$1/$2 Live NL Hold'em Advice

Hi All,

I am going to be venturing into a live $1/$2 NL Hold'em game this week. The buy-in though is a bit different then I am used to. You can only buy in with $40 to start, no more, no less. So starting with only 20bb, what is the approach that you take?

Obviously there are the traditional variables, like stacks of people at the table, whether the table is playing loose or tight, etc. to consider, but I was wondering what kind of general tips you might have? My concern is that pretty much any pre-flop raise of 3x to 4x that is called by 2 others will pretty much pot commit me after the flop.

With that in mind, then does it make sense to shove more often instead of a regular 3x to 4x raise? Given the low buy-in relative to the stakes, is more luck needed than strategy/skill? I know that this is more than just one question, but I think they are related. Thanks so much for any advice.

I'd play this extremely tight. Low pockets and suited connectors are now worthless. Look to play premium hands and get all your money in when you flop a pair. The other question is how good are the opponents? The above works with bad opponents (because AQ on a KQ5 board will probably be the best hand and you'll get paid off a good amount of the time) but if there are better opponents you would need to bluff more since they'll be sticking to mainly premiums preflop as well. But I'm guessing this kind of structure isn't filled with sharks, so I'd stick to playing premium hands, no bluffing, raise 4-6 big blinds with premiums and look to stack the flop. But on the flop don't worry about stacking all the way either, if you hit a premium, just make a committing bet and get it in on the turn. So say you open for 4 big blinds pre, the pot's now ~8. Then bet pot on the flop, now it's 24 with 8 left. Alternatively you could bet 6 and then there'd be 20 big blinds in the pot with stacks of 10 behind.

But basically you have no implied odds. There's definitely more luck here than a deep stacked game, but remember anytime there are decisions to be made there's a chance your opponents will make mistakes and cost you money. If these players are bad they'll be playing suited connectors, probably hands like K6, etc. and that'll make you money. So you probably have a smaller edge (assuming you're a good player), but the edge is still there for a good player. Of course if there's a rake it's possible the edge is smaller than the rake, and in that case the game is unprofitable.

Zach,

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I would say that I am a good, but still learning player. I'll definitely use your advice. Assuming I run well and increase my stack, is there a point when I can start to play smaller pocket pairs and suited connectors? Or do the non-existent implied odds, even if I hit a set/flop make it not worth it?

On an unrelated note, I love your blog, lots of great stuff there.

Hey LAF, there are a whole bunch of fun things that you can probably do to kill these guys. Rule #1: ALWAYS make sure you are sitting with the maximum buy in of $40, because with my extensive live experience you typically won't see a flop for less than $10. That said, if you call someone's $10 preflop raise with AQ and the board is something like J 4 2, just dump it, re-buy the $10, and wait for another opportunity. As Zach said, there's no reason to get too crazy too quickly, because again, live play dictates WAY more action than online play, and you will most definitely get your chances. Rule #2: If you get to 3xish buy-ins (even $100ish+), I would then look to play my suited connectors/low PP's against people with stacks about equal or greater than yours, since your implied odds are significantly driven up. Simply put, if you can only win an additional $30 by flopping a set with, say, pocket 3's, you won't hit the set and get paid off often enough to justify the call preflop, so limping/folding the 3's is usually a good move (less you're in the CO or button and you can raise in attempt to steal, but most live players HATE folding after they've stuck a whopping $2 in the pot). So, pretty much to sum this up, I'd stick to Zach's advice and play solid hands (believe it or not JT, JQ, etc, are all solid "live poker" hands because people aren't dealt a million hands an hour like online and therefore will play much, much looser), and get it in with any big draw, set, good two-pair, or even top pair good kicker is normally huge. Good luck!

Here's how I would play it

play any middle decent hand against a raise with and all in call. If he calls your a small dog and you could win anyway. if he folds or they fold you just cleaned up compared to your starting stack. Now you may have to rebuy a coulple of times but your gonna either have the best hand and it holds up for a triple or quadriple up or your gonna suck out within 3 or 4 tries. At that point you would have all your money back but also have it at the table at once. Instead of having 40 you will be sitting there with 180 or so at which point you can shred the smaller stacks with premium big stack play.

I think there's a couple of ways you can approach a game like this.

Zach's suggestion is certainly a solid one.

Below is an approach that I might try if I had five or six buy-ins behind

Depending on how many buy-ins you have with you and how your opponents are playing, there's another approach you can take too. Stay quiet for a round or two and observe the other players. If they're calling shoves with hands like KJ/QJ/KQ and worse (as live $1-2 players are wont to do), you can open your "premium" hand requirements a little and start shoving hands like AJ over the top when they raise.

A typical opening raise in live $1-2 is about $10, so shoving $40 isn't an outrageous overbet, and will probably get action. Do that once or twice in a spot where you're 60:40 or better against the villain's range, and you should be able to build an alright stack.

Re: set mining, there's no better way to grind yourself down than to try to do this with a short stack. I'd probably want $150-$200 in front of me before trying it, though the catch is usually trying to find an unraised pot in which to do it. If you're having to call 5BB each time, you'll quickly find yourself behind even if you do get a set paid off. So I'd only worry about it if pots are routinely getting limped, or if you're in late position against passive players in the blinds.