4/8 LTH-hell !!!:(

I play in a local card room where I cannot seem to find a way to win.

I am in my 1st 6-8 months of playing regularly , I play a tight/aggressive style.

There are routinely 5-7 players to the flop, and no one seems to fold to a raise.

People seem to say you cannot beat the rake, and this game is the ultimate suck out game.

5-10 regulars appear to beat the game on a regular basis, although they do not appear to be overly intelligent, they have much more experience, and are obviously much better players than myself.

How much do I defend my blinds( which seem to get raised ), I guess I have a hard time defending 2/5 off and just figure it will cost me more $. So I typically fold if I do not have anything w/ any remote potential.

I would like to become more competitive in this game , should I widen my range ? I basically play big pairs/suited cards, small pairs ( fold w/o catching a set) and sometimes suited connectors 9/10 or 8/9.

Which is obviously very predictable , w/ more experience I hope to move past this , and play more than just the cards or position I have.

Read the articles on this site:
http://www.lowlimitholdem.com/

You should be able to stay afloat at that game if it's the lowest at your casino, and with practice beat it for 1-2 BB an hour even after a rake.

Start with the 'who this site is for', and you will start to see where you might be missing out on some opportunities.

Quote: DonPedro

I play in a local card room where I cannot seem to find a way to win.

I am in my 1st 6-8 months of playing regularly , I play a tight/aggressive style.

There are routinely 5-7 players to the flop, and no one seems to fold to a raise.

People seem to say you cannot beat the rake, and this game is the ultimate suck out game.

5-10 regulars appear to beat the game on a regular basis, although they do not appear to be overly intelligent, they have much more experience, and are obviously much better players than myself.

How much do I defend my blinds( which seem to get raised ), I guess I have a hard time defending 2/5 off and just figure it will cost me more $. So I typically fold if I do not have anything w/ any remote potential.

I would like to become more competitive in this game , should I widen my range ? I basically play big pairs/suited cards, small pairs ( fold w/o catching a set) and sometimes suited connectors 9/10 or 8/9.

Which is obviously very predictable , w/ more experience I hope to move past this , and play more than just the cards or position I have.

I really wish I had more time to respond this morning, I might add to this within the next few days.

Basically, you're just playing in a very loose limit game, (if 5-7 players see every flop, and nobody folds to a raise) so bad beats and suck-outs are to be expected. Your entire strategy should simply consist of playing the math, you're going to win fewer pots (losing more to bad beats than in a typical game), but those pots that you do win will eventually make up for it because they are going to be larger pots than you would normally win in such a game.

I don't know how long you have studied these 5-10 players who appear to, "Beat the game on a regular basis," I would be surprised if you had that many players beating the game consistently, though it is possible. If so, are they playing similarly tight styles, or are some of them appearing to be ahead by way of their own share of suck-outs?

The extent to which you want to defend your blinds really depends on pot odds as well as how much pre-flop action you anticipate. Coming out of the BB, if you can kill the betting with a call against a single raise, then that is usually going to be better than folding at that point, for all but the most abysmal hands. The value of a fold increases in relation to how many raises have come prior to your turn to act, as well as factoring the likelihood of an additional raise/cap if more than one player has already raised prior to your turn to act.

Obviously, you want to go ahead and play those big pairs, but be wary, make sure you're watching the board for potential straights/flushes. With so many people seeing every flop, the big pairs tend to lose value a little bit (even if you hit trips) because of the potential for a Straight or Flush to be out there. In a game such as the one you describe, playing those suited connectors is probably a good idea.

You also want to keep in mind, with those small pairs, that catching a set puts you in a strong position, but you're going to lose to some straights/flushes...and some of those will be suck-outs...if you stay in the hand. Again, this is just another situation where you won't win as many of the hands as you would in other games, but those hands that you do win should more than compensate for the losses because of so many people staying in.

Overall, I'd say this is a very loose game, which is actually a good thing for you, you'll just win less hands than you would expect. It also sounds like the pre-flop play from the other players is so poor, that by the time they have x invested, many of them are playing correctly post-flop, it's just that they shouldn't be there to begin with. Don't worry about your predictable style of play, unless you notice that you are losing value by way of a ton of players folding to you every time you lead out or raise, but it doesn't sound like it, it just sounds like a very loose game in which you need to win playing the math and pot odds.

I have not played limit hold'em in quite some time, but with 5-7 players in every hand, I would play more draws after the flop. What kind of hands are being shown at the river? Mostly top pair and better? If the showdown hands are weaker, I would put in more turn raises in late position with second pair high kicker or better. If it checks around to you on the river, you can check it, or bet it, if you have better than second pair. If you check the river and lose, you most likely would have lost the same as if you called a turn bet and then called the river bet, except in this scenario, you controlled the action. If you ended up winning the showdown, it is very likely you would make extra money from the raise callers on the turn who would have folded on the river had it just been bet turn, bet river. with this loose of a game, I tend to play draws hard and fast. In these types of games, I feel your bigger pots are going to come from winning straights and flushes, so I tend to build the pots as big as I can get them when I have strong straight and flush draws. you may consider buying in for more than you normally would in this type of game as your variance will be greater playing this style. This may not be the optimum style to play for this type of game, but it is what works for me...I definitely have more fun playing this way than playing one hand every two rotations, waiting for premium hands.