Playing too tight?

Playing 1/2NL. I think I should have limped in more often than I did. Especially on a tight table.

Maybe not as extreme as this... [old link~tb]
But, maybe a few more K5's or A5's. It's annoying to see the flop have your high card. You can make back 10 BBs lost to see the flop ($20) easily in 1 hand where you have top pair.

Going forward, I play a little looser when there is no raise, I can limp in, and see the flop. Especially if I am middle to late position.

Don t limp, its not good, play good hands or speculative hands, but always try to give a image that u have MONSTER
gl on the felts

Ladybugger said:

Playing 1/2NL. I think I should have limped in more often than I did. Especially on a tight table.

Maybe not as extreme as this... [old link~tb]

But, maybe a few more K5's or A5's. It's annoying to see the flop have your high card. You can make back 10 BBs lost to see the flop ($20) easily in 1 hand where you have top pair.

Going forward, I play a little looser when there is no raise, I can limp in, and see the flop. Especially if I am middle to late position.

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If you play K5 or A5, either limping or open raising, you will lose a ton of money. Guaranteed.

Enjoy.

-HooDooKoo

there is everything in this level, so you have to take advantage stockings and strong hands always need to climb, avoid the weak hands.

There is nothing wrong with playing tight. But I think its important to vary up your game. Sometimes you should play the players, not the cards. In live I always play tight by default, but occasionally I will play a hand strong to take advantage of weaker players. When you have good fold equity you should definitely take advantage of it at the right time without risking too much.

+ to blikbleek , u have to watch how playing other people, not only how strong is your hand, usually u will not the best hand of table

Yep, its a bad habit IMO to play passively and limp in. IMO, its best to apply maximum pressure to your opponents and only play high value starting hands depending on your table position. The thinking is that when you play tight aggressive, you can punish the hands that try to sneak in with weak holdings and hit top pair with a shitty kicker. That being said, it is good to change gears every now and then to keep your opponent guessing. By playing rags once and a while in position, you will get paid off more often when you have power cards.

Playing A5 is not playing aggressive,it´s playing stupid. Play other kind of hands like suited connectors, or hands like 57,86,97,46 which can give you a lot of draws specially straight draws. But play them only when it´s cheap (less than 2bb) otherwise you will lose money long term.

I've seen two responses saying A5 is junk. Lolwut? In LP or BvB A5 is fine, if suited even better. Smh

Limping more mediocre hands isn't good poker. Yes, those hands will occasionally win you big pots. However, they're not profitable overall in the long run. Many times, you either limp then fold after someone raises pre-, costing you 1bb. Or you don't get raised but flop nothing and fold to any action, again costing 1bb. It's even more costly when you flop enough to put more into the pot while trailing. This will happen more often than flopping a big hand.

And even on those occasions when you do flop big, there's no guarantee that you'll be paid off big. Especially in the situation where no one raised pre-, it means no one had much. So what are the chances that you flopped bid and someone else caught enough to pay you off big but not enough to beat you?

Blobweird123 said:

I've seen two responses saying A5 is junk. Lolwut? In LP or BvB A5 is fine, if suited even better. Smh

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I'm not saying that you're wrong about this, Blob --- but I don't agree. I'm certainly fine with playing (or raising) A5 in the blinds, but I don't like playing A5 in late position unless the table is very tight and HERO is a good postflop player.

Do me a favor and filter your results on A5 in late position and let me know how profitable you are in this spot. You might well be good enough to win with A5 in these spots. Your average player, though, is a losing player with a bunch of leaks and is likely to give away a lot of money playing A5 late --- especially at micro stakes where blinds often protect their hands.

IMO, most players will improve their overall win rate by folding A6 or smaller in late position. I'm not telling you not to play those hands in late position, as there is almost never a one-size-fits-all-approach to poker discussion answer. But I am saying that, for most players, this is a tough spot and not likely to be a profitable one.

Just my two cents.

-HooDooKoo

i usually try and play tight, late position is not an excuse to play rags, if someone opens up early ya gotta give em credit for somethinng big and A rag shouldnt even be an option worth thinking about... soooted or not

personaly i had the same problem, so now i like to make use of the suited conectors in late ,cheap preflop positions. i have had much success with these hands, they are hidden big payout hands. exmaple if a player has A5 and you have 7 8 and you both limp or get in for cheap with a couple other players and the flop comes 5 6 A and he bets (not too big) if you make your straight its gonna be hidden well enough for you to make a good profit off the two pair or top pair. my personaly experiance i had much more profitable games playing more suited/non suited connectors (cheap preflop) than playing lower A's like A2-A10 (suited A is a diff situation)

so with that said, switch it up BUT DO NOT FEEL FORCED to switch it up, be comforatable with what your doing, dont be like 'im losing money so ima play all my Aces' then your just gonna be on a downward spiral of tilt and just bad play. every BB matters, you play ten BS hands and fold on the flop theres a big difference between having 20BB and 40BB

HooDooKoo said:

I'm not saying that you're wrong about this, Blob --- but I don't agree. I'm certainly fine with playing (or raising) A5 in the blinds, but I don't like playing A5 in late position unless the table is very tight and HERO is a good postflop player.

Do me a favor and filter your results on A5 in late position and let me know how profitable you are in this spot. You might well be good enough to win with A5 in these spots. Your average player, though, is a losing player with a bunch of leaks and is likely to give away a lot of money playing A5 late --- especially at micro stakes where blinds often protect their hands.

