The best way to break down the game is into betting rounds, pre-flop and post flop. There will be other aspects discussed. But this is the best place to start.

Pre-flop
This is where the biggest mistakes really begin for any player. With softer and often times less experienced competition, you will find many players play loose-passive. This means, they call a lot of bets and even large ones with marginal hands, but rarely raise or re-raise. This is the best competition to have. If you find your table is too tight, try to find a better table. The fact that your competition rarely raises or re-raises allows you to play first position as if you are last to go on a loose passive table. You will want to see as many “cheap” flops as possible with any connectors, suited cards, low pocket pair and Ace rag. You can simply call with any of these hands from early position without much risk that the pot will be raised. In the rare case the pot is raised, it is a very marginal raise; Typically to $6 or $7. If it is raised anymore than $10. Your opponent probably has a monster. I’ll tell you when to call those raises with marginal hands later. With a loose table, implied odds for any hand are very high. In other words, you will get paid if you hit a hand with 4 other people in with you.

Marginal Hands:
Connectors: consist of hands like 56, j10 and even 79; where the two cards are separated by no more than 1 card. Just call.

Suited Cards: consist of ANY two cards that are suited. Lower suited cards, just call. A or K suited or suited connectors raise to $6 or $7 to build the pot.

Low Pocket Pair: 99 and below. Just call. Up to 5% of your stack. Or go all in if you are short stacked 77 and above.

Ace Rag: A3, A7. Just call…unless it’s suited, then raise to $6 or $7 to build the pot.

Good Hands:
Strong Ace: AQ and AK and above. Call or Raise to $10. A10 and AJ should be played as connectors. These hands are good but your kicker may not be any good. You are really looking for straights trips or two pair.

Mid Pocket Pair: 10 10 and JJ. Many people will try to argue this and say JJ is high pocket pair and 77 is mid pocket pair. You are still really looking for trips or a very non threating flop with the hand. The problem is, even if your 10’s or J’s are top pair after the flop. Players still call looking for face cards. It is definitely safe to bet after the flop, but you have to be careful. Call or Raise to $10-$15.

Premium Hands:
AK AQ Suited: These are premium hands in the fact that you can call larger raises with them, but I still am looking for 2 pair or greater after the flop.

High Pocket Pair: QQ, KK, AA. Raise to $20 or more. Best situation, try to get all of your money in pre-flop with 1 caller.

Not A Donkey…Maybe a Little
After reading this hand selection breakdown, you may be thinking that I am telling you to play like a donkey…well, I am…kinda. The difference between you and the donkey is your bets when you make a good hand. You will know how to bet and make max profit from made hands. That and their hand selection is even less selective.

You will find these rules differ from “textbook” poker. You will call much more often from early position and refrain from raising with hands like 99. Again, the reason you can call from early position is because, the pot is rarely raised on a passive game, so the risk it will be raised a large amount, even if there are a lot of callers is slim. Raising with 99 will not get you any information since many loose-passive players will play K3 off suite after a raise. If 633 flops and there were 3 to 4 callers, you have no clue if your 9’s are good. A large pot is going to get A6 to call after the flop as well. Does your opponent have K3, A6 or AQ and still coming along? Let me express this important point: You are looking for MONSTER flops and draws. You still need to bet when you think you have the best hand. But don’t get too carried away unless you have a monster. A monster is top two pair or greater, depending on the board.

Ace Crackers: Calling raises with marginal hands
These are literally any of the hands discussed in this section, marginal through premium. (However, you should be careful if you only flop top pair, you are looking for 2 pair or greater.) In fact, the lower the cards, often times the better. If you have suited connectors and raise to $7, only to get re-raised to say $15 or more.  You can bet they have a big pocket pair, usually JJ or higher. You should then look at their stack, because if you hit your hand, their chips are as good as yours. In this case, you are not calling because you think you have the best hand pre-flop. They need to have a lot of chips along with you to make these kinds of calls. You are looking at the implied odds of the situation, you want to at least see 2 pair on the flop or a great draw.

Play accordingly. There is really no reason to go all in on the flop when it is heads up in this situation, without a made hand. The reason being, your opponent will more than likely call. Do not go all in if you are behind in this situation. The purpose of going all in on a draw(semi-bluff) should be primarily to win the pot right then and there. Some players might think that is the best chance to win a big pot if they hit their big draw, because their opponent might fold on the turn or river if they hit. You do not have to worry about your opponent folding if you make a hand. They will most likely call off $500 dollars with their pocket pair, whether it improves or not. That is why implied odds are so good in this situation. If you completely miss a flop…bail! Do not try to outplay them, you can pick a better spot. You will find badd players will call with AK down to the river with just Ace high, so it is hard to shake them off any hand. Save that for when you have a made hand.

Let them bet the hand. The main reason implied odds are in your favor is because loose passive tables do not know how to bet. They have a tendency to try to “trap” with over pair. With a $50 pot, you will find them betting $10 on the flop and possibly $10-20 on the turn. You are almost guaranteed pot odds if you flop a good draw. (If you find a player tends to bet larger amounts when checked to, but tend to only call smaller bets if you act first; go ahead and lead bet an amount that will give you favorable pot odds.)

