tight live games

[joebenigno]

I've noticed that live 2/5 games (I'm based out of the northeast) tend to be pretty tight pre these days. There's rarely any 3b pre anymore, if there is it's usually from one laggy player the entire session (limited to 6-max at most casinos/rooms due to covid), there's rarely any all-ins pre anymore, and if there is, the holdings won't be worse than QQ+, AK. Obv with 6-max, opening range should be much wider, would it be best to implement a strategy of 3b light pre often, even if it is not my normal playing style?

 

[zerosalex]

you can always try to loosen up the table or break it up by betting most the time, small medium annoying bets. and since they are tight they wont call much if they don't have much, at the same time you start to loosen them up and mess with their patience strategy.

 

[eetenor]

I've noticed that live 2/5 games (I'm based out of the northeast) tend to be pretty tight pre these days. There's rarely any 3b pre anymore, if there is it's usually from one laggy player the entire session (limited to 6-max at most casinos/rooms due to covid), there's rarely any all-ins pre anymore, and if there is, the holdings won't be worse than QQ+, AK. Obv with 6-max, opening range should be much wider, would it be best to implement a strategy of 3b light pre often, even if it is not my normal playing style?

Thank U 4 Posting

OMG that is great for you- no light 4 bets. That means your villains are telling you what they have preflop which means you are in control of the pot size in every hand you play preflop.

The answer is yes you should be light 3 betting in position versus all players playing as stated above and OOP versus only the players that are weaker post flop.

You do not normally play laggy you stated so laggy style requires excellent post flop skills.
While a solid preflop range helps- knowing when to attack boards and on which streets to big bet etc is a key. A fundamental aspect of laggy play is also not building big pots when folds are not likely and folding in the right spots.

Before you change to laggy you will want to focus on taking notes on post flop play. You must know who folds too much- who folds big hands on turn or river and who will pay off 2x or 3x pot shoves when u r nutted.

A good thing to think about is our Villains will adapt to your new found aggression but not always with stronger play. The folders may now become callers the callers may now become raisers it is key that we are looking for those clues to agg change.

In live games your V will start to grumble and make comments to others like- you should have called he was bluffing etc.

Then you know they will pay off more or check raise non-nut holdings so you can adapt your play post-flop based on those clues.

Hope this helps

 

[Khayzard]

As stated above, if you play in a very tight game you should absolutely loosen up and 3bet light. Use your position, 6max is such a wild format and you’re on the button or cutoff 1/3 of the time, use it.

If you get 4bet you know the guy has the goods, muck your hand and live another day.

Now people are probably going to notice a trend after a while be wary that they don’t get trappy or you’re gonna end up in a bad spot.

The opposite is also true by the way, say one night your walk in and everyone realized that you killed em a couple nights ago by being loose and aggressive, they might wanna try it. If everyone starts being looser, it’s your time to tighten up and play your best hands aggressively.

Good luck at the tables!

 

[Yontox]

I agree to most posts on here. If a table is tight, loosen up!

 

[joebenigno]

thanks for all of the suggestions -- the biggest issue that I have is that the game plays very stationy preflop, so when someone does put in a 3bet, it's usually called even out of position. these opponents tend to play sticky on most flops and a decent amount of turns. as mentioned, there are a tons of hands that are seen 6-max and you're in the cutoff/button 1/3rd of the time, so while I agree on aggregate that it's best to open up if the game is tight and tighten up if the game is loose, it's weird because the players are also sticky and it seems like if I'm firing 2-3 bullets every time I 3bet I'll be blasting off

 

[eetenor]

thanks for all of the suggestions -- the biggest issue that I have is that the game plays very stationy preflop, so when someone does put in a 3bet, it's usually called even out of position. these opponents tend to play sticky on most flops and a decent amount of turns. as mentioned, there are a tons of hands that are seen 6-max and you're in the cutoff/button 1/3rd of the time, so while I agree on aggregate that it's best to open up if the game is tight and tighten up if the game is loose, it's weird because the players are also sticky and it seems like if I'm firing 2-3 bullets every time I 3bet I'll be blasting off

Thank U 4 Replaying.

The above information is pivotal in setting up our light 3 bet ranges. As these villains are sticky post flop as I stated before we do less light 3 betting OOP and when we light 3 bet IP we want to avoid dominated hands. We do not want to put ourselves into reverse implied odds hell.

So we want to 3 bet 87 76 65 suited not Kx or Qx off suit hands. We can 3 bet Ax as we can fold to 4 bets and pot control flops.

You mentioned they were sticky but it seems like they are just calling not attacking you so we should still be loving the situation as we are still in control of the pot size as we are not building pots light OOP. By the way because we are light IP they may assume we are also light OOP so we get extra value from our OOP big hands.

An important point about light 3 betting- as your Villains pay off more (sticky)- we need not win more pots from them just bigger pots. So we will get some folds but we are not getting the most value from folds specifically but by playing bigger pots IP in control of pot sizes with our stronger made hands post flop.

So when we raise 76 suited and we make 2 pair plus and our V are sticky we max value them by building big pots even betting 1.2 x pot on the flop and turn etc. We can also shove rivers with situationally nut hands like trips on a board where there is an Ace K or Q as we know our V are 4 betting those hands preflop. We also know they are smooth calling JJ 1010 99 so we should be aware of being trapped when those cards hit.

As I stated in my previous posts this does require us to work on our board and player reads on every street not just preflop.

Hope this helps