How to Play 1-2 v. Min Stacks?
Right now I'm playing in a live 1-2 game with 5 bring-in in South Chicago. Most hands are straddled (UTG or BTN) for 10 or 15.
When the game starts, only one other person will buy in for the full 500. Everyone else is buying in for 100-300.
Until most people get deeper, it seems like I'm just waiting for AAxx, good KKxx, four big cards, or very good rundowns. My VPIP in a new game might be as low as 15%. Yesterday, I had to open-fold 8776ds and T866ds in EP pre.
Half the players are still over 50% VPIP. So of course I get chided for not playing any hands.
How can I give them more action? Is there any other way to play against min stacks?
7 Replies
One idea I have is to encourage $25 bomb pots every 30-min dealer change, every chop pot, and every new player.
Aside from many people being >50% VPIP, you haven't described the dynamic and the players at all.
There are many types of loose live games:
- A lot of limps, maybe one raise and everyone calls - there you need nuttiness, nut FD, rundowns with no gaps at the top, etc.
- If it is more like raise - reraise - all in, there you need raw equity, like you mentioned AA, KK, even AKxyds.
- if it is a combination depending on the player, it becomes complex and your Position relativ to the passives and maniacs matters a lot.
But generally it should not be that bad, if you suggest and even prefer bomb pots, then why not play more speculative hands? It cannot be worse than being forced to play a bomb pot.
Good luck!
- if it is a combination depending on the player, it becomes complex and your Position relativ to the passives and maniacs matters a lot.
It's a mix of passives and maniacs. The passives can have $100 or $300 stacks. The maniacs can have $100 or $500 stacks.
I don't mind calling a $30 raise and seeing a flop with 8776ds when stacks are short. But I'm not happy when I get squeezed out by a $100 stack shoving, and then a $300-500 stack re-shoving.
I try to be the one setting up the $100 stack to shove over a bunch of $30 callers, then I re-pot for $350+. But I need to wait for really good hands to do that.
The shorter the stacks in BB the tighter you are but the more merged you 3b and RFI
Your goal is to flop a piece of the top end and go with it.
1-2 with a 5 bringin and $500 cap means everyone is less than 100bb and a lot less than even 50
That means ideally you are looking to stack off with top heavy suited connected hands and when you flop any decent piece, the money goes in.
This also means you have to be more disciplined pre and fold marginal spots or hands that would otherwise be an open at a deeper SPR. Hands like A754ss to A are folds or over limps instead of opens and hands like AQQ9 suited to the Q are 3Bs and stackers
Fold the middle
Jam the top
Zeroing in on preflop tendencies and position is going to pay off here. So you're looking at who's left to act behind you and using that in large part to determine whether you're calling to repot, call again, or fold. That means opening up our games a lot when say the two directly on your left are relatively passive preflop, and tightening up when they're more aggressive. You might call, say, AQT5ds with the intention of folding to a tight person repotting behind you, but are actually borderline trapping versus a maniac.
You might call, say, AQT5ds with the intention of folding to a tight person repotting behind you, but are actually borderline trapping versus a maniac.
I like this. With two maniacs to my left yesterday, I limp-jammed A876ds and AJJ7ds after they raised and a bunch of passives called. Not only did we pick up some dead money, but both hands were way the best hands!
