Small pocket pairs and Ace rag suited in 2/4 limit

Good afternoon fellow gamblers. I have been recently focusing on my poker game and studying deeply while playing 2/4 limit. The tables are so fishy at these limits and I've been able to capitalize on just playing ABC poker, playing tight, being able to lay down hands when it's obvious I'm beat, and extracting value from the hands when I do hit. I can feel the rake and all the obligated dealer tipping eroding my wins so I'm going to take a swing at 4/8 and continue my same strategy


With that being said, these two hands I feel like I need to fine tune. Previously, I would just about always raise with a pocket pair preflop (in any position) with the hope of set-mining. If the pot was raised or re-raised I would just call. If I don't hit my set, abandon ship immediately. It's been working out so far, but these last stretch of sessions I haven't been flopping many sets and I'm wondering if it may just be better to fold weak pocket pairs out of position. I may opt to just "limp" in and try to see a flop cheaply but I <b> DESPISE </b> limping into any pots and tend to support the mantra "if it's good enough to call, it's good enough to raise"


At these stakes, a lot of players get married to hands like aces and kings, or top pair and will call you to the river even when it is obvious they are beat.


The same thing goes for Ax suited. I never raise with this hand, but feel like it needs to see the flop, even it is just me passively calling. In the event of a preflop raise, I have good implied odds in the event that I make my flush. I might just fold this hand out of position. It is dangerous when you flop an Ace, because chances are you are out-kicked if you bet into a multi-way pot. For that reason I never play ace-rag unsuited.


Any thoughts into this?

Why not move to the small no-limit game? They are very different animals, but the value of your trouble hands is much higher in no-limit.

The beauty of poker is that as you are reading other players, they are also reading you. If you play your A/rag and small pocket pairs the same way each time, they will learn to get out of your way or bluff you out of a winning hand. Changing things up from time to time is important to keep everyone guessing.

Set mining in limit raised pots -EV generally. Move to NL if you enjoy this (but be prepared to be cleaned out a few times until you adjust).

A rag suited is trash unless in position.

Btw you cant beat the rake in a 2/4 game, if you currently are then you are just experiencing good variance.

Quote: Dyvan13

Any thoughts into this?

Yea
Play no limit
Strategy is so limited in limit holdem. Very boring
No limit is all about strategy. Very exciting at times

I love it when I am considering what to bet playing with my chips, setting aside a small pile, playing with that small pile considering whether to put the small pile in or just part of the small pile. So many choices. So much strategy in the size of the bet depending if you want a call or to push people off their hands

All poker advice is "situational" but:

At a full table (10 players) I would not open with small pocket pairs under the gun and I would not play Ace-rag at all in early position. Ace-rag, even when suited, is too vulnerable to being dominated by a better A-x hand, which happens too often with 8 or 9 players left to act. And A-x(rag) is so difficult to play after the flop - if an Ace comes on the flop and your adversary bets, what do you do?

This is especially true in a high-rake game where getting into a lot of 50/50 hands means you would be breaking even on a high volume of hands if it wasn't for the rake -but with the rake this strategy is -EV.