14 replies to this topic

[jayboogie]

OK, we've all heard of the strategy for the loose weak tables, lots of pre-flop calling, no raising. Now, today for the first time I ever I encountered a Weak, Tight Table, now not just a couple players, but the entire table. Nobody was raising unless they had either AA, KK, AK. Now, I didn't have much time for my session as I had to run and there was a huge waiting list today and I didn't pick up many hands. I also had some banking problems so I was limited in how much money I bought in with. I probably shouldn't have played at all, but I figured I'd just play it out for that hour and a half I could play for. Anyways this table was crazy. I saw in 1 round 4 hands where everybody folded to the big blind, now I've never seen this before in a full table game. This was a group of players that just didn't know what they were doing. They'd have the nuts and just call, strangest thing I've ever seen. Now, this is a limit game, so the blinds weren't worth stealing, but what I'd do most of the time is just raise on the button with just about anything. I figured I could play any hand and outplay these people on the flop. The problem is nobody would call a raise unless they held premium hands. Which, often when they did, my cards never hit the board giving me a chance to play at them. I think I was playing the right strategy at this table, being aggressive, controlling the table, just wasn't profitable since everybody would fold unless they hit monster cards. It was fairly easy to read every player, since they bet out when their cards hit and folded/checked when it didn't. Pretty much ABC poker, if I waited for premium hands to play at them, I think I'd just be relying more on my luck hitting cards when I could just use my skill and outplay them. Again this is my first experience playing against a table like this, it was pretty shocking as you never see this in a Casino or Card Room.My question is how do you profit the most playing at these weak, tight tables?

[looshle]

um change tables

[wrto4556]

Sometimes changing tables isn't an option...if that is the case, which I think it is here, you should bet more and call less. Like you said, play aggressive, but any sign of strength you gotta get the f*** outta there. If someone bets, you should probably fold unless you got a good hand. But anytime you think a bet will win the pot, by all means bet. The odds of you winning the pot are overwhelming with these types of players, so bluffs become highly profitable. Loose/aggressive pre-flop, and on the flop--bet more and call less. You more or less played correctly.

[jayboogie]

I think you need to be able to play every style as a poker player, you must be able to adapt to different styles, whether it be playing against tight players, aggressive players, weak, strong and etc. It can only improve your game if you play against many different styles, so I wouldnt' say changing tables is the solution. If I wanted to do that, I would just do that, I wanted to know what the best strategy on these tables were.

[wrto4556]

You're exactly right. But your most profitable games come from loose/passive players. So, preferably, you would rather try to find that table. If all there is is tight/passive, so be it. I told you how I would play against them. That's all that we ment by finding another table.

[jayboogie]

wrto4556 said:

You're exactly right. But your most profitable games come from loose/passive players. So, preferably, you would rather try to find that table. If all there is is tight/passive, so be it. I told you how I would play against them. That's all that we ment by finding another table.

my response wasn't to you, it was to the other poster who just said change tables. Sometimes, like you said it's just not an option. Of course the most profitable games are loose passive, but theres more ways to win than one in poker. To be a successful player, you should be good or at least adequate in all types of games. Besides, not to say that these tight weak players are good, because they're not, but if your just pounding on those loose/weak players, your not going to improve your game much or get to the point where you can actually have success against better players.

[looshle]

My point was that most money is made at a loose passive table. If the table you are at is very very tight, then yea, you can play it well but even if you do, you aren't going to make much money. Conquering an ultra tight table is NOT equalt to conquering a loose passive table. You can be successful but still not make much $ at all.

[Hardrocker]

Play tight at a loose table, and loose at a tight table.You don't want to loosen up too much here, just enough to take down the blinds more than anyone else, other wise you raised start to lose value.The pots you bring down will stay smaller at a table like this, but if you can take down blinds one extra time out of 20 hands your rate will look great.Assuming online play, a table like this is probably seeing around 80-100 hands/hour. With an extra 3/4 of a big bet every twenty hands, you come out 3 big bets ahead every 80 hands. Play at a 3/6 table and you just made $18 by loosening up just a bit.If you can manage to take down the blinds once out of every 10 hands, $36 up in that time.That's winning poker, baby.

