By TylerDurden on September 24th, 2007 (more posts by author)

Last night, while playing online, I sat down at a $1-$2 limit table (yeah, sue me. I like low limits.). The statistics were nothing special; 40% seeing the flop, $10 or so in each pot.

However, when I sat down, I noticed quickly that the texture of the game was quite different than what I'd expected. Most low-limit games are loose-passive affairs, with a lot of hands going to showdown, and not much preflop raising (call this "east-coast low limit," as most low limit games I've seen in the west coast tend to be loose-aggressive, with lots of preflop raises and more action). Most pots aren't won uncontested, and bluffs rarely work.

However, the game I sat down in played more like it was out of Hold'em For Advanced Players, with more than half the pots being raised preflop, semi-bluff checkraises on the turn driving out players, and river bets with unimproved hands winning pots. Yes, there were 3-5 players in on each flop (either the raiser, a caller, and one of the blinds, or 3 limpers and the blinds), and the pots were hovering around $10, but that's because they were either $5 and won uncontested on the flop, or $15 and won on the later rounds or shown down. Probably 1 hand in 4 reached showdown (and that estimate might be high. Of 111 hands in the session, I showed down less than 7, while winning 14 pots total.). The game played like an aggressive $5-$10 game, not a $1-$2.

It was kind of nice. Some of the more "advanced" plays that you wouldn't make against fish (can't bluff out someone who's too stupid to know that your bets say he's behind) worked! Call a raise in the BB with J[c] Q[c], catch a flop of 9[s] 8[c] 3[c], and checkraise to win! Limp with A[d] A[s], then reraise preflop to trap a 9[c] 9[d] for an extra bet! Make free card plays! Push at big pots! Ultimately, I wound up down $3.50 for the session (getting KK cracked on the flop for 4 preflop bets helped; someone called with QJ, and flopped JJ3, and it was a bet on each round to me), but it was money well spent in entertainment alone.

What's the moral of the story? Well, there isn't much of one -- if anything, it'd be this: Don't be a victim of Fancy Play Syndrome in games where fancy play doesn't work. None of those plays I made last night would have flown in a "normal" $1-$2 game; when has a checkraise on the flop [i]ever[/i] pushed out most low-limit fish? However, having recognized the kind of game I was sitting in, I could adjust my game to fit the game texture.

Make sure you know how the game runs when you sit down.