Regarding bet sizing at games where the "standard" open raise is rediculously high. I have thought about this a lot lately (I play at a NL200 live game where the standard raise tends to be a bit high, like 4X NOT $20 into a $3 pot) and have been trying to determine the best approach. This is what I'm thinking:
1) You don't HAVE to raise the standard size and, with most hands, it will increase variance (you may say it will always increase variance although I can think of arguments to the contrary.) 2) You CAN raise the standard size and get called by non-premium hands in most games like this 3) You don't have to play anything but premium hands to win eg; just play AKs,JJ+ always bet 10X, get action, create a good SPR for hands that tend to play well in more normal 3/4bet pots (AKs,JJ+ for instance
) and wreck shop.. think small stakes online games circa 2002. 4) You can make more money by playing hands other than AKs,JJ+ against the terrible players that must populate these mythological games that i have not personally seen since, maybe, 2006ish. 5) You will have to introduce some chance of actually loosing in order to do so. 6) If you play other than premium hands you should probably NOT raise $20 to open a $3 pot.
I think the safest way to play these is to turn into a circa 2006 TAG and just wait for premium hands but it could be more profitable to get in their and mix it up with fish. If you plan to just sit on your hands and wait for top 5% of the deck (oldschool raise/fold TAG strat) you will have very little chance of losing but you could win more faster by playing more hands. If you decide to mix it up you just CANNOT be open raising 10X.
I think you could probably change your bet sizes to alter the SPR in a way that would play to the strength of your hand, like 2.5X with 22-66, JTs, AXs type stuff, 5X with premiums and balance as necessary (more by occassionally betting less with big hands than
visa versa) but then, like i said, i haven't actually seen a game like this in many years.
Thoughts?
