No Foldem Holdem - Some Simple Facts Of
Low Limit Poker, And How To Adjust
Your Strategy Accordingly

I just stumbled across an old post of mine at the forum, which after rereading it, turned out to be a true gem. So apart from adding a few things I felt like including after reading it, here's one from the archives.

A lot of the posts on the forum concern bad beats. And when you play low limit holdem you're bound to experience a lot of them. Nevertheless it is not because of the bad beats you lose in the long run. While bad beats cause you to lose big pots, you usually couldn't (and shouldn't) have played these hands any different. The real problems are the small drops. The extra call you shouldn't make, the lame bluff you tried to pull in the wrong spot, the extra money you could have won by betting your strong hands etc. Bad beats directs your attention towards the wrong issues.

Playing at a no foldem table requires quite a different set of tools compared to playing a tight aggressive table. And poker is not about playing like the books say. It's about winning money. And applying the book lessons in situations where they don't apply is a sure loser. What you're striving to achieve is something an old guitarist who I used to know once said about his music "You need to know all the skills of the trade, and then you need to be able to forget all about it while you play". In poker this translates to knowing all the books, and be able to use each bit in them whenever a favorable situation for that particular move arises.

Some people find no foldem holdem really hard to beat and prefer tighter games. To them I can only say that if they get good results they should probably stay with that table selection. Cause then they've probably found a table that is favorable to their particular style of play. The only problem is, that unless it's an all-regular game, the normal table conditions can change very fast when a few lose players enter the game. So no matter how you look at it, being able to play no foldem only makes your game stronger at higher limits. And in my experience poker is not necessarily easier at higher limits. It's just different. You need all the low limit skills plus a few extras.

So what strategy changes do you need to play a loose passive (no foldem game)?

Poker is a game of knowledge. Now what knowledge do we have of our opponents in a no-foldem game? We sure know this:

Fact A. Most players will play any two cards, or at least any two suited cards. They will call to showdown with any pair, any straight draw and flush draw and sometimes just a random hand that is in no way connected to the flop.

Consequence: We're bound to get outdrawn quite a lot. AA will probably hold up less then half of the times. And the better player will be drawn out a lot more then the poor player will, simply because the good player doesn't proceed from the flop, unless ahead, or close behind. But when we lose a pot we only lose 20-25% of the pot size. When we win we take down it all. So we only have to win 1 in 5 to break even. In other words - Don't be a whiner. If you want the gold at the end of the rainbow, the price is some horrible outdraws in between.

Fact B. These players seldom bet with less the top pair, and seldom raise after the flop with less then 2 pair.

Consequence: Be prepared to fold that top pair decent kicker for a raise.

Fact C. You will have 50% players in average seeing the flop.

Consequence: You know in advance that you will have pot odds for flush draws, open ended straight draws and gutshot draws with overcards. Basically, if you're strong (read - good at folding a lot) after the flop, you can play a lot of hands like 109s, 98s, 87s and even 76s from late position. In order to fully utilize the fact that you know that you get good pot odds, and have a lot of dead money in the pots, you'll have to take quite a few flops. Seeing a flop is pretty cheap compared to the average pot size. What's expensive is if you take too many hands beyond the flop.

Conventional wisdom is that you have to play tight in a loose game. I don't necessarily agree. You can play somewhat loose pre-flop, provided that you play super tight after the flop.

Fact D. Some idea of how often the pot is raised pre-flop.

Consequence: Some of these games are very passive pre-flop, which means that you can play more hands from earlier positions. If it's start raised more then 50% of the time, you have to play super tight from early and mid positions. In loose passive games that are also passive pre-flop I will play most of the suited connectors (also the lower ones) from mid position as well.

Fact E. No pot is ever won without a showdown.

Consequence: Bluffs don't work. In any case you should not try to play more the two players in any game setting. Also bear in mind, that you'd like to preserve your bluffing to situations where you have a chance to make a big win, i.e. on the river where a really scary river card lands, you're heads up or 3-way, and you know that they perceive you as a really tight non-bluffing player.

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