Playing against illogical players

[esbesb]

How do you play NL against an illogical player?

To put an opponent on a hand, you have to consider his action before and after the flop in light of the circumstances. And, in doing so, mustn't you assume that he is playing more-or-less rationally? For example, what logical player holding AK would bet 100 into a 400 multiway pot after the flop comes Ah 8s 9s? But this sort of thing happens all the time online. How do you adjust when your opponent is not playing in way that makes sense?

Converesely, is there something to be gained from occasionally playing illogically on purpose to throw off your opponent? My suspicion is that it would only be profitable when playing at a fairly high level -- and maybe not even then.

[SossMan]

Play ABC poker. Let them price you in for draws. Don't bluff, and don't narrow your reads.

[Lloyd]

This is a subject that was a major focus in "The Psychology of Poker." You might want to pick up a copy.

To briefly address your point, what is illogical to you is actually very logical to your opponent. There is a reason why they play the way they do. Certainly, not knowing better is part of it. But so is the fact that most of them like the action of playing lots of hands and they have seen Gus Hansen pull off miracles and think they can do the same.

Regardless of their motives, you have to adjust your play. You can't bluff them but you can get them to try and bluff you. You can't steal their blinds because they are likely to call with almost any two cards. Be careful playing marginal hands because you never know what they have.

As far as you playing illogically, this is a very good strategy in higher buy-in tournaments but doesn't make sense in the type of tournaments you are referring to because they're probably not paying too much attention to you anyway. And illogical is not the right word in this situation. You are doing things that others might find illogical or unusual, but you are doing it intentionally and specifically. This is part of Game Theory.

So the bottom line is when you're playing with people who do dumb things, you can trap them with great hands, but be careful with marginal ones. Most importantly, don't start doing illogical things yourself.

And go buy "Psychology of Poker". It's a great 2+2 book.