Greetings poker players! I play in a loose-passive home game that usually plays HORSE. The stakes are fixed limit $2-$4, which usually works, but in Stud-8 that leads to a $1 ante and a $1 bring-in. Ray Zee's High-Low book says that unlike in most poker versions, in Stud-8, it's a "major error" to widen your opening ranges even in loose games. But at $2-$4 with a $1 ante and eight players, you are often getting between 9:1 and 15:1 odds on third street. I'm starting to think the best adjustment is to call for $1 with maybe 70% of all starting hands, and tighten up like crazy on fourth street. That doesn't seem to be working for me, though.

Any suggestions on how to play third street when almost everyone limps in? (I see little point in raising to $2; you'll still get 4-6 callers and they're getting good odds.)

Thanks!

If they already make a mistake by limping in, and you have a good two way hand, you really shouldn’t care about compounding their mistake by raising. Sure they are getting the right odds to call, but only because they made the initial mistake of limping in with trash.

I'll just say that there's not "little point" in raising. Raising builds value when you have a good hand. 5 people putting more money in when you have 30% pot share or what have you is a good thing.

And, yes, of course you should widen your range from what it would be in a normal structure. I certainly wouldn't advocate 70% of hands, but something like K54 2 flush that can spike major improvement would definitely be a profitable peel.

i'd also add that once you get to 4th street, tightening up (assuming you mean you're gonna fold often) would be a gigantic error.

the pot odds you're gonna be getting just to peel one more street for one more small bet are often going to be way too compelling to ever fold. even in the face of some really awful boards, with big antes you are gonna need to find some calls you wouldn't ordinarily think are correct

Agreeing with Kisada here, I think you still need to peel a lot of 4th streets which will inevitably mean that you fold a fair bit on 5th.