how to play against an overly agressive player jrmccoy AKA The newbie

[jrmccoy]

Hi i Have only been playing poker for about four months and I love the game. I have read small stakes hold'em poker published by two plus two. I just started playing tournament style poker with three of my other friends at home. They have been playing for about as long as I have. The Problem with the games we play are the fact that my one friend plays his hands very loosely. < I am assuming considering he plays over 70% of his hands>. where as the other two players and myself are relatively tight players. any way the loose player always raises and my tight friends fold leaving me the last person to call and most of the time its a mediocre hand at best should I fold and continue to let this loose aggressive player steal the blinds and what do I do when I have a decent hand such as AJ that misses the flop after he had called my raise before the flop but yet he still continues to bet big on the flop.Its frustrating seeing the other two tight players my self included fold to his ridiculous raises on the flop and pre-flop. I almost starting to believe he has a good hand every time which I know is untrue. Maybe I just need to grows some balls and start playing ultra aggressive right back without a made I dont know. If anyone has any suggestions for me I would greatly appreciate it.


thanks,
the newbie

[valenzuela]

short handed AJ is not decent is great and u should re-raise, I didnt read all ur post buy u need to start re-raising (NOT CALLING BUT RERAISING).

[nova]

One possibility is reraise PREFLOP and put the onus to him then. Right now your aggressive friend believes he can make this play at whim because of the 'fear factor'. One friend I have plays similar, however in the calling front. I've seen this guy call a sizeable preflop raise / reraise with 75o, flop a straight, and bust 2 guys out.

Play back at him when you have a chance to get heads up with him and force him to make the decision to get out of the tournament with the cards he has. Obviously there are times when he will have a hand, but knowing that someone will play back at him will possibly change his style.