Adjusting to very loose tables

[Holgininho]

I mainly play at Cryptologic now were the games aren't all that loose. However, in times of low traffic at the Cryptos I used to play at a Pokerroom skin. I played at 5-max tables and always chose the tables with the highest flop seen percentages. Most of the time the players there really seemed nuts to me. I'm quite used to play heads-up on the flop, but not at those tables.

I only played about 1.5k hands there. After losing about 100 Big Bets I withdrew my money and changed to Stars at times of low traffic.

I know I should be grateful for such loose tables, adjust my game accordingly and try to make money. But it didn't quite work. Even though I knew I should limp more often with speculative hands, raise less often with marginal high card hands preflop, even though I knew that betting on the flop and turn to make people fold wouldn't work, I still couldn't adjust as well as I should. I know that I probably was unlucky, too, but I think a good deal of my losses was due to bad play.

So now, finally, comes my question: Is there any psychological trick you use to adjust your play to different circumstances? Obviously I failed at it.

[Piemaster]

The key with loose tables is patience. You played 1500 hands, which probably seems like quite a lot. If you are only a casual player that could take ages. However, 1500 hands is really not a lot at all. You would probably have to play ten times that amount to get some idea of how successful you are likely to be. In fact, because the tables are only five handed, the figure might even be more like 30,000 hands needed to approximate your win-rate.

Similarly, 100 big bets is also not a terribly large loss. In the olden days, people would talk about 100 big bet downswings being quite large and 200-300 big bet downswings being the largest you are really likely to face. However, playing short-handed increases variance. At 5 handed tables, 100 big bets is virtually nothing. I have lost more than that in a day before playing short-handed. Loose players increase your variance even more. If you have a few players chasing along with anything, it only takes them to hit their obscure draws a bit more than they should and you can find yourself in quite a big hole.

In short, there is no real 'trick' to dealing with loose games. You just have to keep plugging away, making the correct plays, and know that your opponents mistakes will make you money in the long-term. And by the long term I mean a lot longer than 1500 hands. While I admit that I have lost over 100 big bets in a day playing short-handed, on Wednesday I won over 190 big bets at the same tables. That's the kind of swings you can expect regularly. Providing you have a large bankroll, and a playing at low stakes (so the money doesn't mean too much to you), you just keep going, and eventually you will reap the rewards. If you have hands you are not sure about, feel free to post them on the short-handed strategy forum and I'm sure people will put you right.

One word of warning, there is a breed of 'loose' player that can be very difficult to beat at short-handed tables. They generally have a VP$IP of around 40%, raise about 20-25% of pots pre-flop and are aggressive after the flop. If they have good hand reading skills, these can be very dangerous opponents. You shouldn't automatically label them as fish, just because they play a lot of hands, this is something I learned the hard way. Passivity is a far more reliable indicator of bad players at short-handed tables. I would far prefer to play against a 20/0.5/0.8 player than a 40/25/3.

[Holgininho]

Thanks, Piemaster, for the elaborate answer. Part of the problem is, that basically I know 100 BB aren't a big swing, and I also know 1500 hands are a lot. But it's getting on my nerves anyhow, and so I choose to play tighter tables, though it might well be they are less profitable. I'm playing 2/4 most of the time, and I have a 600 BB bankroll for that limit, so a minor swing doesn't really hurt me.

Nevertheless I feel it is not only a problem of variance. It's more like I'm telling me: "Don't play too aggressively, keep in mind aggression won't win you the pots as often as on tighter tables." But I keep playing aggressively nevertheless. So basically I have the feeling that I'm not playing correctly because I fail to adapt - although I know that feeling could well be wrong.

[Taardvark]

It depends on the hands you are playing aggressively. The biggest mistake to make at a loose table is falling into playing looser yourself (assuming that you are tight aggressive to begin with. Your question implies you are). Loose tables require a great deal of discipline. It can be a grind and can be boring to fold, fold, fold until you have a hand really worth playing. Then there is the mental side of coping with the 1 and 2 outer losses.

If you are playing draws, middle pair or top pair weak kicker agressively, you may want to look into that. Those are the kinds of hands that tend to get beaten at a loose table pretty regularly. If you are playing premium hands aggressively I don't think you can go wrong long-term there.