I say this with all possible kindness. Unless you run as hot as the sun, you're going to get slaughtered in your first casino 2/5 session.
Why do you say that? Because I don't understand something?
I agree with Bergs, but it's not because of a particular thing you don't understand...
although I don't think I am making mistakes that would cost me chips at a casino because I know I would need to tighten up, I am getting away with far more steals then I would if other consistently played back at me.
I'd propose that you won't be able to do well in a typical casino game by taking the techniques you're refining in this ultra-passive game and "tightening up" or, for that matter, making any other basic refinement.
I believe that you are simply cannot get good at the "casino game" because the game in which you're practicing is too different. There are a wide variety of behaviors which you're doing that are profitable or don't hurt you
because of your passive table... and another set of behaviors you don't do do because they don't pay off at your passive table, but which you
need to be learning and practicing. You are practicing against a set of behaviors that are completely unlike the behaviors you'll face in more typical poker games.
Simply put, it's like you're practicing a whole different game!
It's a bit like playing tennis with a group of people whose goal is to get the ball over the net. Sure, you're keeping score and playing tennis, but if you go up against a serious tennis player, you should expect to fare poorly. Your skills cannot improve until your opponents improve. The reasons are simple: you really have no idea what your weaknesses are, because nobody has probed them... and you have no idea how to play into tough opponents, because you haven't faced one. Maybe one of the players you're with are capable of playing hard against you, and then you can both learn, but until you both start playing hard, neither of you learn.
It's early for math, but that's 2 for the blinds, 4 for the limpers and 4 for the raise, so 10. Then a half pot raise would be 9?, 4, then half the pot (5)...
Please correct me if I am wrong on this.
Sorry, but you are incorrect.
Blinds posted: pot is 2.
Four people limp: pot is 6.
Person raises to 4: pot is 10.
Making a half-pot raise: you must bet 11.
Why? Remember, in that position, if you chose to call - that is, to raise by zero - you'd put up 4. The first four isn't part of a raise at all. So you need to put up 4 as a call, and then calculate the raise. Your 4 makes the pot 14; a half-pot raise is 7. Your call of 4 plus your raise of 7 is a total of 11.
We all seem to know that saying "I call your four and raise you 7" is an illegal string bet... but many of us seem to forget that although saying that is illegal, it is, in fact, the correct logical way to calculate the bets!
If you doubt that the answer of 11 is correct... assume all the limpers fold and it goes back around do the first raiser. You've made a total bet of 11, increasing the pot to 21. They already have 4 in front of them; to call, they need to put up 7 more. So they need to put up 7/21 of the pot - or 1/3. A 1/3 pot call. Isn't that what you'd face after a half-pot bet?
If that's still troubling, think of a simpler situation; no raises at all. Assume the pot was 14 pre-flop because of the action. After the flop, someone leads out with a half-pot bet of 7. The next person is deciding whether or not to call 7, given a pot of 21. That's a 1/3 pot call because of a 1/2 pot bet.
Making a half-pot raise need to put your opponent into that same calling situation.
Going back to the original example, what happens if your bet is 9? That's a call of 4 plus a raise of 5, and it increases the total pot from 10 to 19. Assume the limpers fold and it's back to that raiser. How much is it to call? They already have 4 in front of them, so it's 5 to call... and the pot is 19. They only need to pay about 26% of the pot to call. They're getting in cheap. And, in many cases,
your weak raise may mean they are correct to call.
You don't make money at poker making bets which are correct for your opponent to call!
In general, I'll guess that you're already among the most aggressive bettors at the table. But even your betting is passive compared to what you think you're betting. As a consequence, the pots don't grow as they properly should in a no-limit game. As Rhodeman77 said,
You want to be building pots pre flop and on the flop so that you are able to make an ALL-IN bet when you are very strong.
Just so! If you
and the other players are not betting and raising proper fractions of the pot, the pots will almost never grow big enough that all-in bets are correct, as all-in calls, or all-in raises, etc. But once you and a few others learn to properly bet according to the pot size, then you'll be playing no-limit poker.
One other fine point:
because they cannot raise by one (5 total, 4+1) because that is not a min raise?
If the blind is 1 and the first raiser made it 4, they have raised by 3. (They have increased the bet by 3; in other words, they called 1 and raised 3.) Your minimum raise is another 3. So you could, if you wanted to, bet 7. (Calling four and raising it by another 3.)
