Handling the dominant player at the table

[mreinecker]

Let's face it. We've all been second best at a table. Or even the third best player there. In my experience at the home games I often indulge in with my friends, I am usually the second best player there. I win sometimes, but I often lose. And when I lose, I'm usually paying off the dominant player. The better player at the table. My question is, how should I handle a player like him ? What type of strategy should I use agaisnt him ? He seems as though to be a very loose player, and other players are usually afraid to bet into him in fear of reraises. It also seems like he wins more pots than an average player. It seems like he has the best hand most of the time, and I feel like he gets lucky alot. He seems to outdraw people very often. Our games are pretty loose due to the fact that we have some inexperienced players who don't really pose much of a threat at the table. Sometimes I try waiting for good hole cards, and I try and take him out by catching high pairs and such, but sometimes the good cards just don't come often enough, or at all. I really don't know what way to defend my chips from him, and a way to get him to be paying ME off. Thanks to anyone who's read all this, and can help out.

[Gbob]

Welcome to my world. My first post here was actually about the exact same situation. Everyone has that one guy he or she just can't seem to beat. Part of it is that the guy will get us on tilt. Most of the time it's that we just don't have the ability to read the player like we do others at the table.

What worked for me was study. Every hand I would spend time studying just that one player. I ignored everyone else and took some lumps with the intent of defeating my demons. Turns out he was a tighter player than I gave him credit for. He's still better than me, but at least I can work around it.

Next session take mental notes of his play. He holds the secret of not only how to beat him, but how to better your own game. He's finding a chink in your armor, and unless you figure it out, you'll never repair it.

short term, of course, you should just avoid pots where he's in. Change your seat if you need position on him.

[gorgeous]

I used to have this problem a lot and the solution is player-specific. With me and my friends, I am the yellow happy face and they are tazmanian devils. Almost every hand, there is a raise followed by several limps. To beat this, I wait for a premium hand and punish the limpers with a heavy reraise. Often times I'll push with AA and get a caller who overvalues a hand like QJo or KT. Foolishly, my friends are more likely to call an all-in than they are to call a medium-sized bet (there have been threads on this phenomenon). Once I set my table image, their play tightens up while mine loosens up, given a bigger stack. This may not apply to most tables. The universal piece of advice is to lose the small pots and win the big ones, whether you're the TAG or LPP