Ever since the joy of online poker was taken away...been looking for another way of getting my poker fix and adding to the bankroll. Did alot of grinding in small stakes on fulltilt....was a bigger winner online. Nothing to quit the job over or anything like that....yet. Being from northern minnesota poker, options are kinda limited right now. I play all the tourneys in the area and no limit tourneys I do ok....think i win more than my share...not saying I'm gods gift to no limit or anything like that, just think i hold my own. Won my share of seats to bigger area tourneys and even the Heartland Poker season opener in Vegas last january. No big cashes yet!

Tourneys the way to go to build the roll or hit the limit poker tables around here alot harder???? Never been able to get a group of winning cash game sessions going in a row. Guess i'm looking for some advice on if spread limit is even the way to go....$2/$10 feels alot like a .05 / .10 online game, minus the minimum protection factor of shoving when you know you have the best of it.

Strategy of my $2 / $10 game is super super tight cause most hands are 4-6 people seeing a flop with $50-$60 in the pot. Any little bit of discussion is welcome, would enjoy getting a few people together to bounce strategy ideas off of.


Thanks
Schulze

I played in this game once up in North Western Minnesota back in like 2006 for a few hours. Granted a lot has changed since then.

I would just try to get in the flow of the game and play accordingly.

If people are limping and you have a good multiway hand, limp along.

If you have a premium hand, raise the max. Postflop once the pot is more than $12 or $14 just simply bet the max if you are going to bet.

The spread should have little affect on the game, let your opponents bet the dumb amounts, charge them max when you have value to do so.

From what I can remember, folding wasn't very popular in this game (but again that was a long time ago).

So play your big hands strongly and don't worry about bluffing.

You need to think about loose game strategy. that_pope has some good advice here. There can be a NL aspect to a spread limit game like this, if you see a flop for $2 and the final pot is going to be $200, the implied odds are immense and you can play speculative hands. If it is going to cost $12 to see the flop every hand and the final pot is $150, you're playing in a broken LHE game where the bet doesn't double on the turn.

I agree with pope that you should start out just betting in $10 once the pot has grown. Just like NL, don't bother sizing bets to make smaller than 1/2 pot sized bets. As you become expert at the game, bet sizing can play in. However, it is akin to chatting people at the table. Until you're an expert, you're just a tell box. One exception from the beginning might be to size your flop bet to preserve your drawing odds and act as a blocking bet. Even then, anyone with a clue will know you bet the max with TP and bet funny when drawing.

When you start out, learn the game flow. See if you can predict when it will cost $2 to see a flop and when it will cost $12+. Get a handle on what 3 betting a guy to $22 will do to the field. Understand what starting hands like what fields. This game is the perfect example of needing to learn situational values of starting hands. However when in doubt, the cheap blinds allow you to play super-tight and just wait for your turn to pick up a big hand. A real expert might play a ton of hands in this game and might make some strange plays (again, think NL) with speculative hands. Watch for spots to get involved in late position with hands that flop big draws. There's nothing like a wheel draw + nut flush draw in a 7 way pot on the flop.

Yes.....good advice above....I play strictly spread limit games because I have found they are way more profitable than reg limit and is just more fun to play.

Huge pots sometimes and with a $4 max rake you can make alot of money.

Nothing like seeing six players all put in 3 or 4 bets preflop for a $70-100 pot with a hand like pocket tens and hitting the set

I agree with all your guys advice...thank you. This game last night I did have a figure on when pots would go $2 preflop or $12 and tried to save the speculative hands when out of position. Would have been stacked sooner in this game, but I'm actually able to fold when I know i'm beat...alot at the table didn't. 2 guys on opposite sides of the table took turn bumping it up $10-$12 preflop, had position on both most time and 3-betting did thin out the field. Hated playing just bigger hands last night, but tight was right in that game. Long story short....QQ's cracked 3 times....KK cracked twice...AA no action (Picked up the blinds)...AK cracked a few times and i saved a few bets on crap flops which wasn't going to get anyone to fold anyways.

Overal just a brutal session....won just a coupl of pots and lost a ton to Ace-rag hands :-) Tried to keep pots smaller...with weak hands. Pumped it up with bigger hands.

Agree.....Can't really try bluffing these kinda games, honestly not many times it will work. Anyone with half a brain will know, hey i better call...I'm getting like 15 to 1 odds (Example) Of course, I semibluff with bigger hands and draws.

Great advice...keep it coming.

Bump

just played 2 10 and did alright (2xBI over 3 hours). very swingy since I haven't played in awhile. would love to hear from anyone with +ev in spread games.

???

The narrow spread makes this more like a LHE game with very small blinds. Being up buy-ins is more of a cap NL reference. While a few of the early bets could be smaller, once the pot hits about $30, you should just look to play fixed limit $10. In fact, if the villain's are just as likely to call $5 as $10 preflop, you can actually just treat the game as $10 fixed limit. The mistake of the first cold-caller taking $10 to the face in a $13 pot is huge. The spread limit games each have their own character, so bet sizing can matter. A game like 1/2/100 is more of a NL game, and can play exactly like an online cap game if people are shallow. That same game wild and deep is basically $100 LHE.

Due to the fact that you're only playing $3/round in blinds, you can sometimes see a bunch of flops for $2/ea, and the final pots could be $200-$300, these games can reward an expert player like a NL game. Normal LHE doesn't allow you to make 150:1 on your initial loose limp with 75s or 33.

I think the casino had star in its name.

Shooting Star maybe?

Game is 2-20 Spread Limit 9 seats - Aggressive Game Pre and Post Flop decent players
Hero in SB with 44
UTG makes it $12 to go.
How many players need to call in order for this to be a profitable call?
What if the original raiser goes to 22$?

Similar question for 2-10 Spread Limit Loose Aggressive Pre and Bad Post Flop Players
UTG makes it $12
Hero on BTN with 66
How many players need to be involved before I can profitably call?

In general I have been having some tough decisions pre-flop with small/mid pocket pairs in spread-limit games. Any advice is much appreciated.

Yep, the Shooting Star. Twenty minutes from my home. A nice little poker room although management is doing its best to kill the game by moving it out with the blackjack tables, forcing dealers to split tips, eliminating the cage which results in long delays waiting for them to exchange chips and cash at the table, etc.

Sometimes on weekends they'll get a 2-100 spread limit game going, which is more fun for me.

I seem to do well in NL tournaments, but this 2-10 game, though more fun than 3-6 or 2-4 limit, is not as easy for me. So I googled it and came here to try to figure out how to beat the game.

I guess what I'm coming away with is...ok to speculate for a low price, bet hard when you think you have it, and don't bluff. It's that last one that I have trouble with, and why I enjoy NL tournaments so much more. I just looove bluffing and it sets up aggressive play when you actually have something.