This guideline will work fairly well for the higher limits as well if you take more time to select good tables (a fish or two present which does occur plenty often enough even at higher limits). For the lower limits I just get on the lists for the top four average tables and go from there.

At the higher limits I firmly believe that excellent table selection may be the MOST important factor there is for winning play. As tight as my starting hand selection is you probably shouldn't stray too far from it at the higher limits but you should definately take more time in deciding which tables to play. If you don't have PT with Game Tracker then you are doing yourself a huge disservice in helping yourself out at all limits in selecting tables and monitoring opponents play.

Wow, this was an important read for me. Thanks piersmajestyk & CJ for your great advice.

CJ's post was the most profound to me. I came from NL first, then to Limit, so I was playing Limit incorrectly. I would play hands like NL and would bet/raise aggressively, to make the drawing hands pay. But then in Limit, these raises would seldom chase away players, as I could never bet high enough to deny them the odds to stay in. So what happened often is that these players would hit their flush/draw/2 or 3 outers by the river and I had wasted my money trying to push them off.

So going by CJ's post, I shall follow his excellent advice and aim NOT TO LOSE MONEY!

I will still bet/raise when I hit the nuts. But with good, yet vulnerable hands, I will be careful not to lose too much money on them.

Cheers guys,

SS

I will give you what I use for autorating. Some folks might want to add or detract from mine as they see fit.

1 Tight Agressive
Saw flop not a blind % between 10 and 18
Preflop Raise % between 6.5 and 12
Aggression Flop greater than 1.9
Aggr. Turn greater than 1.9

2. Rock
Voluntarily put money in pot less than 13%

3. Smily Face, my favorites
Saw flop not a blind greater than 45%
Preflop raise greater than 10%
Went to Showdown greater than 50%

4. Fish
Saw flop greater than 40%, probably could drop this down to 32 or 33%

5. Money Bag
Aggresion Factor total greater than 1.75
BB per 100 hands greater than 2.00
Preflop raise % greater than equal 6.5
VIP% between 11 and 22
Won $ at Showdown 50%

6. Calling station
Agression factor flop less than 1.3
Aggr. Fact. River less than 1.2
Aggr. Fact. turn less than 1.2

Again these are just some basic things I through together pretty fast based on what I thought was important. I am sure others here can give you some more ideas. Good luck.

Thanks for this advice. It may be very straight-forward and even a little boring for some, but it is a winning strategy at low limit. I only wish I would have read this when I first started playing LLH online!

Hello Pokgai,

In early position (under the gun and UTG+1) I would recommend that you fold your small pocket pairs up to 88 and raise all your other ones. Personally I raise 77 and 88 first in as well but I believe that folding these hands for most folks is probably the best option.

As Tiburon said alot depends on who the raiser is if you hold these smaller pocket pairs in late position. Most of the time I just fold them and get on with the next hand. The few times that I do play them I will usually three bet them in an attempt to get it heads up by driving the blinds out. With a 3 bet and position you can usually take control of things from there unless the preflop raiser really hits well or has his overpair still active on the flop. Again for most folks I think folding even in late position against only one player is probably the best choice with your small pocket pairs a huge % of the time. Good luck.

Do you fold suited connectors from all positions? what about on the button on an unraised pot?

Kev

usually i fold them unless i am in late postion with many (3 or more) limpers. I am looking for a draw, 2 pair or trips (lower the better) and not top pair and such. Flopping just top pair with a mid suited connector in a multiway pot gets you in a lot of trouble.

What VIP % do u usually get when playing this way? I just went 40 hands w/o a playable hand. Is boring too

Probably around 11%, perhaps just a little less. I very a little from this and while playing 4 or5 tables I seem to always be in action at one of them. Boring I can take, losing I can't