Many players at these low limit games play big pocket pair horribly. You will find many players limp in with 10 10 and better. In this case, these pocket pair will probably be crushed because 4-9 players will be in the hand, reducing the strength of just top pair. I have seen many cases where big pocket pair will hit a set, only to get crushed by a straight or higher. When players limp in with big pocket pair. It can be difficult to put them on say AA, typically you can tell they have a good hand, but that is about it. Just play your monsters and watch the disappointment on their face when they lose and you take down a nice pot.

Ace crackers are what make me appear to be a stupid poker player at these lower limit games. Many players have lost a huge pot to me with big pocket pair after I have called $10-$15 raises to hit hands. The reason being, they have had $200 or more in front of them and I have at least matched their stack. Many times I will take down a huge pot like this and players will say things like, “That’s OK, if you keep playing like that, all those chips are coming back over here.” To which I reply “Yes, $10 at a time” or whatever their raise was.

Only call raises with marginal hands against the poor and average player. The good players will price you out of draws and are more likely to make a great lay down if you hit a good hand, thus lowering your implied odds against them.

Continued: Low Limit Poker Strategy| Part 3

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When playing lower limit NL Hold em games, it is important to understand that in order to win you typically need to leave your advanced concepts on the rail. The best way to say it, you should dumb down your game. Low limit games are notorious for poor play. Poor play is what makes these tables so attractive to play, yet it is also a big reason knowledgeable players cannot post a trend of winning sessions. This does not mean that you should play stupid, it just means you should treat this game different. We are going to look at how to take advantage of soft games on lower limit games. There are three major things to consider when playing any game, they are: blinds, bankroll, seat selection and competition.

Blinds/Buy-in
A lower limit game is generally considered to be a $2/$2 game or lower. These games typically have a $200 max buy-in or lower. While many people will argue that $200 is not chump change, in the world of poker…it is. These games will generally attract softer competition, which can get a lot of “text book” players in trouble. I respect the “Super System” and other well known advanced poker strategy books, but these books are only half truth when it comes to low limit NL hold em.

Bankroll
Like in any poker game, you then want to think about an appropriate bank roll. Your bankroll is how much money you have behind you devoted to playing poker. This should not include IRA’s or your children’s college fund. It is a roll of money you absolutely can afford to lose. Generally, your bank roll should not be any less than 20 times the buy-in for your preferred game. The most important reason to have this size bank roll is psychology. If you only have $100 or $200 to gamble with and losing that money will make you lose sleep, you will play scared. If you know you have 20 buy-ins to play with, you will be able to play with the proper aggression and take proper risks. However, that does not mean that you should bring your entire bank roll with you to play. I typically bring about 5-7 times the buy-in to play and leave the rest at home. The reason you do not want to bring your entire roll is simple. If you loose more than 7 buy-ins you will probably not be able to play right. Whether these losses where due to poor play or not, you will more than likely be on tilt. You will either play scared or take too many risks trying to “catch up”. I typically call it a day if I loose 5 buy-ins, even if I bring 7.

Seat Selection
If you have time to observe a game before sitting down, it is best to sit to the left of any player who raises a lot and plays aggressive. If you do not have time to observe the table, a good rule is to sit to the left of the big stacks. These rules apply to all games as well, but we needed to mention it. If you do not have a seat choice, just sit down and play. Players will be knocked out and you will be able to change seats if it will benefit you later.

Competition
Now you need to evaluate your competition. The optimable table will consist of 2-3 bad players, 4-5 average players and 1-2 good players (including yourself of course). Too many bad players and the game can be too erratic. Many times it is already difficult to know where you stand in any hand at low limit games, but adding more bad players increases the random calls of players who you did not think stayed with a gut shot draw for a pot sized bet. If there are not enough bad players, the game can be fairly tight and is usually not the best to make money at. Good players help control the game a bit, but you do not want too many of these either. They are your direct competition, they are the only players who will consistently win at these tables along with you. Average players are just in the mix. You can make money on them and they give you the opportunity to make bluffs the bad players won’t fold to and the good players might sniff out.

Note on good players: There will be two types of good players you will encounter, “low limit sharks” and “poker elitist”. Both of these types understand the game of poker completely, they have probably read books, played many hands and have studied the game as if it were an art. The difference between the two players is that the shark understands that “textbook” poker does not apply to lower limit. The elitist is a poker snob and is too smart for his own good. He has read all the books and now he wants to apply them to a game where the “rules” don’t apply and other players don’t play by the “rules”. He is a player that will constantly get frustrated that no one gave him respect after 3 calls, a raise and now his re-raise. He is also a player that will check in the dark with a big hand, thinking it will insight action. It usually just confuses people into checking at low limit games. I have seen these players routinely walk away in frustration and call me a donkey, because they don’t understand how to play low limit. What they fail to understand is their raise 4 times the big blind is still only $8. When they have $400 in front of them along with me, $8 is well worth the risk to “hit” a monster and drain their stack. Elitist can be pooled with the average players if you spot one.

Continued: Low Limit Poker Strategy Part Due

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