Ive been playing with a regular and he ALWAYS min raises to $4 regardless of position and cards. He wouldnt do it all the time. But when he raises it is always to $4. Almost like a straddle.

Usually there are alot of callers. But then someone would raise it and he would come over the top if he had good cards. If no one raises, he would just check or sometimes make a big raise to win the pot right then and there. One time it went to showdown and he was forced to show 36offsuit which he raised with and hit two pair. S he is raising with a very wide range.

Is this a specific startegy he seems to be employing? And can any of you see the merits in doing this game play?

He seems to be a very splid player and always has a big stack after several hours of grinding

Depends on the table whether or not this strategy is "good" or not... I assume that this is a 1/2 cash game? Either way, I doubt this strategy is optimal. Raising to a standard amount is likely much better.

He's not good.

No this is bad bad bad. He is just bloating pots with trash. Unless the rest of the table is just terrible post flop and weak weak passive where he can steal the pot often with a bet then this is lighting money ablaze.

+1

Don't see how this can be very profitable for a regular casino player day after day long term. I do see how a 2 or 3 times a month rec player might keep his losses down and maybe have a good run of cards and bad players and prosper at a moderate level.

this might not be so bad than anyone seems to think here if his tables are mostly weak and won´t "3bet" his minopens without premiums although it is super weak. if that´s the case, he gets to see a whole lot of flops with a wide range and lots of playability/high SPR postflop against weak oppostion. plus he obv balances it with his strongest holdings too.

if used at the right table conditions, this might actually work for him. sure, it is not optimal, but FWIW the "raise huge with your premiums"- theory which is always advised in this forum is not optimal either and can get exploited so easily from semi-competent villains. it still works, and it exploits peoples weaknesses, although being exploitable. why can´t you say something similar about his approach?

this is just terrible startegy...people love to see cheap flops at these levels and your just gonna end up 6 way oop most of th time with inferior holdings, plus when you do have big hands your giving everyone else proper odds to crush you and lose a big pot..

Are you sure he is a long-term winning player?

It's not optimal.

Fixed strategy is almost always bad in a poker game.

It is totally possible that somebody is winning money using this strategy, but they are far more likely to be winning despite it than because of it. Given the propensity of players in these games to put in too much money with too wide a range pre flop he is losing tonnes of value with his premium hands. None of the upsides of this play (obv there are some) are likely to make up for that.

I agree with this but think "optimal" should not be used in a GTO sense (as I assume you mean it here) in this forum as it's relevance to live play is insanely small compared MAX EV plays.

That's not a strategy. Its just a different form of bingo.

Get him on your left and l/rr anything you'd raise.

It's not going to be profitable to play that many hands, but it's a damned good way to become a lot better at poker. Going through this kind of phase can have great long term results.

He could also be good but also have different goals than making money. Never assume everyone has the same goals.

One of the biggest winners in the pokerstars midstakes games employed this strategy. So im sure it can be used to beat 1/2 live. The higher rake compared to online should be offset by the skill level difference

Alexm can you expound in what way can we learn from employing this strategy? What specific concepts do we take away from it?

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Can you explain the strategy he used?

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The biggest edge good players have at 1/2 is that too many players commit far to much of their stacks pre with very bad holdings.

This is why generally you see standard opens at 1-2 being somewhere between 10-25$ If he is making it 4 dollars every time he opens (and I would presume with many more hands than he would open to 15$ with) he is just throwing away BBs.

When we raise to 15$ we are forcing players at smaller stakes to call WAY too much of their stack to see a flop (obv this is what happens more often that getting 3 bet. otherwise raising to 15 would be pretty bad if the game is very 3bet happy and not incredibly deep stacked). This makes players SpR change dramatically than if we do what this player is doing and open to 4 dollars.

Now if we are getting 5 callers at 4 dollars we are jamming up the pot to create a more awkward spr without risking the extra 11 dollars out of our own stack but I can't really imagine how this could be profitable in the long run.

I certainly don't believe that it is value long term than a standard 3x open.

There is no way it is more valuable than opening to 8-10x BB.

This makes me think he is a very weak player.

What do you learn? Pretty much everything ... multi-way pots, hand reading, live tells from opponents who want to make steals PF, how often can you re-steal from a stealer.

I agree that this can (and will) be exploited by regs but in a casino or online where opponents can change frequently it can be very effective. I raise to 6 or 7 quite often when I first sit down and pound the Flop. I only have to win these pots 25% of the time to make money and they are set up to max out the rake formulas ... 4 callers at 7 is 28 where the rake is 'only' 2 since I usually pick up at least one blind. (watch your dealers folks, make sure they know how to calculate the pot)

Once I build a stack and/or depending on how the table is playing back at this method I will then decide how long to apply this opening raise or start switching it up.

At 1-2 this is a great way to build a pot and see a lot of Flops cheap if you feel you can out play the table post-Flop. I totally agree that this is not a long term method of play but it is a great way to start out your night to get a quick read on the table before you start to mix things up a bit. GL

Honestly this guy may be a weak online player that doesn't know any better.

Whenever he opened a pot it was for a minraise. From what I remember, his 3bet and 4bet sizes were more on the normal size.

The strategy might not be optimal, but it might be best for him. Like AlexM has said, he might have other goals. Maybe this strategy allows him to play double the hands he would normally play, but at 70% of his normal winrate. Maybe he can play longer when he is engaged rather than waiting for premium hands.

I think it is highly presumptuous to call the player or the strategy flat out bad.

Or he was using it as GTO, given that the game is tougher than live 1/2.

So let's say that your primary goal is to reduce variance and you open raise your premium hands to $6. If your willing to bet/fold postflop and not stack off with AAs whats the worst part of this strategy--your winrate will suffer by not getting full value out of your phs?

these don't really go together at all