Loading...How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em
$1/$2 No-Limit Texas Hold'em is by far the most popular poker game being played in casino poker rooms.
And without a doubt, your average table features a motley crew of fish waiting to give their money away.
With a little help from this article you'll be sure to get your fair share of it.
The Game
The game is $1/$2 No-Limit Texas Hold'em, the Chevrolet Cavalier of poker. The minimum buy-in is $40 and the max $200.
$1/$2 is the smallest No-Limit game run in most casinos and for that reason the games are very, very soft.
Your Average Opponent
$1/$2 games are inhabited by everyone from 60-year-old nits, to first timers, to gamboolers who raise every hand, to young, sunglasses-wearing wannabe pros.
Some of these players are actually good, but most are not. They're first-level thinkers, thinking only of their two cards and nothing else.
They are going to be clueless to the fact that you've folded the last 30 hands and are now betting hard into them. What they're going to be doing is thinking, "I has a pair of jacks; how much?" and then pushing the required chips into the pot.
These players are your targets, and the source of the bulk of your winnings.
Loose-passive players have two major weaknesses - they call too often before the flop and they take their hands too far after the flop.
You'll often hear new players lament about how it's impossible to beat fish because all they do is call.
This sort of thinking is so fundamentally wrong it's laughable. Players who call too much are the ATMs of the poker world, readily dispensing money to whoever has the patience to wait for a good hand.
The motley crew, only sans Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and, well, anything to do with the Crüe really.
Your Ideal $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Strategy
You play tight, you make top pair or better and you bet! Not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Play ABC poker, make your good hands and bet them.
Loose-passive calling stations will do what they do best: call. So let them call, stop bluffing them, and value bet your good hands relentlessly.
When you play tight before the flop, you make your post-flop decisions easier. By playing solid hands before the flop you will make solid hands after the flop.
When you eliminate marginal hands from your repertoire you'll find yourself with fewer difficult decisions after the flop.
Your goal is to flop top pair with a good kicker or better. You have to avoid getting caught up in the table flow. Just because half the table is limping in up front with K
3
doesn't mean you have to.
Stick to playing tight and focus on playing hands that can flop big.
Playable Hands at $1/$2
Big Pocket Pairs (AA - TT)
These hands are already made for you. A single pair is often good enough to win at showdown, so when you start with one, you're ahead of the game.
Big pocket pairs are such big favorites that you should always raise them for value when nobody has raised in front of you. With aces, kings, queens and even jacks you should often even reraise.
The profit in these hands comes from when you flop an overpair to the board or a set. When you do, bet. Your loose-passive opponents will be more than happy to call three streets with worse hands.
Good Top-Pair Hands (A-K - A-J, K-Q)
Top-pair hands are hands that make top pair and when they do so, do it with a good kicker.
Hellmuth's whole career revolves around playing super tight and waiting for people to give him chips.
In a game where most of your opponents are loose-passive, your kicker is going to make you a lot of money.
For example, if you have K
Q and the board comes king-high, you can bet three streets for value against a loose-passive player. He will be more than happy to call all the way down with K
9 only to find his kicker is no good.
Good top-pair hands are good enough for a raise when the pot has not been raised before you. Top-pair hands do better against one opponent than many, so keep that in mind when choosing your bet sizes.
Speculative Hands
These are hands that are rarely going to win at showdown unimproved, but when they hit they make big-pot hands.
A big-pot hand is a hand like a set, a full house, a straight or a flush. Holding these hands, no matter what the action, you're ready to put your stack on the line.
They are speculative hands because they have to hit before they'll be worth anything. They rely on the implied odds that you win your opponent's stack when you do hit.
Ideally you would like to see the flop as cheaply as possible with these hands. Speculative hands do best when played in position, so be wary about playing them from up front.
Pocket Pairs (99-22)
Pocket pairs make huge hands when they flop sets. Sets are often hidden, and you can easily stack someone who has top pair or an overpair. For that reason it's OK to limp pocket pairs from any position.
