A WHALE of an opponent

Whale (actually) is a really rich guy. I play with him in a 20/40 game. He plays almost every pot, gets stuck a grand or so, gets more money and then, MOST OF THE TIME,HE DEMOLISHES THE GAME. What's at play here? The man plays every hand and wins a high percentage of them. What is happening here?

That's the thing about the rich guys who pound away in every pot....they either win HUGE or lose HUGE. There is no happy medium with those kinds of players. I play in a home game every Wednesday with a guy who has limitless cash and will call you down with bottom pair 100% of the time. My strategy is to not buy pots or bluff at all against these opponents. To make the most money off of them, let them do the betting when you have a monster and pound em' at the river. When you have AK and the board is rags and they bet, fold. They have something crappy and will go all the way. Don't chase them, let them chase you.

I might add, this guy must be on some kind of standard deviation run. Don't expect his results to continue.

[Mike Gallo]

I play against several of the type of players that you have made reference to. I altered my strategy to play against this tpe of player.

Eventually this type of player does and usually will go broke. In the end a good player will win more from a bad player than he or she will lose to a bad player.

Value bet more and bluff less against these types of opponents. Make them pay to chase, don't slow play against these players because they will call you all the way down. Since they tend to build bigger pots, attempt to isoate the whale.

Best Wishes