I generally play $5 online NLH tournaments and generally do pretty well. However, I am having a tough time figuring out how to beat my home game even though the players are much worse. This is the deal:

Usually 10 person NLH tournament

Players are extremely loose and will generally play any A or K (maybe even Q) preflop and will generally play any two big cards (10+) and often any suited hole cards. Their raising patterns are variable but most will raise with hands along the lines of KT or QJ. They will similarly call most raises up to 5 BB with those hands.

Postflop, they will generally bet if have made a pair or if they have overcards. The amount of the bet is almost random as they don't usually look at the pot but rather just bet by "feel" depending on their stack size. Sometimes, I've seen them raise a pot-sized flop bet with nothing but 2 overcards.

To compound matters, the play is very slow and because we have the blinds increase by time, each limit round may only be 10 hands or so.

So the problem I have is that I can't really read the other players very well based on their betting patterns because it's pretty loose. If I have something like AQ and an ace flops, I'm always worried about A-x making 2 pair (it happens a lot). Also, it's virtually impossible to bluff because the other players just call based on their hands without considering what your bet may mean.

I think the correct strategy is to play very tight-aggressive but when I do that, I get blinded off so quickly since there aren't many hands played at each limit level.

Any suggestions?

the game is loose? play tight(agressive). wait for a hand, obviously the players arent afraid to bet, just sit around till you find some sort of big hand, then get all your money in. dont worry about not getting called, because if you take down a pot uncontested in a loose game with weaker players, you will build a great table image for your next move. loose weak players will literally make excuses for themselves to call a bet.

patience is a important part of poker, and if you are thinking to yourslef "gosh i havnt won a hand in 30 minutes im letting myself get pushed around" then you need to stop, because eventually this thinking will begin to affect your play, and then you become one of them, and the nature of no limit will take your chips.

i like the strategy that gder03 explained as well. for instance if you have AK and its limps to the button, move in. most likley everyone will fold, thus creating a great table image for the next time you do this. if you get called, you are at worst a coin flip. and with the blinds and antes you usually have better than 12:10 (the odds agaisnt a pp). this, combined with the fact that most of the time you take the blinds, is a profitable move (in a loose game. in a tighter game you would only get called with hands that have you dominated, so you want to raise 3-5x the big blind. the reason this move works is because the range of hands that call you in your home game are alot weaker than the hands that call you in a tighter game. when you do the math, you loose the pot to AA or KK enough to make all the times you steal the blinds not worth it.)

Originally Posted by PsiZGuy

I think the correct strategy is to play very tight-aggressive but when I do that, I get blinded off so quickly since there aren't many hands played at each limit level.

Any suggestions?

read harrington on holdem volumes 1 and 2. teaches you when to move in and with what when the blinds start to eat you up.

Thanks for the responses but I am aware that tight-aggressive is ideally the best strategy and I've read Harrington, Part 1 and 2. I guess the problem can be explained as follows: the most recent time we played the home game, I sat around patiently for 3 hours. My best hands (until the last hand) were pocket 7s and pocket 8s. Both times the pot was already raised (and actually both times someone had pocket Ks which is irrelevant I know). I missed the flops and folded both times. The next best hand was the last one where I had AJs but only had about 6 BB left in my stack. Another guy called my preflop raise, the flop was AKx and I went all in with about a pot-sized bet and he called with QQ and won the hand. I still don't really understand that one because I should have had a anal-tight image at that point. Realize that I wasn't limping with trash hands and giving away chips the whole time. The pace of play is just very slow where we probably get through about 15 hands an hour. Because the blinds escalate so rapidly compared to the number of hands that we play, I don't think tight play is going to work unless I get more good starting hands.

Originally Posted by PsiZGuy

Thanks for the responses but I am aware that tight-aggressive is ideally the best strategy and I've read Harrington, Part 1 and 2.

re read. you didnt get it. hint: look into when harrington starts talking about your M, and when/where you should move in. trust me, its not your poor cards, i have a feeling you are doing something wrong.

note: when i first started playing tournaments, i felt/played EXACTLY the same way as you. after every tournamnent i found that i wasnt getting enough hands in order to play, and if i did ever get a hand, i didnt have enough chips to protect it.