Quote from peterfigliozzi:
Nik, I haven't really messed with nl $ play yet. Do you have anything to share on how to play there (vs. SNG vs. Limit)?
Thanks
Pete
Hi Pete
Well, it's a long discussion, but some of the tactics you mentioned in your SNG post apply to the ring games. It really depends upon the texture of the table. It is different, IMO, than the SNG games because there, I generally let the first few rounds go by without doing much of anything. Not sure if you take the same approach.
In the low buy-in ring games, you can sometimes buy pots in position, but you have to identify the players you are in against, because there are many that will never fold even middle pair or a gutshot draw to i.e. a $3 bet. The idea is to bet your good hands hard and hope that someone tries to chase their hand, which will happen occasionally, like about 96% of the time. In limit, you can check-call quite a bit. In nl, better players will escalate their bets against you, making it harder to check-call.
In nl, you will have a guy in with you calling your escalating bets when the flop had two spades. The river brings the third spade and he goes all in. In my experience, the player will often have the flush as opposed to being on a pure bluff. These guys simply don't have the game to bluff like that. I have called enough of these bets and been shown the flush to have decided that it is in by best interest to just fold it and wait for the next one. The same thing applies when there are pictures on the board and the riv brings the completion of the nut straight - for some reason, guys will chase this straight more than the others, IMO.
There are other guys who will try to make huge bluffs repeatedly. You have to lie for them and then pick them off. It is fairly easy.
Some of the others can weigh in here, but I think you should expect more variance in nl than in the Limit or SNG games. Things can and do go horribly wrong, for varying periods of time. You have to have a strong stomach in these games. If you can't react unemotionally to losing your entire stack to a maniac caller 3 times in 1/2 hour, then nl isn't for you.
Some people say that the implied odds are so huge in nl that you can play significantly weaker starting hands than you would in Limit. You will have to decide what you think about that. Certainly against specific players, it is true.
An interesting question I had to ask myself in the beginning was this - when I go all in, is it usually because I want my opponent to call me or because I want my opponent to fold?
If you are interested in nl, I strongly suggest you spend a few hours searching through the threads at 2+2
www.twoplustwo.com
There are plenty of posts devoted to this topic, by helpful semi-pros and pros and others who shark the low buy-in nl tables.
Hope that helps. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
