Out Of Practice-loose Nl Cash Game Adv

[DTrain 0]

I've been working overseas in Afghanistan for the last 9 months, and have finally found a decent poker game to sit in. Before I came overseas I was playing 4-5 times a month, with 3 trips to Vegas and a few to AC every year. My usual game at the casinos is either the 1-2 or 2-4 NL cash games (usually at MGM or Mandalay), and in my last year playing turned a decent profit. Tonight will be my first poker game in almost a year. Here's what info I've gathered about this game: $100 buy-in, 1-2 blinds. The guy who invited me said it's a loose game, where a $10 preflop raise will see 5-6 callers, and even $20 raises could get up to 4 callers. It is also not uncommon to see $1000 winners and losers on a given night. With this type of action, it seems to me that people are calling with any ace, suited connectors, or small pairs. My guess is that there are a lot of weak players, and that aggressive post-flop play can build some big posts. However, it would also seem that a lot of hands are won in a showdown, whereas I typically like to win small-medium pots without showing down a hand. In this type of game I think I would have to tighten my starting hand requirements a bit, get rid of most small pairs from early position, but that big suited connectors would probably be profitable. Any advice?

[coremiller 0]

The key is that the buy-in limits you to 50 BBs. Combine that with the necessity of large pre-flop raises and a loose table, and your implied odds for drawing hands are limited because often times all the money is going on the flop. e.g. if you have a stack of $100, someone raises to $20 and three or four people call, any reasonable flop bet is all-in. Therefore, you should avoid playing stuff like suited connectors (which often need to get to the river to realize their full value), and stick to big cards, because TPTK is often going to be a good hand to go all-in with. Play tight, and don't worry about playing tight - at a table this loose your good hands will still get paid off. Also, be prepared to reload once or twice; at a table this loose you can expect some variance. Once you build a stack, you can play looser against similarly deepstacked opponents, but be careful not to call too often against shorter stacks that aren't offering you the proper implied odds.

[DTrain 0]

Yeah, in a game like this I can probably expect some swings, people sucking out on the river etc, but it also looks like it can be a profitable game going forward, so I'm prepared to reload a couple times if needed.