When facing a raise, you have to think about your opponent. If he is a tight player and is unlikely to pay you off when you do hit, you're best off folding.
If, however, he is a loose player (or you're multiway with more than one loose player), you can call a reasonably sized raise to play for "set value."
The main thing about pocket pairs is that when you hit a set you should almost always be looking for the best way to get all your money into the pot.
Suited Connectors, Suited One-Gappers (Q-Js - 67s, K-Js - T-8s)
Suited connectors are great hands, played within reason. They do make both straights and flushes - both big-pot hands. The problem is they don't do it nearly as often as you might think.
When you're in early position, you're best off folding low suited connectors. If your table hasn't been seeing too many raises before the flop, you can limp the best suited connectors like J T or Q J. All others should be folded.
Suited connectors are hands that play well in position. More often than not you're going to miss the flop or hit a weak one-pair hand. Playing them from out of position, in contrast, is going to put you in too many marginal spots after the flop.
Suited connectors should rarely be played versus a raise unless you are on the button and it is a multiway pot, or the raise is very small.
Suited Aces (A-9s - A-2s)
Suited aces are decent speculative hands because they can flop the nut-flush draw and they do have some high-card strength with the ace.
Step 1: Wait. Step 2: Flop top pair. Step 3: Bet. Step 4: ???? Step 5: PROFIT!!!
Nut-flush draws obviously have value because you can stack smaller flushes. The problem with flushes though is that they are right there in the open. Everyone is always aware when a flush draw comes in, and as such it is sometimes difficult to get paid.
Suited aces are good hands, but not good enough to limp in from any position. You should be more willing to limp the closer to the button you get.
Against a raise suited aces should seldom be played. You're not going to flop a flush nearly as often as you flop a pair of aces with a weak kicker.
A weak pair of aces can be a curse. You feel like you have top pair and should see a showdown, but by the time you get there you find yourself outkicked and half a stack short.
Weak Top Pair Hands (K-Jo, Q-To, etc.)
These are hands that you want to steer clear of for the most part. They are dominated hands and should be avoided at all costs unless you can get in cheap from late position.
From early position and/or against a raise they should not be played at all. They don't make many straights or flushes, and when they hit a pair you're going to find yourself on the losing end of the kicker battle more often than not.
Everything Else
Everything else is trash and should not be played even if it is suited. Suited trash is still trash. Players get themselves into trouble all the time playing weak suited trash because they think they're going to make a flush.
You don't make a flush with weak hands nearly as often as you may expect, and the rest of the time you're bleeding money. Stop playing them.
Position, Position and Position
The importance of position can't be overstated. Many people think they understand the concept of playing in position, but they routinely call raises with marginal hands, only to play the rest of the hand out of position.
This is a leak that costs you money. When you're out of position you're playing a guessing game - you have to anticipate what your opponent may do.
Not saying live $1/$2 is so easy a dog could beat it, but let's just say this guy does very well for himself.
They dictate the flow of the hand: if they don't want to put more money in, they don't; if they want to bet three streets, they do.
Which is why being in position is so important: it puts you firmly in the driver's seat. You get last say on everything. If you want to see a free showdown you do; if you want to value-town someone, you do.
Your opponents will be guessing, just as you are when you're out of position. As the better player, with the advantage of being in position, you'll ensure that they're guessing wrong more often than right.
Sit Back and Wait for the Dollars
That's really all there is to it. The most important skill you can have at $1/$2 is patience. Sit back and wait for a good hand. You should be folding 80% of your hands.
Do not get involved just because you are bored. Start with solid holdings and make solid hands after the flop.
When you're card-dead, that doesn't mean you should be sitting around watching TV. Pay attention to the game and your opponents. Profile them in your mind; identify who the weak players are and what their tendencies are.
