5/150 Regular Discussion

[that_pope]

Finally have time tonight to hit this up, after moving to Phoenix 3 weeks ago!

Will playing tight preflop and aggressive post-flop do the job?

Welcome to town, and enjoy our nice poker room, bigger than anything in Vegas.  Only California, Foxwoods, and AC have bigger poker rooms that I can think of (don't count Caesars and their tourney room as poker tables). 

Tight preflop and aggressive post flop is usually the key, but just adjust to what is going on.  If 6 people are limping preflop, then you can obviously open your range.  I don't play 5/150 much, 20/40 is my game, but just play whats comfortable to you, and get a feel for the table.

Good luck!

[Xisiqomelir]

Lost my buyin sadly. Jammed TPTK against villain's OE straight on the turn, he caught it on the river.

[gregski]

I won $1,100.00 on Saturday Day/Night in the 5/150 game.   

[that_pope]

Nicely done, even if it only was a brag post!

[CrazyLond]

That's about what I lost last time I played it, lol.  I suck at poker

[SavantChild]

I've been playing the last 5 weeks now and am up nearly 8k...Brag post yes I know but I feel like my play is very systematic and anyone could win there if they understand the basics of the game.  I'll discuss the biggest hands in which I have lost, the two pots total nearly 3k but could not have been avoided.

Hand #1

I am in late position w/ QQ and make a standard raise to 20.  It folds around to the small blind who calls.  The flop is AQ4 (suits do not matter)...SB checks, I bet 40, SB raises to 140, I raise to 290, he frustratingly goes into the tank and decides to call.  The turn is a K and he immediately leads 150, at this point I put him on AK and raise 150, he goes all in for approximately 90.  We flip our cards he has AK and I am a clear favorite only to dodge an A or K on the river...A on the river...clearly nothing to do with this one.

Hand #2

I am in middle position when a friend of mine (who is a solid player) raises to 20 utg...I think his utg raising range is solid so I decide to just call with 1010...The button then makes it 60...It folds around the me and I call with good implied odds to hit my set.  The flop comes 2410 rainbow I check to the button raiser and he fires 150, I instantly make it 300 and he calls, at this point I think he has a big overpair.  The turn is the 7 of clubs putting two clubs on the board and I fire 150, the button calls.  The river is a blank smaller than a ten ensuring that I have the largest set but happens to be another club (completing a backdoor flush)...I did not think this was a problem however with him calling my 150 check raise on the flop...I bet 150 and am raised 150...I think flush at this point but there was 1600+ in there and I had to call...He had AK clubs.

[gregski]

Nicely done, even if it only was a brag post!

It was the first time I didn't lose playing 5-150, so I figured it was worth sharing.

[Xisiqomelir]

Brag: Sat down with $300, cashed out with $895 2 hrs later

[AllYourChips]

I played this almost exclusively for the last 2 years and won a lot of money doing so.  I'll give a little bit of advice for those who don't play as much.

-This is not no limit.  You cannot play this game as if it was a no limit game.  Keep that in mind when playing drawing hands, protecting your hands against draws, and figuring out implied odds.  This is especially important when trying to determine implied odds.  Just because you have 500 infront of you and your opponent does aswell, doesn't mean you can figure in 500 dollars into your implied odds calculation.  In a spread limit game, the odds of stacking someone are slim.  While people will certainly dump money with TPTK and overpairs, the odds of getting somebody's entire stack in this game are much smaller than in a true no limit game.

-Play postflop.  I can't stress this enough.  Because of the 150 cap, if you build too big of a pot pre-flop, you can give correct odds for your opponents on later streets.  If the pot gets over 300 pre-flop, the worst odds your opponent(s) will be getting for the rest of the hand is 3-1.  This makes it mathematically correct to draw to many hands. 

