loose play pot limit

[SmilinMark21]

Hello all,

I have recently started playing pot limit (only available near me), and its a £5 ($9) buy in and we have re-buys for first 2 hours, the thing is that i am looking to use it as a base to learn poker, but the problem is that as it is such a cheap game, the players are very loose until the cut off and very aggressive, which means if i want to play (and learn) i cant really keep going with marginal hands which is what others are going with and really poor hands also.

I find myself for the first half hour studying the players styles more but with many just throwing money in its hard to get an impression (last night 2 players playing before me had 10 buy ins each - wasnt helpful) , any views on what is best for me to do for playing?

Thanks

Mark

[JimTheBullet]

That sounds like the friday night game at the Walsall Grosvenor (is it?).

I played my first ever casino tourney there as a lot of my poker playing mates live nearby in the West Midlands. That game taught me absolutely nothing and I regarded it as a waste of time. Because the buy in is so low, the only strategy that can work is to go all in on every hand you can during the rebuy period and hope to win 2 - 3 on the bounce. Having achieved that you then sit tight until the rebuys end, playing only premium cards, and then you start playing proper poker with the (hopefully) reasonable stash you have at the point when it becomes knockout. It is pointless studying anybody's play during the crazy rebuy period because nobody is playing poker, everybody is gambling wildly.

I am also a member of the Luton Grosvenor, which is the nearest to where I live, and they run a weekly game "skint regular and rookie night" which is a £10 rebuy but, crucially, rebuys are limited to 3 per person and they are strict on it. Obviously, this limit on the number of rebuys means that the type of loose unskillful play that you and I have seen is not possible. I also found that a bigger buy in game, such as £20, whilst being seemingly more expensive, is not necessarily because the extra money forces all but the richest crazy people (and there is a guy at Luton who is famous for being rich and crazy) to play properly, even during the rebuy period.

The other way to learn how to play, which is admittedly more difficult, is to find enough of your mates who want to play and then organise your own tournament. That is essentially how I got into it though I play much more in casinos and online now since only my mates in the midlands and up north play, not the ones down where I live. If you do organise a home game, play it with a reasonable buy in, say £10, and until everybody is familiar with how the game works, play straight knock out. There is a good post on this site with rules that you should be able to adapt as appropriate. When everybody in the circle knows the game you can maybe think about doing a rebuy game.

[snoogins47]

Can I just get a general SCREW YOU to rebuy tournaments?

I know some people wil disagree with me, definitely, but meh, jus tmy opinion.

It's ingenius from a card-room's point of view. Fish are drawn to it because they can just re-buy if they make a mistake for all their chips early on. It generates even MORE action from all those early all-in pushers, the pre-flop bingo players... especially when it's one of those like, tiny buy-in online deals.

I tend to think that in a re-buy format, if you're not prepared to put all your chips in jeopardy a few times early-on when the odds are fairly good on your hand, in hopes of doubling through, or re-buying, you're at a bit of a disadvantage... which seems counter-intuitive, considering that picking your battles and not jeopardizing your stack early in a tournament is one of the most often suggested strategies out there ;P

I think organizing your own game, or finding a different one, is probably your best bet, as was suggested before. If you want to stick around in this low buy re-buy format, bring enough scratch for a few re-buys, and don't play crazy, but be more willing to call these crazy people when the odds are in your favor, take the gambles if you feel decently better than even money (and also realize that the crazy re-buy nuts are often pushing in on much lesser hands) and be prepared to either get a decent sized stack and tighten up, or be prepared to re-buy a few times if you find yourself getting the wrong end of the (Slightly better-than) coinflips you're involved in.

[nicthestick]

i play in a tournament similar to this one once a month. My style has been SUPER tight in the first 3 levels... I might not even play one hand. Then when the blinds are bigger, ALL IN! By then, I have generated a little respect at the table, and am able to pick off the blinds and other limpers with less than the nutz.