If you know who the loose players are and who the tight players are, you'll be able to understand their bets and raises and what they mean.
Once you figure out your opponents' tendencies, the rest is just a waiting game. Make your big hand and value bet. Exploit the calling stations and force them to put their money in with worse hands.
$1/$2: it's an easy game.
Comment(s) on this article
PocketAcers Feb 11, 2009
"The game is $1/$2 No-Limit Texas Hold'em, the Chevrolet Cavalier of poker."
Haha, awesome.
Rounder Feb 12, 2009
Haha, yeah that was a good one.
qvads Feb 24, 2009
"lol"
Consultant San Diego Feb 25, 2009
theres a great 1/2 in San Diego...Baronoa...on a saturday night there's an average of about 5 fish per table...ATM machines...
Andy Mar 3, 2009
This article is actually fundamentally wrong, although it won't be immediately noticeable to the beginner. It is actually WRONG to be playing only 20% of your hands as this article suggests, even if the table if full of fish. BECAUSE they are fish, you want to play more pots against them especially if stacks aren't shallow, and use your better postflop skills to take more money from them. This article is so NITTY it makes me think that the author barely beats the $1/2! I play tight against fish, loosen up in position, and play loose-aggressive against the better players at the table. Why play just one nitty, tight, boring style? This author has to be a VERY MARGINAL winner in low stakes which makes him a loser anywhere up.
steve job Mar 3, 2009
Yea, or this author was writing an article for beginners who may not know what the best strategy is.
chances are if you are looking for a strat article about beating live 1/2 you don't play well enough postflop to play more than 20% of hands.
Edward Mar 5, 2009
Nice article. I play regularly at 2/4 and 5/5 tables with the same characteristics, and as long as I can keep focused and not become to creative, I go away with a few hundred per evening. I get in trouble when I start stealing blinds, and bluffing the wrong opponents.
Perhaps it make sense to state explicitly that this is NOT for 1/2 NLHE online. There, the level is a lot higher and you can't win money that easily.
ricber Mar 5, 2009
This is a good article for beginners. It's about the basic strategy of poker. You should not play with marginal hands, even when in good position, specially if you are a beginner. However, and this might just be an unvoluntary omission, you should play some marginal hands to mix your game and not become predictable. Even though, the author includes a very wide range of hands you could play; maybe the 80% folding situation is a litle bit exaggerated.
Zyg0tic Mar 6, 2009
I actually think folding 80% is right about dead on. If you're playing this very TAG style you're literally only playing the hands talked about in the article. This means premium hands you play from any position, and then a bunch of marginal hands you'll only play from position.
You only get 4 hands at a full ring game where you're in late enough position to play the marginal hands, and you're only going to be dealt a top 10 hand 6% of the time (169 starting hands 10/169 = 5.9)
So you get a top ten hand about 1/16 hands on average. If you only played top ten hands you'd be folding 93.75% of all hands.
as you can see 80% actually isn't extremely tight, it's just solid TAG.
slim Mar 11, 2009
This is a very good article. Playing only 20% of the hands is a good target. I actually look for more like 15%. 30% from the blinds and 10% elsewhere. When I check my stats I've usually had a bad nite if I'm over 20% and I make money around 15%. Playing only premium hands in low blind games will make money consistently, if you can stand the boredom and resist the temptation to jump in to get what looks like easy money by playing loose, if you do then YOU become the fish.
