ITH Poker Forum

[maddogmike]

Russ/Scott,

What is you're approach with the following speculative hands: 87s, QTo, A8o, A2s etc under the following conditions: the game is generally loose and passive preflop, not overly aggressive post flop. Pretty much every hand has 2 limpers plus the blinds. Stacks vary with several in the 40-60BB range with only one or two >100BB.

Please comment whether you are in EP, MP and LP. I'd like to know whether you fold, limp or raise preflop, and what you do post flop whether you hit or miss.

Thanks

[russ fox]

Russ/Scott,

What is you're approach with the following speculative hands: 87s, QTo, A8o, A2s etc under the following conditions: the game is generally loose and passive preflop, not overly aggressive post flop. Pretty much every hand has 2 limpers plus the blinds. Stacks vary with several in the 40-60BB range with only one or two >100BB.

Please comment whether you are in EP, MP and LP. I'd like to know whether you fold, limp or raise preflop, and what you do post flop whether you hit or miss.

Thanks

It depends.

Seriously, I rarely see such games in Los Angeles. Passivity is just rare here. That said any of those hands is playable in late position given the game conditions you mention; I would sometimes raise and sometimes call with those hands.

I would only rarely play any of those hands in early position, especially in a deep-stack game. I don't want to be faced with a tough decision out-of-position, and each one of those hands lends itself to problems. Suppose you limp with A8o, four seeing the flop, and the flop comes 842r. The blinds check, you bet, and the button raises; one blind calls. Do you call? If you do, the blind has 42; if you fold, you folded the best hand (sometimes). I like to avoid tough problems like this by just folding such hands pre-flop in EP.

In MP I would occasionally play those hands.

One important point as to how I play is that I play all hands the same (generally). If I have AA I'm going to raise most of the time, of course. The strength of my hand may impact whether or not I'll play a hand but it will not impact how I play a hand.

Finally, I don't like limping. That's not to say I won't, but limping begets limping; I prefer to raise and win pots.

-- Russ Fox