Advice for swimming with big fish

My father invites me to a regular SnG cash game that they hold at his country club last night with a $40 buy-in, and pretty much unlimited re-buys until 2 hours after the Tournament starts.

After about 2 hands of sizing up this table of 8, it is obvious that maybe one guy knows anything about strategy. The rest of the table are huge fish that will see every flop and push anything. We start out with $800 in chips and the blinds start at $10/15 and escalate rapidly each time around the table to the point where they are at $50/100 after about 30 hands. I assume this is to push the action and encourage re-buys, but given my limited funds, a re-buy is not much of an option for myself.

Now, I know that usually against a table full of loose, aggro fish, you'd want to tighten up and push your premium hands. That was my strategy, except I couldn't catch a single card to save my life. I was catching nothing but rags, literally all night. I took down one small pot when I was up against the wall with A-Js late. The killer came when I finally caught wired Cowboys, only to have them cracked in the most painful way possible, by my father's pocket bullets. I was short-stacked, and had no other choice, and that was a dagger.

My question is whether playing super tight under these conditions is the right play. By my estimation, I only mucked one hand that would have ended up winning in about 40 deals. These guys were all rich guys for whom a re-buy is chump change, and they'd rather just play like idiots and see every flop and push every hand they get. Is this situation hopeless, and you really do need to catch cards, or can you still use strategy? There was no trace of slow-playing and pretty much every flop someone would bet whatever pair they made. It's easy when you have 4-6 guys seeing every flop. I know there is a lot of value in the pot with that many guys, but with the blinds being pushed, it was too expensive to make marginal calls on draws, when someone is going to hit something.

It was frustrating to be in these giant fish tank with no ammo, and then get your one monster hand cracked by Godzilla. Should I just avoid these loose fishy games in the future?

You played it right. Sometimes you don't get the cards. You could have tried playing some marginal hands when in the last position and rep the flop if everyone else checks but other than that you can't do much.

I would go back there on a regular basis if possible:)

I sometimes play at games of this nature. You can loosed up a little bit if you want, and if your trust your postflop skills. You still need to be considerably tighter than the ohters, though.

Mostly, you're right: bluffing isn't going to cut it unless you have the BR to keep rebuying like they do. You are going to be in a small number of pots each night, and it will take many many sessions before the spikes get smooth enough to show your real superiority.

No you should always look for games like this....however you must be properly bankrolled to play in them properly. I would not go into a situation like that with any less than 3 rebuys in my pocket....preferrably 5. If you cannot afford that.....stay away until you save up enough cash.

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Originally Posted by DavSimon

No you should always look for games like this....however you must be properly bankrolled to play in them properly. I would not go into a situation like that with any less than 3 rebuys in my pocket....preferrably 5. If you cannot afford that.....stay away until you save up enough cash.

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I think you are totally right. If I had the roll to re-buy, I could have bought some more time to wait to catch my cards. The table I was at was just full of big naive rich fishies deserving to lose their cash. It was almost criminal. But with the way that the Tournament was pushing up the blinds (to encourage re-buys, no doubt), I was soon getting tapped by the blinds alone, and any draw was going to cost enough that one or two missed draw would have drained my stack.

I likely won't be going back. It was just so frustrating to go into a game with so many road apples and just not having the resources to take full advantage. If any of you guys with decent rolls are ever looking for a quick buck, I'll get you in on this one. Luckily, I have two home games set up for this weekend, where I should be able to recoup some of my losses. ;)

How much was 1st prize, if i may ask?

-Chris

Y'know, I didn't stick around to find out, since it was late on a work night, when I went out, but my father said he came in 3rd, and won like $225, I think.

The best was when he told me that I came in "looking to lose", and that I was destined to lose because I was folding so many "good" hands like "Q7o" from EP. I guess he underestimated the value of catching Pocket Aces twice in 5 hands from the equation. :lol:

Think about the conditions you were in:

Blinds are going up steeply.
Everyone else can rebuy like crazy, but you can't.
People are willing to push with anything.

In a situation like this, you're unlikely to have enough time to get good cards before pushing with crappy cards, you will always get called, and you will always be in fear of being pushed at if you have a mediocre hand which is mostly what you'll have, because they'll bluff in a heartbeat but you're afraid to get knocked out. You'd have trouble specifically designing conditions that would make it easier to lose than these, imo.

You can try some of that stuff from that movie Rounders. Worm can be your dad, and you can be the straight-up pretty boy main character. lol, and you can get the hostess to fake being your gf!! ohohohoo. :lol:

Seriously speaking, if none of your hands were hitting even when you fold, there is nothing you can do about it. I like to pass the time by trying to convince people into switching seats with me because mine is cursed. :D