Hi everyone. I've started to play in a new game format in my home casino and I'd like to get some thoughts on strategy/metagame considerations. I also just feel like writing everything out helps me to consider the details myself.

Background

The laws in my state do not allow for standard no limit games. One game we have that is similar to no limit is a 2-100 spread game. $1/$2 blinds where the max you can bet/raise on a single street is $100. This leaves a lot of the players wanting to play higher stakes wanting more.

My casino also runs timed no limit cash game "tournaments" called survivals. These usually run on weekends only and they spread $500 survival and $1k survival limits. These games are true no limit games but have some weird quirks to stay within our state laws.

The Game

These survival games are time charged at $15/hr and do not take a rake in game. For comparison, the 2-100 spread game is raked at 10% up to $4 + $2 promo drop.

At the beginning of the survival game, the players agree to play for a set amount of time, usually 3 hours. You "buy in" to the game like you would buy into a tournament, paying the rake upfront. For example, in the $500 survival game you can buy in for 500 tournament chips by paying $545 (500 chips + $15/hr for 3 hours).

Rebuys/addons have an added $10 juice. So, if you bust your $500 (or drop below 50bb) you can rebuy for $510 and get 500 more chips. You can also double buy at the beginning by paying the rebuy juice. 1k chips = $1055.

Some other quirks: In order to be considered a "tournament" the blinds must increase at one point. So players usually agree to play $1/$5 for one orbit and then bump it up to $2/$5 for the remainder of the time. Further, no straddles are allowed, but this does not stop people from blind raising to $10 or $15 UTG.

At the end of the 3 hours, players are distributed cash/standard casino chips based on their tournament chip stacks. 1400 stack gets you $1400. You are also placed at the top of the list for the next $500 survival running, and a lot of players immediately play another 3 hour game, buying in for a new $500 or $1000.

Strategic Implications

I've found that when these games are running, all of the whales in the room will move to the survival games so they can play higher stakes no limit rather than 20/40 limit or 2-100 spread. Further, one other thing I've noticed is that people seem to stack off lighter than usual because they are no longer hampered by some sort of max bet limit. Lots of stack offs with TPTK or overpair type hands. So the games are usually good.

Despite about half of a table usually double buying at the beginning, the stacks never get insanely deep. This is because at the end of 3 hours, a new game starts and players effectively rathole whatever they built up over 100 or 200bb. This is good and bad. It's good when you're winning so you can lock up some profit. But it's bad when you want some super deep stacks to play speculative hands/apply max pressure.

My adjustments


I've adjusted to this game by playing tighter than usual when the stacks are shallow. Folding lots of marginal hands in favor of hands that make high pairs.

That being said, because there is no rake in the game, winning lots of small pots with aggression is more profitable than it would be in a standard raked game. So, when I am in a hand, I'm incentivized to over cbet.

Overall, I'm happy that i've found this game (as close to 2/5 NL as possible) and I will continue to play it when it runs. Thanks for reading!

Any thoughts? I'd also be glad to comment if anyone else has a wonky game format and would like to discuss strategy implications.

It seems like a fairly normal (although weird) time-raked 2/5 game -- with a strange add-on rake. The only difference is you can't top off until you are at 50bb or less. It seems as if it only gets more expensive than a normal time-raked game is if you keep buying back in.

Your strategy seems legit.

yeah, when I play these, I don't really adjust to the game format as much as to the players. I find most of those players aren't adjusting at all. Mind you, I've only played them as hourly, not in three-hour blocks, but I doubt it makes that big a difference.

The add-on restriction is weird, I agree. In order to avoid sitting on a 60bb stack or whatever it probably incentivizes you to double buy at the beginning of the game.

I would think re-setting every 3 hours would have a huge impact on stack depth. Standard time rake games after 5-10 hours will have some monster stacks to contend with.

I also agree with the fact that adjusting to the players is the most important thing. The interesting metagame consideration with this game is that because people are mostly playing LHE or 2-100 spread limit they actually OVERadjust to the game condition by going all in a lot because they can. I've seen lots of players go insane with AK preflop and airball/no equity bluff jams postflop.