What this article doesn't address is how to play AFTER the flop. That is where you really make money by getting max value out of winners and cut losses. In a 1-2 game you can call into every unraised preflop pot and do ok if you get max value when you hit and know when to get out of beaten weaker hands.
phil from Burnley Mar 26, 2009
nice information, i will test this statergy, thanks
Ed Mar 27, 2009
This article is spot on for the most part. Most of the players at this level are unobservant and play their cards and not the situation. You need to value bet against them relentlessly. Attempting to bully the table or trying to bluff players out of a pot usually doesn't work very well at these levels. Once you have observed these players for a while and find their tendencies, you can loosen up a bit, but a TAG style usually works best.
klitschko@pokerstars Apr 4, 2009
I have played microstakes online for several years and have been breakeven or small loser, recently our town got a casino with etables 1/2 nlhe, and usuing this or even a bit tighter in 1 night i set a 200 dollar goal, and 3/4 or better i reach it, usually leaving the game premature, and when i lose i have a max loss of 200 so doing the math i expect win 400 or more in 4 nights or roughly a 100 night, i have read books that say you should play hours not results, but i don't make 100 day at my 9-5 so the extra income is a blessing, this sounds very much the way i play, and im a winner in the game, 100 a day to me is crushing the game , so i do believe this strategy takes a beginner and turns him into winner,
OziAussieOzi Apr 9, 2009
Mike Caro plays even tighter than this.His pre-flop hands are very hard to stick to but since I have been doing so I have turned $50 into $1200 in 4 weeks @ the 50c/$1 no limit tables.
MadDawg Apr 9, 2009
this guy hit the nail on the head! I played this way last time I was at the casino and took $80 and turned it into $417!
James Apr 27, 2009
this article is right on. He is talking about most 1/2 tables, and the skill of players at these tables. They play too many hands, call to much, and bet poorly. If you play tight you can value bet them to the poor house. Bluffing, is not smart at a 1/2 game, if you are new . It is easier to bluff a good player than a bad player. This is because good players think about odds, their cards, your cards, previous play, etc. Bad players do not. They only think about their cards, and the pile of money. Thats not the guy I want on the other end of my bluff. This style is good if you are playing fish, which makes up 50+% of most 1/2 games. Once your game evolves and you can classify good and bad players and their styles, you can practice playing them differently. If you plan on moving up in stakes then you will need this skill.
Mike N May 11, 2009
definitely good basics to start... lets see how they fall into play... Im more of a tourney player who plays hyper-agressive almost raising most pots, and I win a lot of chips this way especially early in the tourney when players are hesitant to put there chips in with anything worse then AJo so lets see how this patient strategy pays off... off to the BAR down in ONA.
Live4TheRisk May 28, 2009
I agree that there a lot of fish at the table who just have no idea what there doing. I'm all about limping in with almost any two in late position and knowing when to get away postflop. These guys make so many mistakes on the flop that you have to take advantage. From time to time i can see you losing a pot when you think you got it but, this is where the skill comes in. You need to be able to get away from a hand when you just limped in for 2 dollar. Dont be going broke in a limped pot.
Greg Jul 20, 2009
I don't agree with this at all, I happen to think that you should play more hands against the fish, because of the ability to outplayed the fish after the flop, in my home game, we have a few fish and I play about 35 percent of my hands because I know how to read the player, this is how you when, by putting people on hands, not waiting for aces or A,K all the time, I do agree that in an aggressive game where the preflop raise is to $15 or more than you have to wait for better hands as you are not going to when as much
Bobby Aug 10, 2009
I think a TAG style, playing around 15 - 25% of the hands is ideal, yes of course you want to play more hands against the fish, but it can be difficult to establish their range, since they can inevitably play anything. Like the article said, you want to make your post-flop decision easier, against level 1, level 2 players, you can play more hands against them because their range is a little easier to establish....of course against the fish, in position, i'll call their raises or play pots in position against them with a pretty wide range of hands, knowing that they can take overpairs, top pairs, and weak two-pairs for almost their entire stack, but I think 15% - 25% is about right on, no need to get involved in too many hands against fish and not know where you are sometimes since their range is too far and wide
Dave Aug 26, 2009
Who else would really like to be at a table with Andy?
