Seeing a cheap flop

[Triple B333]

Its 5 am right now and I am just finishing a nice little session at bodog. Came into the tables about midnight looking for the drunks and I found them lol. I played a few different games but mainly the beginner sitngos. I saw more mistakes that are relate to a cheap flop than one can imagine. At that level you must raise preflop if you want to weed out the competition and remove the junk hands. So many times I saw 6 to 8 people in a hand for the cost of the bb. Now I agree you have to loosen up a bit but these guys were just commiting suicide. They would limp in with a AK and and the BB would have 33. Flop comes AK3 and we all know what happens next. I hit an all time record last night for sets hit with a cheap flop. I hit 8 sets in one game alone. Every time I played em slow and slammed em hard. If ever you plan to play a hand then by all means raise it to see were every ones at. You might be running head long into a monster. I have seen and done few tricks to hammer someone into a pot. For instance if my table is a lively one with a lot of raising then i just call with AA early in position and wait for the raise. Then after a few guys call the raise and it comes to me, I hammer with a monster raise and give them no choice but to get out or try to get lucky. Or if my table is tight and I have that same hand I will make a smaller raise so that I will at least get a bit of action. But most times if I have a decent playable hand I will raise at least 3x the BB against tight players. If the table is loose I just call, no sense in throwing away a bunch of chips if you know you will get called by anything. Wait till you hit big then trap em with check raises and short bets on the river. A min bet is a good way to bring in a bluff attempt by a loose player. All and all though it is really tough to know what will happen with a cheap flop. I am a classic small PP limper. I think that is the best trap going and I exploit it every time I can. How I got my name lol. I never raise with a PP unless its all in. I wait till I get a read on my opponent and and wait to hit that set. Yes most times you can steal with a raise but online you need to use your position and judge of players to use that move effectively. To sum it up dont play a hand unless you plan on raising to achieve a hand strength. Burke

[Randy C]

I really like Trip's perspective here...The point that he makes about betting at tight players and simply calling loose players is a great idea, because at a tight table, you are more apt to get players to fold to a decent sized bet whereas you are simply wasting chips by betting into looser players.

There is definately a fine line between determining which style a particular table falls into, but by sitting back and watching how each player responds to betting patterns etc.., then you ill be able to more accurately classify which style a table falls into.

Again, Trips logic and reasoning here is sound advbice and I hope people are willing to take the time to read it and play by along those lines.

All In,

Randy C -