I'm a 18/9 tag who plays the 1/2s and 2/4s online (cake and absolute) and I've been able to maintain about a 6-8bb/100 win rate in those games with the help of pokertracker and pokeredge. I also play live at the 2/5 game at a couple of the local casinos around chicago. Now these games play VERY different from the online games that I'm used to. I'm still able to maintain a decent winrate, but I feel like I am spewing in some places, and not capitalizing in others.

First of all, the opening raise is like $50, and you can usually count on at least 2 callers. However flop and turn raises are generally smaller in proportion to pot size as you see online.

So what adjustments should I make to a game with a ridiculously large standard raise??? Should I still raise SCs, small PPs, K7s, etc. when it limps around to me in the CO and BTN? I feel like no matter how good I play post flop, shoving $50 in with speculative hands and then cont betting ~$100 when I miss will definitely hurt me in the long run. How should I be adjusting my raising, limping, calling ranges preflop? I know in the literature it says "figure out what the standard raise is, and then play your normal game" but that sounds spewy to me.

in addition, what happens to set-mining, calling with SCs, SAs in multiway pots?

Normally they say you should fold hands like AQo (sometimes), AJo, KQo to a raise, but in these games I almost feel more comfortable calling with these than a hand like 44 (no implied odds) or even occassionally pushing with AQ when there is a raise and several callers before me since there can be upwards of $250 in the pot already with decent FE.

depending on stack sizes it sounds like either nit it up or pretend it's a 7.5/15 game

normal effective 100BB stacks

In which case you buyin for 1500 and play against various stack sizes accordingly.

the game has a fixed 500 dollar buyin

be even more aggressive

QFT

people make loose calls and make too big of bets... but that doens't make the game aggressive.... when people start 3-betting light is when the game gets aggressive... very few people do this live

if any

If you raise to 50, and get a caller, its not necessary to bet 100 to take down the pot.
1-2, I use 5 X the BB +1BB for each player.

You dont have to be the guy that raises to 25 when they have AA or KK, and only 15 with JJ....

Remember , the pots you win will be bigger, so just get used to the swings.
Live games are typically passive with a ton of calling, so value bet away.

By "casinos around Chicago" do you mean the private clubs in the city, or the boats. If you are talking about the clubs, I play in the same games and I feel like I could write a book on them. If you are talking about the boats, disregard the rest of the post.

Back when it was a 1/3 game, the players were so bad you could nut peddle and limp with ATC and get paid when you flopped big. Now that it is 2/5, there are actually some good players that show up, so you really have to be careful who you are in the pot with. My game is so insanely different against different people there. For the most part, the bad players are unbluffable and the key is to learn to really push your value bets to the limit; you will be amazed at what people will call 3 streets with. The only bluffs you should even attempt are against the good players as they can and will make big laydowns in mulitway pots.

Both Soah's and BT2's advice have merits. Nut peddling will always be profitable there since most of the players are so bad. But I think the best way to play there is BT's way, an aggressive, online 6/max style. Tighten up your range from EP, loosen your range up from LP a lot, and most importantly 3-BET A TON!! The players there get super uncomfortable with 3-betting, and they play so horrible post-flop you will kill the game. You want to get heads up, or 3way period, otherwise every flop is seen 6ways. It is higher variance, and you will get stacked occasionally, but the pots you pick up from idiots will more than make up for it. I brought a buddy there who plays 6max online and played the same style, and he crushes the game for like 3-6 buyins a lot of the times he plays. Sticking to a nitty, FullRing, online stlye won't work well. I have tried it...

This is one of the areas I had trouble with when I first moved to live play.

The first thing to realize is that raising in late position with a hand like K7 gets most of its value online from two things: position and fold equity.

As you're discovering, preflop fold equity is non-existent in most live games, especially if you're in late position, so you just lost a goodly portion of your incentive to raise. Furthermore, your continuation bets will usually receive the same lack of respect. With those things in mind, some people then make the wrong adjustment: tightening up and folding these hands.

WRONG WRONG WRONG. You're missing waaayy too much equity by not playing your marginal hands in late position at a loose table. When you flop big, your positional advantage will often allow you to stack the fish at these levels. The implied odds are simply too big to dump these hands when you can see a flop cheap, especially if the table's mature and there are some deep stacks sitting around. When you miss or flop small, you can play position and your opponent to play poker.

Therefore, I advocate actually limping with these hands and playing small pots until you get a monster, at which point you will get paid off. I certainly don't advocate putting in 1/10th of your stack on what amounts to a doomed steal attempt, then routinely following it up with 1/5th of your stack on a continuation bet that's going to get snap called with bottom pair.

As to the 3Bet advocates earlier in the thread, all I can say is this: know thine opponent. Live players are far more polarized than online guys, who are fairly competent for the most part. You really have to make much more dramatic adjustments that are individual player dependent. 3Betting a calling station is a disaster. . . .

LAG it up preflop when you have good position and no one is limping strong hands EP. Just make sure that you are raising slightly better hands than your opponents. If they are limp-calling trash like J7s or K9s, then feel free to raise JTs or KTs IP. Obviously, don't raise A9o if an EP tight nit is limping AK/AQ/AJ/KQ, 55-QQ. Raise big enough that you ensure only 1-2 callers so the flop will be HU or 3-way.

Switch to TAG postflop and cbet somewhat less than you do in online cash games. Continuation bets will still work in HU and 3-way raised pots as long as you are smart about choosing what board textures to cbet based off hand ranges that you are representing and the hand ranges that your opponent likely have. Just think carefully about what hand ranges that your opponents have and react appropriately.

