Full ring
A good full table or full ring poker strategy is vital to success in micro-limit games. This is because 9 and 10 person games are still very popular both online and in casinos. The basic principles of winning them are really quite simple.
The best strategy in a full ring poker game is to play tight, collect good hands and bet relentlessly with them on the lead. But you also need to steal lots of banks against other tight players by bluffing in the right situations both preflop and postflop. Online poker with a full ring is great for playing at multiple tables and getting a big rakeback. However, this is a very simplified breakdown.
The basics
A very tight game and a full ring game go hand in hand. In games with full tables (9 or 10 players) you can find some of the biggest nits. These are the guys who only play 15%, 10% or even less of all the hands dealt to them. This means that many of them are only in the action if they have:
- A strong ace (AK, AQ, AJ, AT);
- a strong Broadway (KQ, KJ, QJ);
- a pocket pair (AA to 22);
- a good single-seeded connector (JTs, 98s, 87s);
- a good single-set ace (A9s, A8s, A7s).
They’ll probably raise a few more hands when they’re on the batton and try to steal the blinds.
Tight vs aggressive players
Too often these days, people ridicule tait players and instead praise loose-aggressive “action” players. But as any true poker pro will tell you (especially if they’re playing a full ring), the real money is in a strict disciplined approach to the game.
That’s why it’s advisable to play tight and in games at full tables. There’s no need to play more than 15% of your hands. Here’s a rough idea of what the top 15% of all hands look like.
Full-circle strategy in poker
Relatively tight play (discarding a lot of crappy hands) is the basis for any reliable full-table poker strategy. And the main reason for this is that with 9 or 10 players at the table, the chances of someone having something good are greatly increased.
A player can’t play many rubbish hands and expect to win. This is how the hopeless battle with maths is fought. Stealing the blinds is a key skill in the full ring. Another key to a winning full table poker strategy is aggression. While aggressive play is important in all forms of poker, it is especially important in the full ring for several reasons.
First, most people play very tight in the full ring, often too tight. To counter this most effectively, you must pressure them into the flop and make them pay, often by stealing their blinds.
What many people forget is that every successful blind stack (both the small blind and the big blind folded) means you win 1.5b. Since a good win rate in modern microlimit games is often just 5b/100, it means that if you take the blinds a little more often, you can seriously improve your win rate.
