Playing against an aggressive bully (NL)

[UATrewqaz]

What is the best way to play against a very very aggressive player NL, specifcally short handed.

By aggressive I mean someone who will raise preflop with any face card, someone who will bet/reraise on bottom/middle pair, and someone who will on occassion stone cold bluff?

I know that trapping/check raising someone like this is a good strategy and I have frequently used it against this person to much success (aka I flop a straight/flush/full house) and check until they make a huge bluff and I trap them for a huge pot, if not all their chips.

The problem with this strategy is you actually have to make one of those monster hands and you may be slowing dying while waiting for it.

So other than a big trap play how can you handle someone this aggressive?

[peachy]

stay in if u got it...or a GOOD draw...or fold it - eventually his cards wont hold up and urs will - or if it makes u that uneasy leave the table

if hes "that" aggressive...u wont push him out of a hand no matter what u do

[edtost]

marginal calldowns are fun.

[AncientPC]

Play tighter, but loosen up your hand requirements for pre-flop reraising (unless he will push all-in pre-flop).

Outside of re-raising with AA-QQ, add in stuff like JJ-99 and AK - AQ.

You probably don't want to play any drawing hands against him because he will charge a very very heavy price to see the turn / river unless you can gurantee stackage.

How you post-flop also depends on his aggression and your position, but most of the time if you have a good hand on the flop feel free to just call down (as the pot will be big enough) by the river.

[fimbulwinter]

how to counteract a LAG:

1. call more, don't checkraise him with strong hands
2. always play with position on him
3. re-raise him to isolate him. be willing to get it in with otherwise marginal hands like AQ
4. don't play him shorthanded. proper headup NL technique looks very similar to complete psychosis.
5. limp/push on him
6. allow him to bet your strong hands for you. DON'T show agression if he's betting and you're taking some sap along for the ride. He'll get more action than you ever will.
7. give him a reason to bluff you. headup, underplay your TPTK. bet 1/2 pot and let him bluff his stack off on a bald bluff because you stink of weak.

basically the goal of playing against a LAG is the same as everyone else: find the holes in their game and make it as easy as possible for them to make those same mistakes over and over until it takes all their money. only difference with a lag is that enabling his mistakes is somewhat counterintuitive and requires composeure and foresight.

fim

[Frank Zappy]

My advise? Join a gym, better yet take up a martial art, preferably aikido.

The problem with waiting for a "monster hand trap" or lowering your standards to an "awful" shorthand starter like like AQ is that you'll be out of chips before you get there and when you finally get all the stars to align and you make your hand, you won't have enought chips to make an impact.

You have to make your stand early and often, while you're dropping your standards to small pocket pairs he's raping the hell out of your stack with T5, J6, Q4.

Also, hone your internal BS detector, trust your feelings, Luke and when he reaches for your stack, whack him on the wrist with a hardcovered version of any Sklansky book.