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Not playing loose enough in high-ante
games is a much less common problem among poker players than playing
too loose in low-ante and average-ante games. When players in a
game cry out, "Here comes a live one," what they mean
is, "Here comes a player who plays too many pots, who always
wants to get into the action, who doesn't consider the odds before
calling, who calls to the end with next to nothing when two aces
are staring him in the face." Put more succinctly, what they
mean is, "Here comes a sucker."
What happens when you play too loose for the ante? Well, even if
you play very well from then on, you have the problem of playing
a worse hand on average than your opponents who are playing correctly
according to the ante. Consequently, you figure to lose to them
as long as they play as well as you. Even if they don't play quite
as well as you, you figure to lose to them because their starting
requirements are higher than yours, and so the hands they play against
you will, on average, be better than yours.
There used to be a no-limit hold 'em game with a very small ante
in Las Vegas, and there were a couple of excellent players in the
game. But they insisted on raising almost every pot before the flop,
not to steal the small antes, but just to get more money in the
pot since they felt they could outplay everybody else from that
point on. However, when a mediocre player who simply played tight
came into the game, they found they couldn't beat him. What was
happening, of course, was that the hands they played were on average
much worse than the mediocre player's, and even a world champion
with a pair of kings is an underdog against a nobody with a pair
of aces. No matter how great a player is, if he plays much too loose
for the ante, he is giving away an edge to those players who play
correctly for the ante.
With a small ante, you should play just the oppopage of the way
you would play with a large ante. You play fewer hands, you steal
fewer antes, and you slow play big hands to draw people in. Let
the aggressive players control the game if they choose to. Let them
steal the antes. Give them a false sense of security. Then, when
you are in a pot against them, your hand will be so much stronger
than theirs on average that you'll win any antes they might have
stolen from you and much more.
As long as you play tight in a small-ante game most of the time,
it will be possible for you too to steal antes occasionally. However,
when you are called or reraised, especially by players you know
to be tight, you must give up on your bluff immediately since you
are up against too big a hand.
The general rule is that as the ante decreases, you must tighten
up. But when you are at least as good as or better than your opponents
in a game with a very low ante, you should not tighten up so much
that you never seem to play a hand. As the ante gets to a very low
level, there is a limit to how much you should tighten up, because
you need to give yourself the chance to outplay weaker opponents
in later rounds. As the best player in the game, you want to play
as many hands as possible to allow yourself to use your full arsenal
of weapons.
Some games have a small ante and also a small initial bet. In such
cases you should play loose for the initial bet only, calling with
a marginal hand but folding on the next round of betting if your
hand has not improved. When you do develop a hand, your small investment
will pay big dividends. There is a $3-$6 game in Nevada with a tiny
dime ante. Tight players think they have a gold mine in this game,
but against decent players they don't. The reason is that the first
bet is only 50 cents. It's worth playing a marginal hand to see
one card for half a dollar in the hope of making a hand that will
win a big pot. While the immediate pot odds may not justify the
call, the implied odds you're getting, which are explained in detail
in Page Seven, do justify it. You can call that half-dollar 20 times
without improving your hand, but if, when you make a hand, you get
just one opponent to call you to the end, you stand to win more
than twice what you had to pay for those 20 hands that did not improve.
Remember, however, to resist any temptation you may have to continue
calling when your hand has not improved on fourth street.
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