NL CAP Games

[notcalebsheridan]

Full Tilt has spread these for a while

I've thought about them for a little while and played in them a lot over the past two days... Basically the rule is that you can't lose more than 30BB on a hand.

This obviously lowers your implied odds to virtually nil compared to a "normal" game where almost everyone has 100BB. What changes need to be made? I have some ideas and I'd like to hear your basic strategy for playing in a 30BB game.

So far my thinking is that,
-low-mid PP should not be played for more than about a min-raise preflop
-draws can be seen for very cheap if your oppenent did not think about his bet sizing
-you have to make "drawers" pay on the flop or else they will have the correct odds to play (see above)
-people do not mind calling caps with medicre hands preflop and naked draws/weak hands post...* i have played 50/1 and 2/4 cap games only but seen very very weak play and lots of bad play in dealing with the cap

[Matt]

I'm not sure what the rationale behind the cap is, other than to attract new players because of the novelty value. They use a 50BB cap in the Bellagio big game, probably because they play for such high stakes; they use $1,000-$2,000 blinds, so the most a player can lose on one hand is $100,000. They also play multiple games, some with a limit structure and others with a NL or PL structure. For this reason, there is probably a very large cap on the buy-in or perhaps no cap at all. I'm sure they want well over 100x or 200x BB for $4000-$8000 limit games. I even saw a $100-$300 PLO game where the players had at least 500K on the table. A cap makes much more sense in a high-stakes game.

Anyway, I'm sure a lot of fish play in the FT cap games. I've heard conflicting strategy advice. Some say you should use a super-tight short-stack style. Others advocate a looser style. I can see the merits of both styles. For example, drawing hands still have value in a cap game. Players can see the turn and river cheaply, often with the correct pot odds.

Say you have spade10 spade9 in a $1/$2 Cap Game. An early player raises the minimum. You call, the small blind calls, and the big blind folds.

The flop comes spadeA spade7 heart6 .

There are three players and the pot contains $14. One player bets the pot and the other caps. The pot is now $84 and you must call $56 to see the turn and river. You have twelve outs. Your draw will come in 45% of the time with two cards to come (1.22-1). You're getting 1.5-1 from the pot, so a call is profitable unless you suspect you're against a better draw. Your implied odds are gone, but the pot odds are there. You also don't have to worry about facing a big turn bet.

Of course, you have to adjust your play with speculative hands. Ideally, you'd like to play small pairs and suited connectors cheaply and with good position, preferably with multiple callers. In this sense, NL cap games are similar to Limit games.

I may be completely wrong here. I would check the 2+2 forums. If you want to play a tighter game, check out Ed Miller's Getting Started in Hold'em which outlines an interesting and very easy short-stack strategy.

[sandalwood]

Matt,

I think I agree with your remark about the novelty since I can't see any other valid reason for the cap. I don't know why FT does it as it is online and I don't play online. I like to be at the table and see it first hand. Just my preference.

As why a casino would do it - the rake. That way they always get their share plus they increase, possibly, the number of hands dealt per hour which means a bigger rake.

Just my 2 cents.

Tom:)