Over the past week, I've managed to play several SNG's on Poker Stars and have started to notice a trend that seems to be happening early on at the tables. Here's what it is.
Within the first 40 or so hands on a table, somewhere around 65% of the players at the table DO NOT raise pre-flop. Players tend to limp or call PFR to see cheap flops and hopefully hit. The problem with this is you end up playing against multiple players at the same time and unless you hit the flop hard (made straight, made flush, trips, quads) you really don't know how strong your hand is against all your opponents. Another problem with constantly limping is that you are bleeding chips and good players will wait for you to put your chips into the pot and then re-raise you out of the pot with a better position. I understand that the levels I play at ($5 and under) everybody is just learning, but playing too much will hurt you more over the long run than hitting that miracle flop.
Now if you happen to find yourself at a table against many of these limper's, then the best course of action is to use your position and raise it enough to get several (or all) your limping opponents to fold, even if your hand it less than optimal. If you get called and your c-bet get resistance then be prepared to let your hand go if you don't hit the flop hard (2pr/trips or better), as your opponent was probably slow-playing a monster before you raised it up pre-flop. Always remember these types of players are just trying to see a cheap flop in hopes of hitting the flop hard to stacking somebody, so don't give them that chance.
What makes this weird (for me at least) is that for several years now, many pros (including the Harrington on Hold'em series, which many refer to as the best "how to" book out there) have been preaching aggression wins out in the long run and here you have many players doing the opposite. Maybe I missed the memo that said limping/slow-playing early on is the new hot trend at the table.
I'm so glad I don't follow trends.
See you on the felt.
Friday, April 24, 2009
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I do think this is a phenomenon more common to the lower buy-in games. I think there are a couple reasons for it.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, probably the most important reason is there are a lot of people learning the game at that level. When I think back to my first year or so of playing I remember someone asking me what percentage of hands I saw the flop (proably you were the one who asked me) and the number was staggering. I remember early on, and I still see it in home games with some of our regulars, the feeling of disgust after folding 7 2 and the flop came 77X.
Another factor of course is that the more people limp the more people will limp. For example, early on in a tournament I am on the button and just about everyone limps to me, I am proabbly getting odds to play just about any 2, in position and easy to disguise if I hit.
The last factor, I think is TV. People see guys like Gus Hansen or Daniel Negreanu (and many others) playing a fair number of speculative, or even weak hands and think that's the way to play. What these limpers you mention don't think about, in my opinion, is that these guys on TV are masters after the flop and of course a tournament that takes many hours to play is boiled down to a couple hours of TV time.
I also see a lot of limping with strong hands also. I've been trying this experiment of playing 50 3+.40 SNGs @ pokerstars to see if I could dominate that level and if I did then move up to the next buy-in level. The first 10 SNGs were bizarre as the amount of limping and flat calling with big hands was crazy but I soon adjusted. I also figured out that early on players will be calling with marginal hands and then fold everything except premium hands when the blinds go up to the 50-100 level.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I like about your strategy is that you're saving your chips when raising means something....which means a lot more blind steals etc. Well that's probably another post...lol