-Give your opponents incorrect odds to call.  This goes hand in hand with the above.  As a rule of thumb, betting 2/3rds pot will generally give your opponent the wrong odds but will be enticing enough for them to call.  For example, if the pot is 150 on the turn, and you have your opponent on a flush draw, if you bet 100, your opponent is getting 2.5-1, clearly poor pot odds, but will get called a lot of the time.  The key is finding the magic number that they will call, but is still mathematically incorrect.  If your opponent will call 50 or 100 in the above example as you've seen from previous hands they've played, bet 100.  If you think they'll only call 75, giving 3-1, then bet that.  However, getting the most $$ while giving incorrect odds is the single biggest key to long term success in this game.

-Try to have 300+ on the table at all times.  300 is only 60 BB's and is very shallow for a cash game.  You need to be able to protect your hands, and have implied equity in hands like suited connectors and small-mid pairs.  If you only have 200 infront of you, it makes it almost impossible to play other than top 15 hands profitably.  The more money you have infront of you, the more hands you can play profitably.  Simple as that.

-Allow opponents to overplay their hands.  Not really sure how to summarize this, but anybody who has played this game a few times, will have seen several players raise with average hands such as A10 and KJ and then go crazy if they flop top pair.  There are still a ton of players that think any 20/21 (think blackjack) is a good hand.  For this reason, flat calling raises with hands like AK/AQ/JJ-99 can be more profitable than re-raising.  In general, players in this game are good enough to fold KQ to a re-raise pre, but once they flop TPGK on a safe board, they're ready to committ chips to the pot, especially when they haven't been re-raised before the flop.  I've found in this game because of the 150 cap, that flatting with certains hands that you might re-raise with in a NL game, is much more profitable. 

Starting to get long, so I'll stop for now.  If anybody has any questions, I have a lot of experience in this game, even though I'm not playing a lot at the moment. 

Good luck at the tables.

[kevis]

AllYourChips: Excellent post. Thank you!

[DGK1186]

I kinda hope this board doesn't get an influx of people who read that post!!

Very well written "AllYourChips".

[AllYourChips]

I kinda hope this board doesn't get an influx of people who read that post!!

Very well written "AllYourChips".

Meh...Pope said the same thing but I figure that maybe 1% of all players who play 5/150 will ever read that post so not a big deal.  It's also very general information and doesn't give away specifics about my game. 

Maybe one more thing I'll add before I quit, is to pay attention when new players come to the table, specifically, when they buy in.  If a young college looking players sits down and is rumaging through his wallet and scraping out $200, he's probably gonna play tighter and be more bluffable.  If a guy in a suit sits down, pulls 300 out from his wad, odds are he's gonna play a little looser and be willing to gamble because he can re-buy.  There are a wide variety of players who play this game - getting a little bit of a read on them before they are dealt their cards is definetely an advantage.

Also keep in mind who you think is ahead/stuck.  I will almost never bluff a player whom I know is stuck because they are generally looking for ways to get un-stuck.  This entails making a lot of desperate/bad calls.  I ran a great 3 part bluff tonight against a player who was in for 3 buy-ins and he makes a hero call on the river.  I said, "wow, no respect" to him and he replied "just trying to get even."  Conversely, if you notice a player who is up, but is making comments about going home soon or not wanting to play anymore, they are going to be very unlikely to get involved in a big pot without a hand. A lot of times it will be very easy to spot a player sitting on his stack, when you do, it is generally very easy to take small pots away from him.

Oh also, please call when I have the nuts and fold when I'm bluffing.  Much appreciated.  Okay, I'll shut up now.

GL at the tables.

[gregski]

is $350.00 the max buy-in for all the casinos that spread 5-150? 

[Aack Thbbbt]

is $350.00 the max buy-in for all the casinos that spread 5-150? 

No, each room can decide how to limit (or not) the buy-in amount.

[clarkstar]

woo i played last week and got my ass handed to me. lost $600 in about 6 hours, most of it with my QQ versus 2 4 diamonds that flopped open ended str8 draw... I usually am up a good bit, at least for a while. I have issues with leaving at the right time!  :P