Starting Out in No Limit Irish MTTs

Egon Towst

Egon Towst

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As promised in this thread, here are my tips for Irish Poker. Please feel free to add any strategy insights of your own.




A Beginner`s Guide to No Limit Irish Poker MTTs

Many of you will have spotted that Full Tilt has recently started offering Irish Poker. When the poker rooms launch an unfamiliar variant, there is always an initial “golden age” when the games are soft, until players get the hang of them. This can be a profitable opportunity for those who take the trouble to study and understand the new game.

In the last two weeks, I have played eight Irish tournaments and final-tabled five of the eight. They are only small-stakes tournaments (the highest buyin that Full Tilt are offering on a regular basis is $26), but still they are fun and provide some interesting variety alongside the bigger conventional Holdem tourneys that are my usual fare.

If you would like to sample a drop of the Irish, here are some basic tips to get you started:

Irish Poker (which I will abbreviate to NLI for short) is mechanically very similar to Texas Holdem, and a Holdem player can learn to play very quickly. In Irish, you are dealt a hand of four cards preflop. After the flop betting round and before the turn is dealt, you must discard two cards from your hand and play on with two only. In every other respect, the game is played exactly like NLH.

That comparatively minor difference in the structure of the game requires quite a lot of adjustment in your strategy.

At the flop, in Holdem, you have only one way in which to construct a five card hand from your hole cards and the flop, but in NLI there are six ways (the three cards of the flop, plus any two from the four in your hand). Therefore, hand values change. Top pair is a weak hand in NLI and Two Pair is not much better, because sets will be common.

Additionally, a Straight draw on the flop is much less valuable than in Holdem. Even if you hit, there is a greater chance in Irish Poker that you will be second best to a Flush or a Full House.

Set-mining with low pairs needs to be done carefully at NLI. If you hit your set, there is a significantly greater chance (compared to Holdem) that an opponent will have made a bigger set. Therefore, you must be prepared to lay it down if you meet resistance on flop and turn.

Notice that three of a kind in your hand preflop is very weak. You must discard one, and will then have only one out to your set.

You will see a lot of NLI players being very loose with their hand selection and seeing 80% or more of flops. That may be a workable approach from late position when blinds are low and effective stacks are high but, in general, I would advocate more care over hand selection. It`s very easy at NLI to bleed chips if you make a habit of playing mediocre hands.

Good preflop hands are those which contain a high pair and/or a suited Ace or King. Beware of attaching too much value to lower suited cards. In NLI, the Ace or King is twice as likely (compared to Holdem) to be in play in an opponent`s hand, and there is a proportionately greater risk, if you make your flush, of being crushed by a bigger flush.

Whenever you are dealt a good hand, for example As 9s Qd Qh, you must raise preflop in order to drive out as many as possible of the see-a-flop-with-any-4 players. In Holdem, a standard preflop raise would be 3x BB, but in NLI that will often be insufficient and you will have to make your standard raise 5x or 6x in order to simplify the field to one or two opponents. Naturally, this will vary from one table to another and you will have to find out by observation and experiment what works with your current table.

On the flop, if you don`t hit at least a set or a strong draw, you should consider yourself finished with the hand. As I said earlier, anything less than a set will rarely be good. In other respects, after bearing in mind that the opponent`s range will be stronger, post flop play is similar to Holdem.

The general principles of tournament play continue to apply. For example:
* In the early part of the game, when deepstacked, position assumes greater importance. Tighten up from early and mid position.
* Once the blinds rise to approx 10% of starting stack, you should be looking for opportunities to steal.
* As the bubble approaches, punish weak opponents who are looking to hang on into the money.

Here`s hoping you have the luck of the Irish. Enjoy.
 
NineLions

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Thanks Egon. I hadn't heard of this except from your other thread. So essentially Omaha until the flop, except you have to commit to one hand or the other cards to help you keep drawing.