Matt Aug 29, 2009
A great article, totally agree with the view that TAG is the way to go and that you should only be playing 20% of your hands. I also have found that at these tables as per some of the other comments you can't bluff or push these types of players off the board. The number of times I've had nuts flush on the flop and some calling station has called through all of my big raises to pull a fullhouse on the river is unbelievable. I have also found slow playing an effective tactic with the players at this level.
smith Oct 10, 2009
Well if you play more than 20% range that will include a lot of weird hands.
For example; a 30% VP$IP should include hands like K5s, A2s, Q7s, T9o, J8s, A9o, A8o, J9o, K9o, Q9o, A5o etc.
So playing those hands and others similar makes you pretty loose already..
Not to mention VP$IP of 40%+ which is actually a maniac loose style.
According to my calculations, approximately the top 11% of the hands are always profitable in every position in the long run. That includes hands like AJo, QJs, ATs, 99, 88, KJs etc.
9coconuts Oct 21, 2009
This article summarises the strategy I (a beginner fish, basically) used to build up my play-money bankroll: play tight & don't raise from the blinds pre-flop (except with monsters), & bet your hands post-flop.
This is of a far more basic level than most of the articles on this site.
JOHN Nov 9, 2009
Very good piece. The whole concept is making your post-flop decisions almost automatic. Throw in too many A6o's and variance goes through the roof.
I couldn't help but notice Andy's comments. Silly post. Using post-flop skills against a fish who has no clue what you are trying to do is futile. You know he's not folding top pair so why try to be a hero with a kicker that's going to be out-kicked more than half the time against someone who won't fold? If your post-flop skill is good enough to know when your outkicked, try not getting involved.
But then he goes on to say "I play tight against the fish and loosen up in position". So if your only loosening up in position and a good position only comes around 3 times per revolution, how loose are you? Sounds a bit contradictory to me.
What sums it all up is this. Everyone has an opinion. Some agree some disagree, that's why we are here. But not once, BUT TWICE, he goes out of his way to comment on how he thinks the author barely beats the 1/2 games and can't win on a higher level. Exactly what did that accompolish? A pride boost. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing destroy's the validation of a comment like self-promotion.
og Nov 9, 2009
i've turned $40 into $1k in 2 days LIVE
first i played 1-2 then 2-3 then 3-5
never been able to match that session again
robbiecnote Nov 15, 2009
All in all, I think the author has very good advice for most players. Even Phil Hellmuth when asked, what advice he would give to most non-pro players, to help improve their game said, "Play less pots". But you have to remember, no matter how tight you or loose you play, this game still has a cretin amount of luck involved. So at a home game or in most 1 & 2 games anywhere, there will be more luck involved than there will be sitting at a high stakes game you watch on TV. But most of us, especially the one's reading this article play for the entertainment and the competition. It's just that the entertainment part, doesn't fit well with being patience, and wait for a quality starting hand. In essence, it's gambling, and if you don't control how you play, you could end up in a world of hurt.
"Big Papa" Texas Dolly" said the WSOP Main Event was like playing the lottery. The Pro's, (meaning guy's who know what their doing) Just have more tickets.
I think its great advice for anyone, if you want to be conservative regarding how much money you’re willing to risk. All in all, I think the author has very good advice for most players. Even Phil Hellmuth when asked, what advice he would give to most non-pro players, to help improve their game said, "Play less pots". But you have to remember, no matter how tight you or loose you play, this game still has a certain amount of luck involved. So at a home game or in most 1 & 2 games anywhere, there will be more luck involved than there will be sitting at a high stakes game you watch on TV. But most of us, especially the one's reading this article play for the entertainment and the competition. It's just that the entertainment part, doesn't fit well with being patience, and wait for a quality starting hand. In essence, it's gambling, and if you don't control how you play, you could end up in a world of hurt.
"Big Papa" Texas Dolly" said the WSOP Main Event was like playing the lottery. The Pro's, (meaning guy's who know what their doing) Just have more tickets.
I think its great advice for anyone, if you want to be conservative regarding how much money you’re willing to risk.
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