Q&A #105: More Suited Connectors In No-Limit Hold’em

Thanks Ed… very insightful discussion on this… Playing this live at a $2-$2 table for same effective stacks ($100), how does this change your thinking?

- HJ

55+, AT+, A8s+, KJ+, QJ

If he’s opening that loose, it’s pretty awful just calling with 8c6c preflop. This is a 3-bet probably close to 100% of the time.

As played, obviously push the flop.

So in conclusion Ed is right.

…snip…
Thanks Ed… very insightful discussion on this… Playing this live at a $2-$2 table for same effective stacks ($100), how does this change your thinking?
…snip…

I would think that you are now looking at 3-bet or fold leaning pretty solidly towards fold. It depends on how the villains play. Most low limit 50BB max games are incredible loose. You are reasonably likely to take the flop 3 ways if you 3-bet, at which point your only choice is to shove the flop. There just aren’t a whole lot of flops you want to see at that point. With 50BB stacks, you really want to play a pretty straight forward short stack game, playing pairs and big cards looking to commit preflop or on the flop. There isn’t a lot of room to play small SCs.

Todd -

I’m thinking along those lines as well. Florida laws limit the local cardroom’s max buy in to $100. The NLHE games are $2-$2 and $2-$5, with rake at 10%, $2 min up to $5 (yes, they will rake $2 out even if everyone folds preflop, essentially eliminating stealing blinds as any sort of sensible play). With buy in’s that small, that’s a pretty tough rake to beat, making me think it’s not worth my time & I should just stick to private games.

I agree with what Todd said.

And incidentally, I’ve only played the $100 Florida games (both $1-2 and $2-5, in the Tampa area) once in my life. But they seemed to play like any low-stakes game with imposed 50 BBL or less buy-ins. In other words, like Todd said, top pair /overpair poker.

3-betting here is clearly a semibluff, and semibluffing is pointless against someone who’s not planning to fold (as a lot of people in these games just won’t, I don’t care if they’re overplaying QJ). Online and live are totally different worlds here.

That said, if the raise is proportional, i.e. $7, you can probably call profitably on the button even with $100 stacks. As Ed said, you’re getting a mix of IO and steal possibilities. (Stealing is less profitable against a huge check/raiser like this guy, though.) In a lot of live $1-2 games the usual bring in isn’t $7, though. It’s more like $10 or $15 or more. In that case and with those stack sizes, there’s not a lot else to do but wait on your strong hands, reap the profits, and once you build a bigger stack than the $100 keep an eye out for who else has one too.

Interesting chats, both in this post and the previous. To be perfectly honest, the thing I’ve liked the most is opening my mind to the 3-bet. I realise that it’s been out and about in previous posts, but I guess it’s the first time I’ve finally ‘got it’. I’ve tried the odd squeeze from time to time (with rags, or the like), but for some reason I’ve never really considered it with suited connectors…as obvious as it may sound.

Always good to widen the realms of possibility!

Would the be any consideration to calling the flop if the opponent was less aggressive and we knew we had no fold equity against his pair of aces?
That way we could wait till are equity is better than 50% before shoving and still get their stack, and even if we don’t get their stack due to an unforeseen board that scares even this player off we will have been calling with correct pot odds anyway no doubt even on the turn unless he over bets the turn.

Is it possible to even 3-bet that? You’re either min-raising for the last bet (to 50), or all-in ..

Ed,

Can you elaborate about the post flop play? It seems as if you are advocating a shove, and only varying this place if you solidly place the villain on a FD.

We know villain is very loose with his TP type hands. We know he c/r into multiple opponents on a very dangerous board. Am i crazy to think we have no fold equity at all?

if we have no fold equity, and villain is going to get it in no matter what, it seems like a better play to just call and call. With even deeper stacks i would like a 4/bet shove, and with smaller stacks i auto shove, but with still a street and a 1/2 to go…

Effang –

did you read the post? i’m thinking the answer has to be no.