7 handed

Loose passive open limps UTG, I am next with Q9s. The players to my left are a mix of lags and loose passives. The game has been pretty agro but sometimes there are mw limped pots.

What's the play?

I fold

Some marginal button opens. Good or bad. Assume a loose passive in the SB and a loose pre and can get aggressive post in the BB. It's a time game.

J6s
K6o
Q2s
J7o

How do you guy's respond pre flop to a maniac in a game? Assume this is a typical 7 handed laggy 20/40 game. Now the maniac sits to your right and the game is now nuts pre flop. Also, assume that the game is not completely nuts post but almost always involves the maniac who does a lot of betting and raising on all streets. Sometimes he just calls down. You won't be able to isolate the maniac because there are too many other laggy players coming along.

What adjustments are we making. I assume we need to get in there and gamble with a lot of hands. I also think we should fold some hands we would normally play to avoid getting in trouble.

1) Maniac opens UTG...Are we just 3 betting the hands we would normally open? I'd assume we should be cutting out some of our middle suited connector type hands. We should probably only play hands that can stand going 4 bets.

2) CO TAG opens, maniac on the button 3 bets, it's folded to us in the BB. I'm playing any pair, any Ace suited for sure given the implied odds. How low you going with Axo and Kxs hands? BTW, I think the TAG will be capping a lot of his better hands here.

I'll be adding some other scenarios.

Cut out hands that prefer to go heads up like ATo or KJo. Your biggest moneymakers in this type of game are going to be sets, straights, and flushes, imo. Expect a lot of people to be trying to check raise him and adjust accordingly.

Given that the tag knows the maniac's 3bet is meaningless, I probably don't have a 4betting range in this spot so we can get information about the tag's range. I'm calling 22+, A2s,+ K7s+, QTs+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 78s, ATo+, KJo+. Also I'm going to be leading in a lot of spots, leveraging the fact that the tag doesn't know how the maniac is going to react + my range is uncapped.

Also fwiw I have a 42% button range and don’t open any of those from the button.

For sure fold J7o vs bb as described. Rest are shrug fine. 42% seems too tight in a time game.

Maniac adjustments are heavily dependant on how often you can get hu. If field plays the same range for 3 bets as it does for 2bets you have to restrain yourself a bit. As you get to later position situations your chances get better. Postflop (I know, wrong thread) you have to be more sticky and value spew more.

Didn’t see it was a time game. Would probably open up everything except j7o.

A9o is trash. AT would be my cut of there.

BVB what percentage of hands are you opening in the SB assuming the BB is folding only 10% of the time and 3 betting a decent amount. Assume the BB is fairly sticky post flop.

Time game.

probably fold, raise QTs obviously

How much are we opening up our utg 8 handed range at a loose-passive preflop, mix of loose passive and tight passive post-flop 8-16 game? I feel like I’m losing value not just raising KJ utg in this game.

KJo
78s
55’s-77’s
j9s
A8s
K9s

what are we doing with these hands? Raising some, limping some? Preflop rarely goes for 3 bets and it’s usually a premium hand. Going 4-5 ways every flop for 1-2 bets.

If not utg, what position are we opening these hands from?

KJo - default 4off but would tighten up 1-2 pos in game described
78s - default 4off but would tighten up 1 pos in game described
55 - default 5off and don't change.
j9s -default 3 off and don't change
A7s - default 6off; you could probably open all Axs in all pos in game described. maybe fold A2s/A3s EP if you're really not feeling it.
K9s - default 4off and maybe 5off in game described.

No limps in the game described. beating the rake means winning blinds uncontested (no rake) and exceeding the cap by as much as possible when paying rake (ie pots you win).

Sorry, it’s not a rake game it has a flat drop otf 5+1, +1 ott, +1 otr

7 handed.

very loose passive player limps in LJ, Very loose passive player raises in HJ, I am next in the CO. The button is tight and the blinds are fairly loose.

The HJ has been at the table for 3 hours. He limps and cold calls a ton. I have seen him raise 5 times. I haven't seen anything worse than AJo. The others have been JJ-KK

I have Ad8d and would usually 3 bet here as a default. Do I stick with the default given a relatively small sample size or do I adjust based on what I have seen?

I would adjust and would do so by cold calling, hoping for the pot to go off 4 or 5 ways for 2 bets and you can use your position on the HJ and your read that he has a very narrow range to proceed accordingly on the flop.

In LHE, your only option for exploiting what you know (or have good reason to believe) is a very narrow preflop range is usually to just fold because your implied odds suck and you can't typically make people fold those hands post, but this is the type of situation where the field is going to lay you a price. The hand is of course tough when you just flop an ace, but them's the breaks.

Just fold.

You have 32% equity against that range. Fold ainec.

I would still 3bet A8s against this guy. Rec players tend to have erratic pre-flop ranges. Like they may only raise 5% of the time, but it's not going to be anywhere near the top 5% of all hands. It's going to be some strong hands mixed with some weirdness. And they will likely even slowplay some premium hands pre-flop like AK or even AA. I need a lot more than 3 hours to believe that a player is such a tight raiser. If we are wrong, we are passing up on an extremely juicy spot... isolating a weak player and blasting the blinds out of the pot. I wouldn't underestimate how brutally we can outplay such a player post-flop. He's going to constantly let us off the hook in spots where a reg would value town us.

I see what you’re saying but I think even if what you’re saying is true it’s still pretty close. I’m open to having my mind changed though because experts probably would still make the play. I just have tried it and didn’t find it to be that great.

What type of Aces are you all opening in the HJ and the CO. Assume a typical line up.

I currently open A8o+ in the HJ but think it's a bit thin.

I open A4o+ in the CO.

I open A7o in the HJ and A2o in the CO.

3 bet all day. you have position, dead money, and likely the 2nd best equity of all dealt hands. even vs. JJ-KK you arent that far behind. id probably 3bet any AXs here including A2s, and any suited broadway.

3 betting pre also sets you up to fully realize your equity in a big pot rather than cold calling and playing fit or fold on the flop. seems worth the additional small bet investment (or big bet if villian caps pre).

the best play is probably something like

KJo, fold, raise utg+1
78s, fold, raise utg+2
55’s-77’s, raise77, raise 66 utg+1, raise 55 utg+2
j9s. fold, raise utg+1
A8s. raise
K9s. fold, raise utg+2

that said sometimes i feel like gambling and raise all of these for fun (i play postflop better if im having fun than i do if im bored, so theres a tradeoff). i do think that KJo, j9s, 78s, K9s are quite weak UTG 8 handed though. small pp's and Axs arent bad in any position on soft tables as they do awesome in multiway raised pots.

i also dont open limp unless im playing tilted or otherwise sh*tty. even on soft tables i find open limping is basically giving away money.

7 handed 20/40 time game.

Lets say a TAG opens UTG. Give him a 15% range...Does that sound about right? How much tighter do we need to play if we are next to act compared to if it is folded to us on the button? Assume there are still one to two fairly laggy players to act behind us.

Would you 3 bet ATo, A9s, and 66's if next in? How about if we are on the button?

If the game is extremely loose and somewhat laggy would you possibly just call with some of your holdings if UTG+1? Like pocket pairs, 9Ts etc.