Play all your monsters, medium strength TPTK/overpair hands, and strong draws aggressively (cbet almost all of your monsters). Live cash game players are notoriously passive, and you can easily exploit this passive tendency by pushing the action with all of your legitimate made hands and draws. They will slowplay the @#$#@ out of everything and call with flush draws with bad odds, so you have a huge advantage as long as you play your monsters super-fast (don't check the nuts if/when they are slowplaying the second-best hand because you will lose a lot of value). I would probably bet/3bet almost all my monsters and big draws because live cash game players don't fold second-best hands and love to chase draws with bad odds.

I would play my TPTK/overpair hands fast until I run into turn resistance. Most live cash game players will slowplay their monsters until the turn, but they will show their aggression on the turn. So, if you get raised, or checkraised, or are even facing a big donkbet lead on the turn, be prepared to much TPTK/overpair if necessary. Sometimes you will have to ship it in, but I would consider folding to significant turn/river aggression from normally passive players.

For example, if you have JTs in the BB and two bad loose-passive players are limping in LP, then you can easily raise 6-7BBs preflop and then cbet almost any A-high, or K-high flop with impunity. If one or both of these bad loose-passive players limp-call preflop from LP, you can usually put them on small SCs/1-gaps/2-gaps, small pocket pairs, or occasionally weak broadway. In any case, JTs is a favorite against the trash that they will limp-call, and you can cbet so many A-high or K-high flops successfully that you are massively +EV here.

I would also highly recommend 3betting/squeezing preflop with small PPs or SCs/1gaps against any weak raises that smell of AQ/AJ/KQ, weak broadway, Axs, or small PP against a passive live player (a lot of live cash game players have a tendency to raise preflop bigger with a big pair and raise small preflop with everything else, so you can often 3bet light with small PPs/SCs/1-gaps when they make smaller preflop raises because you know that they don't raise JJ-AA that way).

They will rarely 4bet you even with AK, and you can easily cbet most non-ace flops successfully. Check-fold if you miss an A-high flop (maybe even check-fold K-high flops too); otherwise, you can and should cbet most flops. This strategy of light 3betting combined with cbets will net you a lot of cash.

Just make sure not to try light 3betting preflop against TAG players who have a tight preflop raising range that might include JJ-AA because you might face a 4bet preflop. If a smart TAG is capable of 4betting AK against you because he knows that you are 3betting light, then stop 3betting him light and play ABC against him.

Also make sure not to try any light 3betting/squeezing if tight players limp EP. Often, tight-passive live players will limp AQ+/TT+ EP, so you don't want to try any LAG 3betting/squeezing if you might run into slowplayed JJ+ from EP limper(s).

When you do get AA/KK, 3bet/4bet the @$^@#^$ out of your AA/KK because you will get plenty of action. I would customarily 3bet 3.5x/4x (or even more) of whatever my opponent raises because live cash game players hate to fold preflop, so you might as well get them to put in a lot of $$$ preflop.

Just don't expect your light 3bets to show an immediate profit preflop. You will make almost all the money from cbetting in these reraised pots when your opponent has missed the flop most of the time. If you are unwilling to cbet in a 3bet pot, then you can skip the whole light 3betting strategy. On the other hand, if you master the light 3betting/cbetting strategy, you can easily crush 2/5 live cash games easily by running over everyone and tilting everyone into paying off your monsters.

Until you start player higher limits, you can easily crush live cash games just by playing LAG preflop and TAG postflop. Play a lot of raised pots IN POSITION with slightly better cards than the fish, and 3bet/cbet with small PPs/SCs/1-gaps against weak preflop raises. You are almost always guaranteed to be one of the best players at the table, so you should really be shooting for playing as many big raised pots IN POSITION as possible as the preflop raiser (as long as your opening range is a little better than your opponents' limp-calling range). Then play smart TAG postflop and rake in the $$$.

Just remember that everything comes down to hand ranges. In online 6-max cash games, hand ranges are much wider, so that's why you end up opening, 3betting, and cbetting with a wide range.

In live cash games, ranges are a lot more polarized, but you can still play very aggressively by just adjusting to the ranges that you are facing. Against a loose-passive fish in LP or in the blinds, you can still open with a wide range in LP because they will call you preflop with an even wider range. Against a tight-passive regular who limps EP, you have to limp or fold marginal hands in LP because their EP limping range crushes you.

As far as the lack of preflop fold equity, that's OK. We still want to build up big pots by raising in LP as long as our range is slightly better than that of our opponents. So, if your idiot fishy opponents like to limp-call with SCs or small PPs OOP, then you can punish them by raising extra big before the flop with hands like ATs, QJs, JTs, etc. IN POSITION. Even if 1-2 fish call you before the flop, you can valuetown and/or cbet them to death with your preflop initiative and/or position.

If you just remember to respect the extremely polarized ranges of live cash game players, you can still play a highly aggressive style to rake in tons of $$$. Just remember to analyze your opponents' hand ranges and then play appropriately.

wow tldr

do "aggro live games" really exist? they seem like unicorns to me. people claim to have seen them but I have yet to find one.

if you can't turn a profit playing suited connectors and mid pairs in position you have bigger problems. also just because everyone is open raising to $50, doesn't mean you have to too...

disagree... if you raise 4x... your gonna get a bajillion callers

sometimes i like to raise 3x OTB with hands like 78s cus it builds a pot

i agree with everything dchan said... the most important thing tho is to play super abc for a short period of time until you can get some sort of a read on people

once you do adjust accordingly... dchan gave good advice