More of a general question:
I was playing in a very loose aggressive game yesterday at the Alladin $3-6 limit HE. A bet and 4 raises preflop is the cap. There was a mix of nutjobs and OK players, maybe one or two people who were actually good, but no real sharks.

Some of the time it got pretty wild preflop and I would say limp and then it got raised and reraised (including one guy who would reraise blind - didn't look at his cards at all) - and it was clear when it got back to me it would be capped preflop and I was in for one bet so far, so I can fold or wind up capped and therefore pot committed if I flopped just about anything.

So this is the type of table where it is clear you won't be facing all AA,KK,JJ, AKs every time. I would see at showdown in these capped hands people with 66, KQo, A7, etc. And the guy raising blind would literally have anything. But their was always one premium pair like AA or KK that started the "run" of raising trying to isolate and then it would it spiral.

So what hands would you get involved with?

I was involved 5 times in this scenerio, with KK, 1010, AKo, JTs, and AJs. The first four I knew full well it would be capped and could have dropped out. The AJs I got trapped one bet at a time. after being the first in with a raise.

I won the JTs when I flopped a straight. I lost the rest. Bad luck or bad play? What is good enough to be +EV in the long run in this scenerio? - figure 5 way capped.

Bankroll isn't an issue at these stakes for me, although you make a great point as it is a very high variance game. I KNOW I can outplay these people postflop as much as an be done when the pot is this big. I felt comfortable with the postflop decisions but all good points.

I guess what I was getting at specifically is that it is clearly a very profitable +EV game when people are willing to cap preflop 5 way with less than premium hands. I know that it won't last all night as people will get too drunk, leave, bust out, etc. So if I am willing to accept the variance aspect of it, what hands to get involved with specifically that is +EV since their is only a limited amount of time it would be possible before it broke up? I can't just pass this great deal up waiting for AA or KK, in other words.

I passed on KJs and A8s, and I think once with middle suited connectors - I think 67s, and several low pocket pairs. Did I pass up some good enough hands here? Was AJs and JTs good enough? Where do you draw the line? What pocket pair do you go down to for set value?

I really didn't care so much that I lost money in the game as like I mentioned I only won one of these hands and the other pots were too small to make up for these crippling blows. But I left feeling a bit uneasy as I wasn't sure whether I played enough hands, not enough, or just right and got unlucky.

I would also mention that this was a kill game and one of the pots was $286!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I won the side pot with my AKo but lost the main which was like $250 of it to a flopped set of tens.

Originally Posted by Steve-O

Ummmm... did you read my post?????? I thought I covered this.

Yes, you gave some examples, but did you mean ANY pair? Any suited connectors? Is there any mathmatical way to figure an answer out to this with some degree of validity (even though you don't know exact cards)? It's hard for me to believe 22 is a good enough hand for this situation, but I just don't know. I

What I'm getting at is if you assume that there is at least one high pocket pair out there that beats you, what kind of hands are good enough that the presence of three or four others with less than premium hands makes up for this?

This isn't a useless exercise - I ask this because I've had this situation come up several times in really wild tourist games, two times in just the last week.