

Basically my whole family doesn't know how to play good poker. The table usually consists of 4-5 players. They call every raise preflop. Usually it's 2-3 to a flop with a reraise preflop. They will call all the way with bottom pair and sometimes even a Ace high.

I don't have much experience playing LHE, but with the blinds at where they're at and the way they play, how should I approach the game?

My previous strategy was just wait for a good hand. 10-A and everything in between, Pocket Pairs, or suited connectors. I raise with 10-A, call with Pocket Pairs and Suited Connectors.


My question is how should I play them. Any suggestions for strategies?

Thanks and happy holidays!

Its not the answer you are looking for, but i think it is important. It seems that your family plays poker for fun and i would suggest that you do that too. You can not make much money in this game and if you do you will have to hear about it from other players for the rest of the year. Treat this game as a fun way to spend time with your family, get to know them better and build stronger ties.

Happy holidays.

Yea keep it fun if its with the family as Bharat said... But if your planning on taking limit holdem up... There is alot of money to be made online... There plenty of strategy articles on Limit Holdem online ... Since considered to be a strategic game.

I second that. You could try to whup them, but it wouldn't be friendly and it wouldn't be fun. Instead of good feelings, and amazement at how some hands turned out, there would be ill feelings and disgruntlement if you outplay everyone or if their crap beats your good hands. Plus they won't want to play you much again if you take all the money or get mad. Relax and play it lightly, rather than seriously.

Enjoy being with your family and happy holidays.

So you wanna crush your family? Sounds like fun to me

You hadn't mentioned the frequency of raises preflop, so I'm assuming it's low, and besides everyone calls the raise anyway so you'll have great odds.

You want to play hands that have the potential to turn into monsters. Suited connectors, small pocket pairs, suited aces, and probably suited kings as well, make up most of this field. These hands will thrive off the massive implied odds they get postflop when you make a strong hand or strong draw.

The other aspect to keep in mind is your pot equity preflop. You want to make sure you're raising hands like AK/AQ/AJ/ATs, knowing full well everyone is going to call. If you have 5 players with you going to the flop, then you only need 17% pot equity to make every dollar going in preflop +EV for you.

Build up big pots with those big pair hands, and just fire at them straight through the river when you hit. The variance in this type of game is large, but the returns are equally monstrous, for when you do win the pot, it's quite large.

Have fun owning your family.

JEP712, as the prior peeps have indicated, play just for fun with family...you may even pick up some strategies on how to play against peeps who play the same style as the family does (to use in live play @ b&ms).

There's a reason it's called no-fold-em hold'em & many peeps play it just for entertainment; Mase31683 provided a general guideline for the range of hands with the most profitable returns...I like to play $3/$6 & $4/$8 Full Kill Limit in b&ms & have been known to walk out with a rack or 2 of red fairly consistently (& I play primarily for entertainment...the racks are a bonus ). GL & have fun.

What's the name for it? Not "Modified Limit", but you can only bet between X-Y on any street?

Hrmm...

Also, play for fun with your family. I used to try to get my cousins and uncle to play with me at holiday gatherings, but they don't play cards and I had a gambling problem. Now just keep it fun.

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