Advice for a very loose home game

I've been playing in a home ring game every sunday w/ about 4-6 regulars. The buy in is pretty much whatever you want ($5-20), and they like to play w/ ante's instead of blinds, usually $.05.

These people will play anything. It's not uncommon for a $5-6 pot to go to showdown between 2 of them playing high card vs. a pair. Very loose and aggressive. I see about 20-30% of the flops, so obviously I'm pegged as the super tight one, yet raises still get almost no respect.

I know... this should be a great situation, but it's not working out.
I fold, and fold, and fold, and w/ I finaly get decent cards...<insert typical bad beat situation here>...
I do win hands of course, but so far at the end of the night, I'm breaking even at best.
Since I have to pay every time to see 2 cards, should I loosen up preflop, limp more cards, and just really watch my post flop play, or tighten up even more and just wait for the good hands?
Any advice?

The question you have to ask yourself is
"Am I playing to have a good night out with the guys or am I playing to win money from these guys?"

Ask yourself this truly. I know that when I "play with boys" I don't play anything like I would play online. It's supposed to be fun. I post the cost to see the flop with most anything, oftentimes before I even see my cards and go from there.

However, if your motivation behind playing with them is the latter, well then, you're going to have to give up on big pairs, because they'll probably get outdrawn on. Play wit hsuited connectors since it would seem as though your friends don't understand pot odds. Try and hit something REALLY nice like a straight or a flush, or of course, the all powerful set.

Anyway, hope this helped.

he's right, in a game where people will obviously call you down, you're big pairs go way down in value. You don't ever want more than 1-2 opponents with a big pair.

I actually had a guy tell me, "you really want me to fold huh, what do you have, AA?", I told him "ya". he mucked

At a table like that it becomes less of "who's gonna make the most money", and more of "who's gonna throw away the least of it". Just be the guy that gets payed by getting out when your not ahead, and you'll win your share of money. The trick in this environment is to know when to save your money by folding. That's how you make it at a loose table.

Yeah, also consider there is no rake. I would play pretty loose pre-flop (about 25% of my hands.)

With 4 people at a table like that I would play way more than 25%. I would raise any face cards, and only fold on complete garbage. Play an excellent post flop game at a loose short handed table. Just one mans opinion.

Oh, didn't notice it was short, yeah, now we're in 33,40,50% or so of all hands. Read the HEFAP section on short-handed play. Good info on the kind of hands you should be playing before and after the flop. Middle pair is almost as good as top pair in these situations.

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<----- Exactly what I look like. That's me

Yeah, it's a really laid back game, we've all know each other for awhile. That being said, I still want to take all thier money .
Thanks for all the suggestions/comments, some good points here.

I've been taking my online full table mindset, to a shorthanded loose live game. I'll just try to switch it up a little bit, and see if I can't get somthing going.

I also find at loose home games, the more alcohol you feed your players, the looser they get. heh heh.

The days where we don't drink, the games seem so much more boring and tight. heh heh

I have to think you've run into a situation online where a tight full ring table transforms itself into a short loose beast. It happens to me a lot. I just switch gears and lower my standards. A good poker player is an absolute chameleon. That's the key bro.

I play online at low limits and this means there are a lot of loose players. What worked for me was to play as loosely as the table was. See as many flops as you can even with garbage that embarrasses you.

The easiest way to describe it would be playing super-loose pre-flop and super-tight post-flop.

The keys for making this work:

1) Get in cheaply. If you have an all-in in front of you, don't play. If someone just did a minimun raise, why not? Don't pay out the nose to see a flop when it has to be perfect for it to be worth it.

2) You need to be disciplined enough to get away from hands that hit but not completely. You want to flop trips and flush or straight draws or two pairs. Betting top pair when the pair is a ten is a recipe for disaster.

3) When you do have premium hands - Aces, Kings, maybe Queens or Slick - make the price of admission so high that you won't get any callers or just one.

I think we'd all love to play in a game where if you're holding AQ, you raised accordingly and if the flop comes out Q33 you're confident that nobody hit trips, but if you're not in that game, you have to play the one you are in.

When in Rome...

I find that at these games (all of my home games) playing tight aggressive is still a good strategy early on.

The thing that I find, is that when it comes down to the final 3 or 4 players, these guys have been watching me play all night. I will have only showed premium hands (if I've showed at all) because I can get most of the guys that I play with of of anyting with any aggression.

Then I have to start losening up or I will get beat. Once great example:

It's down to 3-way. One guy says "It's my goal to beat Justin".

I say: "Why don't you try to come in 1st instead?", to which he replies: "Because, I wanted to beat Justin coming into the game and I am afraid of your bets". At the time I was shot stack at the table to because I had only been playing tight.

After the guy did beat Justin, the first hand of heads up I was dealt 67s. Now I know that I have to losen up and the guy is afraid of my bets so I put out a 4x raise from the SB, the other guy calls. Flop comes 5-6-6 the other guy goes all-in, I call, I win.

After that hand he asks me: "Why would you ever raise with that?" He knew I was tight, but didn't consider that I could change gears when I needed to.

Sorry that was so long, but I think it's a solid story that ties into your question. I think it would be a good idea to try to get the players in your games to recoginize you as a good player. Then they will watch you, notice your tightness, then you can losen up against them and take their money.

Originally Posted by Rondavu

I have to think you've run into a situation online where a tight full ring table transforms itself into a short loose beast. It happens to me a lot. I just switch gears and lower my standards. A good poker player is an absolute chameleon. That's the key bro.

True that.

My home game is kind of loose too

usually you need at least two pair to win at showdown and you pretty much cannot make any assumptions on the players hole cards.

My advice is
1. AA/KK/QQ/AK - raise very high preflop, hopefully if you raise enough most of the people will fold, and since its a shorthanded game you will have 1-2 callers

2. Dont slowplay, dont let people a chance to draw, they will probably call anyhow

3. Dont bluff