Hello everyone.

There's a very good live 1/2 game in my town where people usually buy-in for $300 and after a while there are plenty of $400 and $500 stacks. Raises of $15 and $20 are usually called by 3 or 4 players. C-betting doesn't seem to work. Has a few regulars who play nitty but are not really dangerous (just ABC poker players).

I want to get really good because there is a lot of money at this place. I have a pretty decent knowledge of poker but I'm not a winning player yet. I have plenty of leaks and have lost a lot of money because of tilt.

Recently I decided to view poker as "chess" and detach myself from the money. Sometimes I find myself making unnecessary fancy plays against these players because I get bored, want to make money, or don't want to be seen as a nit.

I'm down $240 after 55 hours of playing at this particular room and I'm down $1487 overall after 286 hours of playing live 1/2.

I want to go back to basics and adopt (temporarily) a no limping preflop strategy to force myself to play tighter.

So for the next 10 sessions I'm not going to limp any hand and will post the results here.

Another dilemma I have is regarding how much to raise preflop. In this room I usually raise to $20-$25 and get 2, 3 and even 4 callers. Do you guys think I should raise bigger to try to make people fold or just raise to $12-$16 and resign myself to play multi-way pots?

That's a funny thing to say... I guess you mean that c-bet bluffs don't fold players out. If you really are continually getting floated and forced off the hand later - then you do need to tighten up your cbet range. That would fit well with your new no-limp policy. And given you are only coming in for raises with (presumably) premium hands - then the cbetting will take care of itself... and you'll want to get called.

WRT pre sizing... I just do what it takes to get to 1 or 2 opponents generally.

Good luck.

Playing a tighter range and only coming in for raises (with what is now perhaps a face up hand) in a loose getting deeper game is pretty much the opposite of how you should play, imo (although you will get lots of opinions on this).

If your choices were limited to raising vs never raising, you might even do better adopting a no-raise mentality in games like these (although a decent amount of limp/3betting).

Gimo;goodluckG

I plan to have a wide raising and 3 betting range from the cuttoff and button.

If I get dealt 89s in the button and 3 players limp, the idea would be to raise preflop and then c-bet the flop if it helps my hand.

If it's raised before me to something like $10-$15, I would just flat call and hope to hit a good hand.

With hands like AJs, I would 3-bet light raisers and fold against tight raisers.

Makes sense?

I've never really understood the "never limp in" argument. Maybe that holds true online where games tend to be more agro, but in live games limping is fine, considering you don't overdo it

If 5 people limp in and we have 33 or A2s OTB, why restrict yourself to raise or fold?

If the table is passive and we have 55 utg, why not limp in?

If there's a maniac OTB who loves to attack limps but respects raises, why not limp AA utg and hope to get over limpers before 3betting the maniac?

I'm not much of a limper but there are definitely times I will do it and it pays off.

Not limping in is not the key to beating your game. It's playing a stronger range and value betting better. If you have regs who are nitty, I'm not sure why cbetting isn't working. It should.

Play poker in a vacuum? Sounds like a great idea

My default in small games that are playing somewhat deep is to never limp with a hand that can't call a raise. I will raise with a lot of these hands in postion, KQ, AT, QJ, but limping them and calling a reasonable raise is a money burner out of position.

Hand's I would limp. pairs, good suited connectors, stuff that can flop well and stack someone and allow for flexibility when playing deep. If a game is deep and features a lot of positionally sound 3 betting, I would rather not raise first in and be blown off my hand, so I'll limp. If they are staying in line and letting me massage the pot to set up profitable situations, then of course I will be doing a lot of open raising and raising over limpers.

OP: good on you for knowing exactly where you're at after almost 300 hours despite being a slight losing player at 1/2. Most ppl in ur shoes wouldn't have it tracked and would just assume they were a winner and better than everyone they were playing with, chalking up the losses to bad luck.

Things are going to get good for you at 1/2

I suggest posting the poker goals and challenges forum for this subject.

Locked.