Limping with (almost) any two in cash games

Tackle

What do you think of this idea? I've been trying it for a few days and it seems to be working quite well. I limp with almost any two from any position, right down to 3 5 suited or unsuited (straight potential) and 10 2 suited (one highish card).
It doesn't seem to be really draining my cash as I end up picking up lots of small pots. It's easy to lay down these type of hands too, so you're not going to get all your cash sucked out of you if you're not sure where you stand on/after the flop.
The real strength of it comes from landing a very good flop that doesn't appear as a big threat to someone with higher cards. It's also alot more interesting than waiting around for the best hands.
I haven't been doing it long enough yet to make a proper judgement on it but it's been fairly interesting and profitable so far.

willis

sometimes this can work in cash games, depending on the how the game has been going i.e. is there plenty of limpers giving you value or is there raising machines at the table.Personally i feel such an approach is more suited to limit rather than no limit. Also the danger of limping in with 10 2 etc is what happens if the flop is 10 high?or 5 3 in a pot with 7 players and you flop 2 pair,yeh nice having 2 pair but with so many players there is a big possibility of straight draws etc. These hands are called thrash hands for a reason and whilst you may pick up a couple of small pots,i reckon these are the type of hands that will lose you the big ones

Hectorjelly

If you play much better than your opponents and you have deep stacks than it can be profitable

Imposter

Connected hands or one gap hands (suited of unsuited) can work quite well in limit or in a shorthand game with a lot of limpers. I'd occasionally even call a small raise (not a proper raise ) in NL with these hands.
Hands with one high card though is asking for trouble although i'll play hands like Ax under the same conditions as above and also Kxs.

Tackle

Yeah, you have to be careful and ready to drop them at the first sign of danger. If I've hit top pair with a crap kicker and someone bets weakly I might raise them on the flop to see where they stand. If they call and check to me on the turn I'm probably ahead but if they continue betting I'm out of there.

NickyOD

You would have to be a superb postflop player for this strategy to work and even then you would lose money long term with certain hands no matter how well you played them. Limping in with garbage like J4o or K6o or other hands that are in no way coordinated is just throwing money out that that you are asking to be taken away.

Lafortezza

You might still be making money playing bad hands, but possibly if you only played 'good' starting hands you might make more.

Mezcita

Mate of mine is useing this "limping in" idea a lot online. Basically he is playing a lot of small scale cash games on the net and nearly always has a look at the flop regardless of the cards he has. Can work occasionally but I'm not a big fan of it.

Basically it may work against a bunch of amateurs but in any game where you are playing against decent players you will very rarely get a cheap look at the flop.

padraig_f

willis wrote:

Personally i feel such an approach is more suited to limit rather than no limit.

I would've thought it was the other way around, i.e. more difficult to show a profit in limit poker playing this way because of the lack of implied odds.

There's an interesting exchange on the 2+2 forums between David Sklanksy and Barry Greenstein on a similar subject here: http://tinyurl.com/cf2he

NickyOD

padraig_f wrote:

I would've thought it was the other way around, i.e. more difficult to show a profit in limit poker playing this way because of the lack of implied odds.

There's an interesting exchange on the 2+2 forums between David Sklanksy and Barry Greenstein on a similar subject here: http://tinyurl.com/cf2he

If you adopt an any 2 strategy in limit you'll lose every penny in no time. Not only that but in Limit you should pretty much avoid open limping completely.

RasTa

I started to call raises 3 times the bb with hands like 9,8 or 10,9. Won a 20 buck pot last night at the 10/25 cent when i floped a 2 pair against his pair of queens

Tackle

Well, I've tightened up the any two strategy a bit. I play any 2 gap connectors and 3 gap if they're suuuited. My cutoff points for high cards are Q7 and K2. If they're suited I'll play 10x. Seems to be a good balance and weeds out the really gay hands that will find it hard to look good/improve post flop - J 3 or 8 4 for example. Still play any two out of the small blind.

Anyone else care to share their playable hand ranges?

Culchie

I thought that higher cards were better than lower cards in poker?

