I’m doing a chain of companion articles to my most up-to-date book, The Course: Serious Hold ’Em Strategy For Smart Players. It’s a step-by-step guide to mastering the live no-limit hold’em games that you are going to find in most cardrooms across the world.

Once you've mastered the fundamental concepts to win in $1-$2 games—solid preflop play, refusing to repay when you’re likely beaten, and getting value in your good hands—you want to broaden your thinking. Those $1-$2 skills all have something in common — they’re mostly about with the ability to judge your personal hand strength correctly.

The first place $1-$2 players with these skills get caught once they move up is when their opponents don’t play as expected. For example, all the concept of refusing to repay when you’re beaten is determined by a reasonably well-developed set of assumptions about how your opponents will play hands of certain strengths. He’s going to bet a flush, but check trips. She’s going to test down top pair, but bet two pair or better. And so forth.

The thing is, there’s nothing that claims these assumptions should be correct. They simply are likely to be correct for many players at small stakes. Some players might flaunt these assumptions by playing recklessly or erratically. These are the players you're going to often hear people complain about. “You never know where they’re at. They may have anything!”

Better players will recognize for your play the assumptions you might be likely making, and switch those assumptions against you. “When you bet big after the flush card comes, he provides you with credit and folds,” they could think. Then maybe they begin betting more when the flush card comes.

Considering the assumptions your opponents are making is the shift in mindset you must move up from the “how good is my hand” level of thinking. Making this shift really begins to repay while you get to the $2-$5 level.

Never is the significance of this clearer than whilst you need to make money off loose opponents.

How again and again have you ever played in a game, seen half the table playing each pot, and thought to yourself, “This goes to be a perfect table?” Then four hours later, you’re stuck half a buy-in, and you’re wondering if it was bad luck, or if there’s a work of the puzzle that you're missing.

This is clearly a widely known phenomenon, and through the years I’ve heard countless explanations for it. “The fish are schooling,” some people say, implying that multiple loose players protect one another from their very own mistakes.

“They play so bad you can’t beat them,” is another one. This little bit of logic doesn’t withstand scrutiny, but it surely can start to make sense the more frustrated you get.

Here’s the article. If you’re stuck fascinated with your individual hand strength, and also you aren’t actively enthusiastic about your opponents’ assumptions and the way to milk them, you're going to struggle against loose players.

Why?

First of all, it’s hard to make a fair hand. It’s even harder to make a hand that feels good against three or four opponents. So when you’re fascinated about your individual hand strength and never really thinking much about your opponents, most hands you’re going to feel such as you don’t measure up.

Second of all, it should not be as easy to receives a commission off as you think—even against loose players. A lot of players figure that once that one great hand finally does come along, with all this action, it’s a near-lock to receives a commission off for stacks.

Of course once I put it that way, it’s obvious that it’s nowhere near a lock that you’ll receives a commission off. Simply because four of your opponents paid $25 each to peer a flop doesn’t mean that no less than one among them could be happy to offload $1,000 to you whilst you finally make your full house.

In modern games, in fact, not getting paid off tends to be the rule of thumb and never the exception. In the event you stay up for good hands to make your move, and also you don’t receives a commission off (as a rule), you aren’t going to win. It’s that simple.

How To milk Loose Play

The most significant thing to comprehend about loose players is that they usually make bad hands. It’s within the definition of loose—players who're loose play bad preflop hands. Bad preflop hands are bad because and they make bad postflop hands.

So how you can profit from loose play isn’t to attend for good hands. Should you sit around looking ahead to hands, you’ll watch these folks dink around in numerous pots with weak pairs versus flush draws versus gutshots. This will likely be both frustrating and unprofitable.

Instead you should stick around in hands early. Feel out your opponents and check out to smell out the days they do make a hand. Once they do, oh well. Give it to them.

But any other pot you wish to consider stealing. Each time you spot someone win a pot with J-7 on a board like J-9-3-A-8, it’s an indication you'll have passed up a possibility to win. Don’t let your loose opponents get to cheap showdowns with each other.

The turn bet is your ally. In lots of pots with loose players, the betting out of your opponents will start to stall by the turn. For example, say someone raises to $25 preflop, and there are four calls. The preflop raiser bets $50 at the flop (not an extremely large bet right into a $125+ pot). A PAIR players call. Then the preflop raiser checks the turn.

Even if there are other players besides the raiser who will have good hands, this example generally is a good risk to place of venture out and check out to steal. It certainly won’t work every time, however it works enough (combined with whatever chance you need to win the hand at the river) to be an excellent bet.

Final Thoughts

Many regular $2-$5 players make a fundamental mistake that forestalls them from winning and moving up. They see their opponents play loosely, and so they think that the correct response is to play nittier.

That’s not the best response. Methods to win in loose games is to become more aggressive at the turn and river. Don’t let weak hands win pots. Take greater than your share.

The goal isn’t to take a look at to get your opponents to make big laydowns. You simply want them to make loads of small laydowns. Those $100 and $200 pots add up fast. ♠

Ed’s newest book, The Course: Serious Hold ‘Em Strategy For Smart Players is obtainable now at his website edmillerpoker.com. It's also possible to find original articles and instructional videos by Ed on the training site redchippoker.com.

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