Sorry if this is the wrong forum, I can't find anything close to this. (high stakes limit?).

I am playing at the local charity casino, open only for 6 weeks. Game is super juicy and rake is low for my neck of the woods.

1-2 list is usually long so I often play 2-5 as I wait for 1-2.

This game is basically NL holdem poker but as a charity it is not licensed for no limit and is therefore NL, the max bet per street is 100.00

I have noticed so much preflop calling. Lots of multiway pots. This feels like a combination of the ambience and the 100/street limit to your losses.

General thoughts.

Speculative hands like 7-8 suited gain more value, there's a lot of mutliway action so if you hit you make money. The nice thing is the reverse implied odds of this hand are limited since it's only 100 per street. Of course this limits gains.

Medium/high sized pocket pairs have less value. You can't really protect them that well. Standard raise with a hand like QQ needs to be higher to limit the field. Preflop to 25-30 playing 1-2 , 50-60 playing 2-5 seems more appropriate. If you raise to 15 and get 4-6 callers and see an ace or king or a coordinated board, what you going to do?

How would you adjust for this?

I haven't done much in depth analysis of this but I'd say that speculative hands don't gain more value per se. Speculative hands value is from winning big pots on big streets or from having enough equity to semi-bluff at people profitably. A street cap of 100 is going to make semi-bluffing and getting value much harder when the pot gets big.

Look at limit poker pre-flop ranges, there's not a crazy amount of difference between them and true NL pre-flop ranges except for BB defend and calling 3bets. The street limited ranges should be somewhere in between and given that they aren't all that different I'd say play like normal NL for raises but don't play the very very speculative hands like suited gappers out of position multiway (e.g. small blind after a bunch of cold calls) because the street cap will really constrain how much you win when you hit big and that's when that hand does best. Also maybe don't mix in many loose three bets like T9s or 98s because your ability to bluff later streets is really hurt.



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Do a search on SL or Spread Limit. There are a few old threads on Colorado poker before they lifted that limit. Basically, the 1/2 version of this game plays like NL except that when two players have hands worth getting stacks in, it sometimes takes an extra street. The 2/5 plays like a weird combo of NL pre, but limit post. It means Vs (or you) often can't manipulate the POs enough to make a draw calling a mistake, for example.

As for how big you can open premiums, that depends on how the local game dynamic is.

This was my favorite game to play before Colorado ruined it by allowing NL games. At Ameristar in Blackhawk I logged 15 sessions and was up 22K with only 1 losing session that was a paltry $300 buck.

1st off tho, you didn't mention stack sizes. The Blackhawk games were uncapped and most of the players were playing 200+BB stacks. And just to be clear, even though the max bet is $100 per street, they allowed unlimited raises. So if 2 players kept raising each other, all the money can go in on any street.

In my experience you are on the right track. In 2/5 NL deep stack games I RFI 3x with my whole range and 3! 3x+dead money. Not in this game.

You have to be incredibly unbalanced with your premiums preflop. My premium range was very tight QQ+ AQs+ AKo. Preflop and flop are the most inelastic streets, so when we know we likely have the best hand you raise as much as gets 1-2 callers. That threshold was right at half pot or a little less than $50.

If someone else opens smaller say $15 and gets 1 caller, just max bet to $100. On the majority of flops if checked to, max bet. If facing a bet, max raise. We likely still have the best hand and want to get as much money in the pot when we do.

On the turn and river, we can continue to max bet if the board doesn't favor draws or we can go into call down mode. I was amazed at what some players would call with.

SCs 45s+ (yes this includes suited broadways not previously mentioned), I mostly wanted to play in position and keep the pot small early. Never raise from any position and fold them if someone else at the table has adjusted and max raises. Sounds bad, but we want to get to a flop for cheap and play bingo with the other players.

Then on later streets these hands are easy to play. Call with your strong draws because they can't deny you equity especially on the turn and river when the pot got bloated multiway preflop. When you hit. Max bet. When you don't fold river. Also just fold when you make a 1 pair hand hoping to hit 2 pair or trips, it's just not worth it. Against multiple range you are smoked.

PPs are your best friend. Maybe a slight leak here, but I would call up to half pot raises from any position with 22-JJ. You might want to take out 22-55 if that's out of your comfort zone. Again we don't want to raise. The smaller the raise and the more callers preflop, all the better. If you hit, don't slow play, just max bet. Obviously if you don't just fold.

Ax suited, if I can see a cheap flop sure, but I remind myself we're only going to make a flush ~6.5% of the time and that's IF we make it to the river. Only being able to get 1 or maybe 2 max bets makes these hands kinda meh. Certainly not calling a hefty raise preflop.

Hands I didn't play preflop for any size raise, especially if multiway, were off suit broadways. KQ, KJ, AT just fold. They look pretty but just don't play well in this game. The 30% of the time you hit 1 pair on the flop is likely going to be no good facing any sort of aggression on later streets. Obviously if it folds to you on the button then by all means raise.

TL;DR When you have big hands bet big especially preflop and flop. Speculative hands keep the pot small. When you hit, don't slow play, just max bet.


As an aside here is one of my favorite hands from this game.

1 limp and I make it $50 from MP with AQhh
Folds to BB who makes the call
Limper folds

Pot ~$100 after rake
Flop KJ8hhc (so I got royal flush draw, NF draw and GS nut straight draw)
BB check
H max bet $100
BB tanks but makes the call

Pot $300
Turn 6d (KJ8hhc6d)
BB check
H max bet $100
BB REALLY goes into the tank. Has his cards of the table ready to fold, but makes the call

River $500
River 9s (KJ8hhc6d9s)
BB check
H? Well **** I bricked and BB prolly ain't folding for another $100 but eff it, in it goes
BB tanks again and finally folds 55 face up and says I missed ???

Turns out this V was a plumber who had deep pockets and would go on to VPIP about 80% of hands preflop and liberally call bets on early streets trying to "hit." We became very good friends that night.

Just my experience. Hope it helps a bit.