IMO, most players will improve their overall win rate by folding A6 or smaller in late position. I'm not telling you not to play those hands in late position, as there is almost never a one-size-fits-all-approach to poker discussion answer. But I am saying that, for most players, this is a tough spot and not likely to be a profitable one.

Just my two cents.

-HooDooKoo

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Upon looking at A2s-A5s/A2o-A5o turns out i'm breaking even in LP and SB vs LP or BvB. Which is worse than I expected . But guess it's still not terrible since it widens my range in any given spot which is good. In the future, you don't need to PM me though, thanks. Main reason I guess i'm not doing well is because I just love to play suited aces a bit too much. Offsuit weak aces I don't have much history with since I usually toss it. Sometimes iso limpers though. Good to look into it though since it's something I'll have to work on.

Blobweird123 said:

Upon looking at A2s-A5s/A2o-A5o turns out i'm breaking even in LP and SB vs LP or BvB. Which is worse than I expected . But guess it's still not terrible since it widens my range in any given spot which is good. In the future, you don't need to PM me though, thanks. Main reason I guess i'm not doing well is because I just love to play suited aces a bit too much. Offsuit weak aces I don't have much history with since I usually toss it. Sometimes iso limpers though. Good to look into it though since it's something I'll have to work on.

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Blob,

I'm glad to hear that you aren't losing with A2-A5 --- even if you're not profiting as much as you thought you might be. I just brought it up because I thought it was possible that you were losing in those spots and weren't aware of it.

I still feel that losing (most) players are going to give money away in these spots. I would suggest folding these these hands to inexperienced players and/or players who don't feel that they play well post-flop.

Good luck to all.

-HooDooKoo

Not playing ace rags or king rags is not too tight. If you wanna open up, go with suited connectors or one-gappers.

With A5 type hands, you can make a straight. If suited, then flushes. With k5 the best you can hope for is flopping trips. But if you hit 3 kings, your kicker is a 5 which if the other guy has a K too you're dead.

If you are running good, you will be able to piss off some people by playing those hands because they wouldn't expect you to actually call raises with them. God knows I've run into plenty of amazing losses against random raggy hands, but over the long run, you'll need incredible amounts of good luck to win with those hands.

HooDooKoo said:

Blob,

I'm glad to hear that you aren't losing with A2-A5 --- even if you're not profiting as much as you thought you might be. I just brought it up because I thought it was possible that you were losing in those spots and weren't aware of it.

I still feel that losing (most) players are going to give money away in these spots. I would suggest folding these these hands to inexperienced players and/or players who don't feel that they play well post-flop.

Good luck to all.

-HooDooKoo

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Oh I'm not telling inexperienced players to rush out and 3bet A5s otb every time lol. In fact yes they should be letting these hands go, but just meant that with more experience, money can be made from these hands. I would actually be up on these hands but for a few spots where I barreled when I probably shouldn't have lol.

A5s on the button is playable if the stacks are deep and the preflop game not too agressive. either way k5 is complete rubbish, just fold

houtlijm said:

A5s on the button is playable if the stacks are deep and the preflop game not too agressive. either way k5 is complete rubbish, just fold

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Meh still gonna continue opening AXs from any position in 6max.

In a cash game, limping, open raising, or even calling in position with A5 is really not a winning play. The argument can be made for 3-betting wide in a cash game, but you really need a strong sense of your opponents and the right position to make it an effective play.

In a tournament, calling an open raise from position with A5 can have its merits. Opening A5 can be good if everyone behind you is tight. But again, its a reserved move. You're not going to get a lot of big payouts - you're looking for steals with top pair power after the flop.

Generally speaking, A5/K5 is too loose to play profitably long term. You'll tend to win small and lose big. If you want to widen your range, look to play low probability hands in situations where you can get in cheap expect a big payout - multiway pots with a lot of limpers, a good read on someone being sneaky with a big hand, and the like.

Weisssound said:

In a cash game, limping, open raising, or even calling in position with A5 is really not a winning play. The argument can be made for 3-betting wide in a cash game, but you really need a strong sense of your opponents and the right position to make it an effective play.

In a tournament, calling an open raise from position with A5 can have its merits. Opening A5 can be good if everyone behind you is tight. But again, its a reserved move. You're not going to get a lot of big payouts - you're looking for steals with top pair power after the flop.

Generally speaking, A5/K5 is too loose to play profitably long term. You'll tend to win small and lose big. If you want to widen your range, look to play low probability hands in situations where you can get in cheap expect a big payout - multiway pots with a lot of limpers, a good read on someone being sneaky with a big hand, and the like.

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k still opening suited aces. thx

The way you played that hand will get you killed in the higher stakes. DONT LIMP. I would highly recommend refining your game in the lower stakes first.

Limping is bad, mmmkay!! But seriously, I even find myself limping with semi-decent hands when I should be raising at least the min. This usually happens when I have a hand that I'm not crazy about and telegraph my hand by just making a call instead of showing strength. It's definitely something i need to work on at times.

HooDooKoo said:

Do me a favor and filter your results on A5 in late position and let me know how profitable you are in this spot.
-HooDooKoo

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Blobweird123 said:

Upon looking at A2s-A5s/A2o-A5o turns out i'm breaking even in LP and SB vs LP or BvB. Which is worse than I expected .

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What exactly are you looking at?
Where do you have your past playing history?
Do the online sites like Bovada maintain this data for you to mine afterwards?