[KillerKop]

Why don't you think picking up blinds isn't worth it in limit holdem? That's almost 1 big bet everytime you pull it off. Do you think its better to pick off blinds in no limit? Anyway in this kind of game you definately need to raise with more marginal hands preflop and bet more hands on the flop but back off on the turn and river if your hand isn't very strong.

[jayboogie]

it's not worth it because it was low limit. I was just playing 2/5 for fun there because all the other higher limit tables were full and the waiting list was about 5 hrs for the higher limits. With the blinds 1 and 2 dollars, I don't really see the point in stealing blinds much, although I did raise on the button and in late position with marginal hands every time anyways, not with the intention of stealing the blinds though.Basically, I think I played it right, just didn't really get the cards and I sat down only about an hour, as I had to get going pretty quick after I sat down. I was just looking for opinions on how to play these tables, hence the reason for this thread.What was weird was everytime it was my big blind, everybody would fold to me and this guy to my right was really annoying as he insisted on taking back his small blind bet. 1 time I got annoyed when he did this, because I had a decent hand, so I was like what are you doing? Are you folding or playing? and then he gets all upset and is like OK fine take the money. Obviously, I could care less about the dollar, but it's the principle of it all, you don't just take back your small blind because nobody is playing in the hand. The guy is like showing me his hand after as well and like flashed his 34 of clubs and is like I got suited connectors and I ain't even playing. Geez, some people just have some strange thinking. Just because nobody plays doesn't mean you can just take back your small blind. That's not poker.

[wrto4556]

Hardrocker said:

Play tight at a loose table, and loose at a tight table.

At the risk of sounding rude, that is a false statement. I just want to correct you because you can better your game with the advice I give you.In a loose table, you don't actually play tighter. Your betting is tighter, meaning that you only bet and raise with good hands. But, you can sometimes get away with playing loose pre-flop if there isn't much raising, PLUS, you can call more bets with marginal hands. People will bet and call with middle pair weak kicker, or raise with top pair weak kicker. So you can call more liberally, but bet tighter.In a tight game, you can bet more liberally, but call and raise tighter. In a tight game, a bet means strength, so you shouldn't call unless you have a good hand yourself, but you can bet because tight players don't think how you think, and will automatically fold anything but the goods. Also, you can play looser before the flop, because if everyone misses, the pot is more or less yours.Be the "ghost" player or the "chameleon" and don't think so mechanically. Just some advice, don't take it the wrong way.

[LeeDanger]

I think if you play aggressive that's the most profitable way of playing those tables. First, stealing blinds is not a bad thing, what's wrong with an uncontested win? I'll steal the blinds all night long, I don't care if I have AA or if I have 27. Also, if they call your raise you know what kind of cards that they are most likely to be holding. if the flop comes low cards, that's good for you. Personally, I think that the table you described to me would be a dream table. Who cares if you don't win big pots. Little pots add up if you're winning more than 25% of the hands.

[Joenin]

If stealing the blinds wasn't worth it i'm not sure what you expected to get out of this game. You should be concerned with the amount your winning relative to the limit, not the net amount. If picking up an extra few bb an hour doesn't interest you at that limit I'm not really sure what your looking to do there, theres no magic way to play that going to get you a few hundred bb

[jayboogie]

like I was saying, I don't usually play this limit, so I guess I just wasn't really interested in playing much anyways. I was raising in late position anyways, not really the purpose of stealing the blinds, which I ended up doing anyways a few times. But, I wanted to just take control of the table. Of course stealing the blinds is important, but against good players it rarely works. I'll pretty much almost always defend my blinds no matter what I have if I think soembody is trying to steal.

[KillerPanda]

When I encounter a table like this, I play loose. I'll play decent hands, anything suited, big cards, etc. On top of that, I'll raise a lot, especially on the flop. If they're still there by the turn, I make sure I have something good or at the very least a good draw before continuing. This works pretty well, and what ends up happening is that they get sick of being bullied and start to loosen up. When that happens, I start to tighten up. It's a pretty good strategy and works pretty well.