If you have sh.ite cards to start with, the chances are you will still have sh.ite cards after flop.....yes you hit the perfect flop once in a while.

Bit like the mug in the bookies who backs a 50/1 shot once in a while.....not a good strategy IMHO.

NickyOD

Tackle wrote:

Well, I've tightened up the any two strategy a bit. I play any 2 gap connectors and 3 gap if they're suuuited. My cutoff points for high cards are Q7 and K2. If they're suited I'll play 10x. Seems to be a good balance and weeds out the really gay hands that will find it hard to look good/improve post flop - J 3 or 8 4 for example. Still play any two out of the small blind.

Anyone else care to share their playable hand ranges?

What's your BB/hr with this strategy?

Tackle

Culchie wrote:

I thought that higher cards were better than lower cards in poker?

If you have sh.ite cards to start with, the chances are you will still have sh.ite cards after flop.....yes you hit the perfect flop once in a while.

Bit like the mug in the bookies who backs a 50/1 shot once in a while.....not a good strategy IMHO.

I don't get involved in big pots unless I really hit a good flop. It's fairly rare to find yourself outkicked on the river unless there has been no/light betting, and if that's the case it'll usually be a small pot anyway. You don't need to hit a perfect flop to make money like this, you can keep yourself ticking over by knowing when you're TPWK is good or even when your middle pair is good.
It suits me as I'm only playing two tables so I can afford to concentrate more on each hand. It could be trickier with more tables as you have to know your opponents to know where you stand alot of the time.

NickyOD wrote:

What's your BB/hr with this strategy?

I don't know my BB/hr I haven't been keeping track, but it's positive I've been a bit lazy with my results tracking, I'll give it a go next week to see how I'm doing.

Culchie

It seems you have found the secret then. :rolleyes:

No Offence Tackle, you are deluding yourself.
There has been books written on poker for a reason. You will be leaking money all over the shop if this is going to be your long term stategy.

Why bother folding anything at all?

Tackle

Heheh, well it would be a lot easier for me to know how I'm doing if I had've kept track. I'm going to try this for 2 weeks and then try playing a tighter game for another two, and see which comes out ahead on BB/hr.

Lafortezza

NickyOD wrote:

What's your BB/hr with this strategy?

Also what site do you play on and what's your sign in?

Culchie

Tackle wrote:

Heheh, well it would be a lot easier for me to know how I'm doing if I had've kept track. I'm going to try this for 2 weeks and then try playing a tighter game for another two, and see which comes out ahead on BB/hr.

OK, now I know you pulling the Michael.

Nice One. .....

Tackle

lafortezza wrote:

Also what site do you play on and what's your sign in?

If you have room for another fish on your list, I play on PPP and my name is TackleF. This is just a trial, if I find I make more money with a tighter style I'll tighten up.

henbane

Culchie wrote:

There has been books written on poker for a reason. You will be leaking money all over the shop if this is going to be your long term stategy.

Why bother folding anything at all?

Why bother thinking when someone has already done it for you and put it in a book?

If Tackle is a decent enough player post-flop and the implied odds are good enough (deep stacks), this strategy has merit. It should certainly help him develop better post-flop skills. When moving up levels, these skills are invaluable as higher limit players shouldn't have trouble dealing with an ABC tight aggressive style.

NickyOD

lafortezza wrote:

Also what site do you play on and what's your sign in?

LMFAO. And I thought mine was a loaded question.

NickyOD

henbane wrote:

Why bother thinking when someone has already done it for you and put it in a book?

If Tackle is a decent enough player post-flop and the implied odds are good enough (deep stacks), this strategy has merit. It should certainly help him develop better post-flop skills. When moving up levels, these skills are invaluable as higher limit players shouldn't have trouble dealing with an ABC tight aggressive style.

Even so I'd like to see the PT court judge limping with T5 suited UTG.

Tackle

Been playing .50/1 exclusively for the last week and the any two strategy is a total non runner here. It was working ok at the lower levels but now that I think about it, I could have made more by staying tight. Anyway, it was an interesting experience and it has improved my overall game so it wasn't totally in vain.