Stud Strategy
Low Stakes Challenges

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

I've been doing a lot of traveling to poker venues far away from my wonderful home of Foxwoods. While mid-stakes stud is plentiful back home, it is almost impossible to find elsewhere. So I've kept up with my stud in low stakes games on line, becoming reacquainted, as it were, with my roots.

For those of you who play low stakes stud regularly, let me give you a big tip of the cap. It is a very tough game at times, with many challenges far different from those faced by mid-stakes stud players. I'd like to devote a column or so to those challenges -- now that I'm freshly acquainted with them. These may also be useful to those mid-stakes players who have decided to try the game on line.

First of all, you should know that just being a solid mid-stakes player is no guarantee of success in the low stakes arena. The game is often very different -- and in many ways tougher to beat.

Low stakes games are often filled with loose calling stations -- players who don't generally fold for the bring-in or even a completion on third street. Perhaps because the absolute money of each bet is very small when compared with their overall poker bankroll, it's not uncommon to find many players calling all bets until the river. Tricky plays and aggression don't generally fool opponents into folding better hands. Players tend to either overvalue their hands, undervalue their opponents represent with bets and raises, or call because they don't have the self control to fold a hand they know to be weak. You've heard them. "I know I'm beaten but I have to call to see another card".

This is often a frustrating arena for experienced players who do understand hand values. They believe, wrongly, that they will be able to bully the low stakes regulars into folding by being aggressive. They're used to the ability to manipulate others in higher stakes games -- having to fold frequently when their opponents show strength with aggressive betting. They often push small perceived advantages with aggressive betting or fruitlessly try with middling or even substandard hands to drive out opponents with aggression. They are often met with failure -- as the opponents whom they attempt to bully don't fold and draw out on them. This can become enraging, lead to more aggressive play, and sometimes to more frustration and, eventually tilt.

Instead of pushing aggressively in this sea of passive players, there are some other actions that would serve you in better stead.

Fighting Boredom:

Low stakes stud can be very, very boring. Keep that in mind the next time you plan on playing in a game. Plan on folding many hands in a row.

You might find it helpful, at least at first, to have something to do like reading or playing in another game (if you're on line) in between folding each hand. I would recommend against that, however, at least at first. Time in between hands is a very useful opportunity to evaluate the general playing styles of your opponents. Better to watch how often they fold, raise and call -- and characterize them accordingly, than to just bury your nose in a book or another game. It may not take you long to make these general observations, and record them as notes for future use. But until you are satisfied that you understand, broadly at least, the general playing tendencies of your opponents, I'd recommend against distracting activities.

Patience:

You need patience in these games because you just have to wait for strong starting hands. In higher stakes games you can play many more hands -- able to win with manipulation and deceit that which you don't have the card strength to win. But in games where players frequently call until the river, you will frequently have to have the best hand to win. No amount of trickery can change the cards you have. So if you are called down and don't have the goods you don't get to win just because you're the smartest poker player in the game.

If you don't recall anything else from this article, know this. Your profit in low stakes games comes primarily, if not exclusively, from the bad calls of opponents with inferior hands. You need either very strong starting hands or draws to very strong hands to take advantage of that underlying truth.

Dealing with Frustration:

You will face many situations when the inferior starting hands of opponents, that you would surely have folded, will improve as they incorrectly call your bets, and will beat you on the river. That is the nature of this game. Though your starting hand may be a 60% favorite over their starting hand, that means that if you each play your hands to completion you will lose four out of ten times. And, when you are facing three opponents who call your bets until the river, your results will be far, far worse. If you're a 60% favorite over each of three opponents then you stand to lose, on average, 71% of the time.

Pushing Odds in your Favor:

There are some things you can do to push those odds in your favor. First of all, you can notice when opponents are apt to fold their draws. Though some players are so loose that they will draw all the way to the river and call you down with as little as a medium pair, other players, though loose, are more selective. Against those players, a well timed re-raise or check raise may be just the push they need to get out -- though they might call a single bet. But this can't be done indiscriminately -- and should be based on what you've observed in the past. I've noticed, for example, that there are many low stakes players who absolutely call all third and fourth street bets -- regardless of how weak their hands are. They feel that they are compelled to at least see a five card hand. But once the bets double they become more selective. Accordingly, it is a mistake to make aggressive bets on third or fourth street without a very high quality hand -- enlarging the pot and making it thus less likely that opponents will fold on later streets. Better to wait for fifth street before becoming aggressive with those borderline hands. Against that type of player -- who calls on third and fourth automatically -- a bet or raise on fifth may succeed in driving them out.

Expecting Your Just Desserts:

Part of your ability to play patiently and carefully comes from your certainty that, over time, you will end up with the money if you play correctly. In a recent session, for example, I folded 26 hands in succession --every hand for nearly forty minutes! During that time I witnessed some amazingly poor play from my opponents -- with lots of large pots being shifted back and forth among them. I saw a player raise on Third Street with a Queen, only to get six callers (everyone but me). He then paired his Queen, made a double bet and got four callers!!! By Sixth Street there were three players. He bet his pair of Queens, another player showing nothing called and the third player, with a possible straight raised. The Queens re-raised and the next player called the raise and re-raise and the third player capped it. All players called the final raise. On the River the scene was repeated exactly: bet, call, raise, reraise, call, rereraise, call, call. The player with the Queens showed Broadway (Ace high straight). The raiser showed a ten-high straight. The player in the middle folded without showing.

Imagine having a player reraise you with a paired door card and not thinking that he had probably filled up on Sixth. Imagine calling all of those raises on Sixth and the River with a hand that couldn't beat a low straight. As I said, you're going to have to have the best hand on the River to win many of these pots.

My patience paid off finally, as I was dealt pocket Jacks and a Queen door card. I played it as expected with a raise -- facing no higher door cards. I was called by three players (probably owing to my amazingly tight play -- or I would have been called by everyone). I hit a Jack on Fourth and each of my opponents paired lower door cards -- a 6 and an 8 respectively. The pot was capped every round. I picked up a full house on Sixth when my Queen door card paired. No matter. The pot was still capped, as it was on the River. All three stayed with me and all three exposed their losing hands (as if to say that they had legitimate raising hands I guess). One had trip 6s, the other Kings up.

I hit another couple of hands and finished up 30 big bets after a couple of hours.

Not bad for a wild game. Had I played less patiently -- calling off chips routinely on Third and Fourth Street, I wouldn't have done nearly so well. Similarly, had I started to raise, to try and impose my will on the other players, I also wouldn't have done as well. It was tempting to do that, with so few playable hands during the first hour. But patience proved to be the key -- and I recommend it to all of you. �

© The Poker Forum.com, all rights reserved