But since you only have 2 post-flop, does that mean one card straights and flushes are good, unlike PLO?
 
Aleksei

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Thanks Egon. I hadn't heard of this except from your other thread. So essentially Omaha until the flop, except you have to commit to one hand or the other cards to help you keep drawing.

But since you only have 2 post-flop, does that mean one card straights and flushes are good, unlike PLO?
They can connect, but you have to be super-careful about small flushes and sucker-end straights, because the odds of getting coolered are insane.

Basically, the correct strategy in this game appears to be playing hyper-nitty TAG.
 
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bnasp2

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Thanks Egon. I hadn't heard of this except from your other thread. So essentially Omaha until the flop, except you have to commit to one hand or the other cards to help you keep drawing.

But since you only have 2 post-flop, does that mean one card straights and flushes are good, unlike PLO?

Beware,in Irish, you must use BOTH pocket cards (simillar to Omaha). Thats the reason why you need suited card for you ace (and some J-K for straight draws also).
 
Egon Towst

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Beware,in Irish, you must use BOTH pocket cards (simillar to Omaha). Thats the reason why you need suited card for you ace (and some J-K for straight draws also).
Incorrect, I`m afraid. After your third and fourth card are discarded, Irish plays exactly like Holdem. Therefore, you can use either or both of your remaining hole cards, unlike Omaha.
 
Aleksei

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One problem...

If you're only playing super-premium structure hands and then only playing them postflop when they connect hard (Draw or top set), that means your VPIP is gonna be like 10% or something and your flop connect rate is gonna be 25% or less. If on top of that you need to raise 5xBB to isolate every hand you play, you're investing 20-25 BB to hit, which means that generally speaking you have to play for stacks to get money out of your hits. Can you actually reliably stack people off in that game with a supertight image?
 
Egon Towst

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Basically, the correct strategy in this game appears to be playing hyper-nitty TAG.
I`d agree, at least in the current stage of the game, where most players seem to be playing loose, and therefore TAG looks profitable. Of course (as in Holdem) if everybody learned to play smarter and you happened to find yourself at a table full of nits, you could probably then exploit them by loosening up.
 
Egon Towst

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One problem...

If you're only playing super-premium structure hands and then only playing them postflop when they connect hard (Draw or top set), that means your VPIP is gonna be like 10% or something and your flop connect rate is gonna be 25% or less. If on top of that you need to raise 5xBB to isolate every hand you play, you're investing 20-25 BB to hit, which means that generally speaking you have to play for stacks to get money out of your hits. Can you actually reliably stack people off in that game with a supertight image?
In the tournaments I have played, the players haven`t been very observant and the ABC approach has worked pretty well most of the time. Of course, if you do notice that you have acquired such a nitty table image that opponents insta-fold when you bet, that would be your cue to go on a little bluffing and stealing spree, until they adjust.
 
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Incorrect, I`m afraid. After your third and fourth card are discarded, Irish plays exactly like Holdem. Therefore, you can use either or both of your remaining hole cards, unlike Omaha.

You are right. I googled some wrong rules before. Directly at FTP, there are rules and players can use just one hole card or even play the board at showdown (as in Texas).
 
Aleksei

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In the tournaments I have played, the players haven`t been very observant and the ABC approach has worked pretty well most of the time. Of course, if you do notice that you have acquired such a nitty table image that opponents insta-fold when you bet, that would be your cue to go on a little bluffing and stealing spree, until they adjust.
Right, I know that people will probably pay off your hits since they will have hit with something more mediocre as well most of the time. What I was thinking was moreso how much do they pay you off for? Because like I said, you need to extract massive quantities from them when you do hit.
 
Egon Towst

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NLI seems to attract players who like to play a lot of hands. The format lends itself to that approach, because the chance of catching a piece of the flop is higher. They also don`t like to fold once they have hit.

As with any form of poker, your profit comes from the other guys` mistakes and, for the moment at least, players are making a lot of mistakes in this new game.
 
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