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I play in a weekly game with 8-10 people and the games are pretty passive at the beginning - a lot of people just call the big blind and do not raise before the flop, and they usually play pretty tight. My question is, is that a situation to justify playing rag hole cards?

My reasoning is that since everyone's pretty tight, you can expect them to have at least one face card. Even if I had face cards, I wouldn't feel too confident that I have the best hand if I flopped a pair. If I play rags, however, and I pair middle or top pair on the flop, I may even get lucky to have someone w/ Ace King to call me to the river to win. Furthermore, if I flopped 2 pair or wound up with a straight/full house at the turn/river there would be no way that someone would believe I would stay to the river with those cards.

In the last game I played, I was the chip leader and I decided to play a 4 - 6 offsuit. The flop was 5 Q 6 rainbow. I flopped middle pair and decided to stay to the river since I had a big stack and the bets were manageable. The turn was a 7 and the river was an 8. I had only 1 opponent at the river, who had J Q (top pair). I raised the size of the pot and got called. My opponent would not believe I played 4 - 6 offsuit to the river.

Thanks,

Guo

Answer: The first thing that jumps into my mind when I read this is that you shouldn't change your strategy based on the results of one hand. That is the quickest way to get yourself into losing play. While there are small lessons to be learned from each hand, you need to measure your results based on the long term. Now on to your question...

Yes, you can play more cards against people who play passively and straightforwardly. If you always know where an opponent is at, what they hold, then you want to give yourself as many opportunities to beat them as possible. With everything though, moderation is the key. It is easy to continue this loose style even after the table has tightened up and is putting in more bets preflop. If you don't make the necessary adjustment, you'll be feeding the table.

So until you get more experience I would suggest the following. If you are playing in a NL cash game with your friends who are very passive, then go ahead and loosen up -- you can always just fold if someone puts in a raise that is too large. If you are playing a limit cash game with your passive friends then loosen up only in late position. That will help buffer you from some of the harder decisions and also keep you from putting in too many bets preflop with marginal hands. With the late position you'll have a better idea as to if your middle pair is good, how the hand will develop, etc.

If this is a NL tourney, then I would also limp in with some weak hands if the opponents rarely raised because the upside of winning a pot is so large (you can double up or even more). On the other hand if this is a limit tourney, limping in probably isn't a good idea since the amount of money you put in compared to how much you win isn't that great like it is in NL -- you'll need more hand strength preflop.

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