So I went to a live cardroom for the first time and was shocked at how different it is from online play.

The structure of the game is: Blinds 1-1, minimum buy in 25 and max 100.

A typical hand goes like this. UTG, limps, next player limps then some cowboy raises it to 7 or even 10, they usually get a caller or two. Most hands went to a showdown. So there seems little value in tying to raise someone off their hand or bluff.

So the question I have is, what is the best strategy to beat such a game? It is obvious that you can't really play speculative hands trying to flop big. I made the mistake of calling a 10 raise a couple of times with a small pair hoping to flop a set.

I was thinking it may be a good strategy to buy in for a half stack and wait for a good hand and just raise all in when you get a decent hand. But this removes all the postflop skill from the game (probably why the raises are so big in the first place).

If you do hit a big flop you will almost certainly get paid.

Have you come across this in other cardrooms? If so what is the best way to adapt your game for this?

Also, what kind of a bankroll would I need to play at this level?

Thanks,
Spawn

Sounds full of fishies

wait and bet you hands SUPER hard

For pocket pairs, use the 5, 10 rule. If the bet is less than 5% of your stack, you should call and hope to flop a set. If it's more than 10%, it's a clear fold. In between, use your judgment.

Your thinking along the right lines here. Try buying in for half stack and pushing a few times preflop until you can build a decent stack.

After you have built a stack to double the max-buy-in or more, this is exactly the kind of game where you want to limp as much as possible with speculative hands. That is if you feel you can play better post-flop than your opponents. I.E. Value betting, and getting away from hands.

These players will call you all the way down with top pair weak kicker and much less. God forbid they have AK and flop top pair and you flop a small set, bottom 2, your guaranteed to get it all in on the flop nearly every single time. Get your stack up and limp as much as possible.

This game sounds like the NL2$ (= 0,01/0,02$) games at pokerstars. I think you should try your strategies there first before you apply them live.

I once played the short-stack-strategy you described there. It can work. But you will face huge volatility. You have to be able to survive the loss of a couple of buyins in a row. To name a number: I worked with 100 buyins and i needed it!!!

Don't shortstack, but you may occasionally want to raise a shortstack allin if you've identified them as a loose raiser. When you're against a shortstack, you must play like one too, at least in relation to them. When you're against a full stack, why not give yourself a chance to win more money, since the play sounds bad?

Be patient. Be tight aggressive. Don't bluff in multi-way pots, especially for c-bets when there are 2 or more to the flop and you are OOP post-flop with missed overcards or something similar. Observe the rule of 5 and 10 when considering calling for set value. Value bet when you hit instead of trying for tricky c/r's or whatever. You can often rely on someone to call rather than checking to rely on someone to bet for you.

Play as if you're playing micro-stakes online. Solid ABC poker, tight, but aggressive if you hit something.

Thanks guys, that is really helpful.

So what kind of bankroll would you suggest for playing a game of this magnitude (and considering that it can be quite volatile due to the opposition playing so loose)?

Shouldn't be too volatile if they're all loose fish throwing money at you while you play tight

playing shortstack at a loose table is volatile. he will be all in after the flop if he hits sth. most of the time he will be ahead but its not unlikely to loose a couple of 2-1 or 3-1 shots in a row. this has nothing to do with the villians' level of skill.

When playing 1-1 I play push/fold poker live until I get 140bb in front of me. Then I continue to play push/fold unless I happen into a pot with someone with 75bb or more.

Sit back and wait for your premium hands. Usually when you get them, you'll find half the table (as usual) has tried to limp into the pot. In this position, I overbet the pot so that only 1-2 others are in the hand with me. Barring a disastrous flop, I push on the flop.

1-1 players on a whole are there to gamble, and pulling another 20-60 out of their pocket seems to be no big deal, so you'll get paid off more often than not.

Conversely, pulling another 20-60 out of their pocket is usually no big deal-- so you'll also experience some heinous beats from 8-3offsuit, who was just "feeling it" that hand.

I find the play at 5/10 cent full tilt much better than the play at the Daytona Dog Track Poker room 1/2 $100 min/max buy in.

Here are my general rules:

1) Almost never bluff
2) When you have the nuts, stick your chips in
3) $17 is a good preflop raise, $12 if it is a realy tight table.
4) Tricky hands (one gappers, connectors, high cards etc... are only for late position)
5) Encourage the fish to play well.

I have seen where a guy shows a player, who was thinking of calling a raise, his cards. The caller | folder saw that he was beat, but then called anyway. I was like wow.

During my next visit, a guy with queens bet into a ragged flop and I re-raised. He then shoved saying, you have trips don't you? He shove knowing he was beat with only 2 outs! Turn gave me quads. Ship it!

How can you bluff people when they call even when they know they are beat? Impossible.

Ya just have to have the bank roll for variance and the ability to leave when you are not playing well or go on monkey tilt because of the ****ty ass play.

what do you mean by that?

Do you have an estimate of your winrate? If not, thinking about bankroll is fruitless until you establish a winrate.

Playing deep-stacked at the same table is even more volatile (in units of currency, not in buy-ins).

Tight up front loose in the rear. See what they are raising with then adjust starting requirements accordingly from late position only (button, cutt-off, maybe cutt-off -1) but stay solid up front. If they won't fold then let them bet at you. No fold'em hold'em at its best. I would think you want to be one of the larger stacks at the table to allow you to take advantage of opponents mistakes.

This is very similair to the live games that I have been playing for a long time. A little smaller, but the same style of games. At a minimum 20x the Max-buy-in, so in your case $2,000 MINIMUM. This is of course assuming two major factors.

1. This bankroll is only for poker. This means any profit made or any money in this bankroll goes back to poker, at least till you get to a certain level of comfort with when you can withdrawl from it.

2. You have the right disposition to play poker and don't take half your bankroll to the game and tilt it away.

Of course I believe if you're intelligent enough to evaluate yourself honestly then you can train your disposition to being a succesful one.

These two factors have been very detrimental to my success as a live poker player, through the years. We can have all the intangible skills in the world, but until we learn to manage money and ourselves trust me the game will not be beat.