Playing loose tables at low limits will allow you to win more money than playing tight tables at the same limits. Playing these tables you will find more “128.199.107.129” to play and more players who are playing with nothing. Don’t worry though, if you have a loose table you are still going to have a lot of fun.
How do you win at loose tables? The answer is simple, you have to squeeze them. I might sound a little funny but there are actually some people who work at finding ways to win at these tables. They keep track of all of the raises, re-raises, and overall game action in order to find hands that will win. Some of these people have shelves full of books, articles, and videos telling them which hands to play.
While some of this information might seem contradictory, the truth is that some of the moves we describe in the next few paragraphs do not work, or work very well, at tight tables. looseness, in fact, tends to make people play more hands than they would at a tight table. This, of course, is a good thing for you as a player, but it also means that some of the strategies you would use at a tight table won’t work here. So, how do we make these dazzling re-raises work for us? Let’s find out.
First, we break the rules at the table, so that we can play more hands. While this might seem risky, we can actually call it an investment in the sense that it might land us in trouble if we hold bad cards. Excellent Hold’em players are constantly finding ways to work at these tables. They do this by joking around, dining, and folding. They might lose a few hands in the process, but they always come out on top in the long run. If we bet at these tables, we might find ourselves losing more than we want. However, if we bet in our best effort, with no specific hands played, we will win.
The next move we make is to bet in negative percentages of the pot. I don’t know about you, but I never thought about betting in negative percentages of the pot before. Generally, poker is a game of patience, and proportionality. When you get into a hand, you have to wait for the best possible situation to invest your money. You don’t always have to wait for it to be right to bet, either. Something you can do is bet against the light. To do this, place a bet half the size of the pot. This means you will bet $5 to the pot, when it is your turn to bet, and wait for either a call or raise. If anyone bets, you have to fold. The beauty of betting in this manner is that you can always say, “If your hand is good enough to call, I’ll call.” You never have to raise because the other person doesn’t have to put in anything. If they want to call, they can. If they don’t want to call, they can fold.
After you bet in this manner, you are essentially saying to the other players, “I have a strong hand.” Trust me, I know no conventional wisdom to tell you about this. It’s just to be consistent with your betting, and to vary your play. If you don’t do this, they are going to figure out what you are doing and beat you by calling you with nothing – maybe a lot less good hands will trick them than they think!
So now you are betting against the light. The pots are coming in no matter what. It’s time to vary your play. If you are waiting for a better hand, you are going to wait. If you are playing tight, you are going to play a lot more hands. Stop giving away free money! Be more aggressive upfront!
One of the themes to consider in applying these tips is to look for multiple opportunities to put runners on the flop when you have a good hand. The more people you get to call the bigger the pot gets, and the more people you get to fold, the less of an impact on your overall strategy you have. You also need to think about your own hand before you attack any opponent, even if you are going after a specific player. If you are going after a small blind, an over-bet might cost you your blind.
But if you can identify situations to put a runner on the flop, you can often take down a pot even if you don’t have the best hand. It’s rare, but sometimes these instances are worth the risk. Attack the ones that pay off, and generally try to save those that don’t. After you do, you are rarely going to make another poker hand.