I play often at a large casino that has very frequent high hand promotions. They are usually pretty big on the weekends $1k/hour, $600/20 mins, etc.

Most of the recs that come in for these promotions will limp a much wider range than their already wide limping range. I have also noticed that premiums get limped more often during these promotions because they get scared that everyone will fold. I have no way to know this though so it may just be from confirmation bias.

So I'm just wondering how you guys would adjust to this preflop. It seems like iso'ing larger and playing a tighter range is the simple answer, but I don't know if there would be a better strat than just being a nit.

Post flop I think we can usually weight the fish ranges more towards SC's and PP's. They are more likely to call with a 1 outer to a SF or with sets because they want to see 5 cards to make a HH.

I know that I am speaking broadly about the adjustments I see. I just see most of the room lean more towards this style to some extent.

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What are they doing when you try to ISO them? Are they trying to get to the flop no matter what or do they respect your raise?

I'm assuming most of them are weak, loose-passive players based on the information given. I would keep a tighter range in early position but in middle-to-late positions I would personally open up my range and exploit them post-flop.

Ultimately, you want their range to be too wide and trying to hammer them PF to isolate discourages this.

If you are a stronger player and are playing against a field of loose-passive players, I find that leaning on your ability to value bet thin post flop and staying out of sticky situations yields a better win rate. To make this work, you have to be comfortable value betting things like 2nd best pair when your opponents tendencies are to call any draw or any piece of the flop.

At the same time, you have to be able to lay down top pair/ace kickers when the players who are normally passive decide to raise you on the flop or turn, especially in multi-way pots.

If this style of play feels too foreign then sure tighten up and play a straight-forward TAG strategy.

However, the problem you may sometimes run into by playing a more straight-forward TAG strategy is that they simply don't care about what you do pre-flop. TAG players sometimes get themselves into trouble playing loose-passive players by making it 6-10X before the flop, missing the flop, then taking another hit once they miss and fire a C-bet only to get called down with a mid-pair.

Alternatively, if you get to the flop cheaply more often with a wider range you get to dictate when to build a large pot once you already have a good idea of the strength of your hand vs. your opponents based on their range. If they are calling you down anyways to hit their one-outer monster draws, why not get to more flops cheaply and punishing them AFTER you catch a piece of it than before.

To each their own, but I say this as someone who not too long ago was too tight in these scenarios, would try to hammer pre-flop, and find myself lost on what to do post flop. Navigating the flop is something TAGs sometimes have issues with at the amateur level but this is absolutely necessary in order to move up to higher stakes. In games dominated by a loose-passive field, this is your opportunity to learn navigating flops and later streets, value betting, and exploiting leaks in a weaker player pool.

This is an interesting way to look at it. My background is online so I'm used to punishing limpers being profitable. I've got 500k hands on ignition but only about 500 hours into my live play journey. I notice in games like these that at first my PFR will get folds and then maybe I'll have a heads up pot where I can outplay a single V. Then as the session goes on I get labeled a bully and start going 5 ways to the flop. This is usually when I just tighten up and increase my PFR sizing. (though I much prefer playing LAG when I can). When I make this adjustment I'm aware that my image prevents me from profitably auto cbetting alot of boards, but I can still delayed cbet or call down light against some V's

I am a 29/25/10 winning 200nl 6max player though so having to tighten up to the ranges I usually do bores me out of my skull. It's a winning strategy but sometimes it doesn't feel like it is worth the boredom.

I've always accepted the old saying "if they are bad players because they passively play too many weak hands, your plan to beat them is to passively play a bunch of weak hands?" It went something like that anyway.

What hands are you trying to get in cheap with? I assume weak-mid PP's and mid SC's, but what else? What hands would you be raising in a less passive lineup that you limp with instead? Are there hands that you would raise with but elect to fold at a table like this?

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Did I start this thread in the wrong subforum? I was really hoping to get some more discussion going on this. Any observations anyone has made during these kinds of promotions, any outside the box ways to approach games like this.

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You're in the right forum but it tends to be pretty slow in here on the weekends, and a lot of posters prefer to discuss more specific questions.

It might pick up a bit on Monday, but similar threads tend not to get a lot of traction either. The effect just varies so much depending on V, stack depth, table dynamics, etc. My only real adjustment is to up my sizing on wet boards, since they'll pay even more to draw, and to leave sets in their ranges even if they just flat, because they might be afraid of scaring me off and thus not getting the chance to hit a FH/quads for a shot at the promo money.

On the button or cutoff I would play Q/10o J/10o, suited gappers down to 5/7s.

My data set is nowhere near as large as yours.. at least not tracked anyways. I have only been tracking for the last 65 hours so perhaps take my play with a grain of salt until I log about 450 more lol. Also, I play a lot of 1/2 home games so I know my opponents tendencies a bit more than if I just sat down at the table with them for a couple of hours.

Playing tight/aggressive is not a bad strategy in the OPs original scenario either.. but it has been my own personal experience that sometimes the TAG guys will hang themselves on top pair or an overpair on the flop.

It all comes down to concentration and figuring out your opponents intentions but against a weak, loose/passive field (i.e. at least 2 or 3 calling stations) I have had success opening up my range and doing things like value betting mid-pair against guys that always want to draw or value betting super thin when I've made 2 pair or better on the flop against guys that won't lay down top pair.

It's hard to play this way though because you may be playing this way against the calling stations but then you have to sometimes get out of the way if you have TAG players also in the pot (i.e. value betting mid pair is no longer a smart play when a TAG is in a flop like Q/J/x and you hold J/10 or similar) To make an overly gross generalization though, the strategy is to get to the flop cheap then bet it huge when you flop 2 pair or better.