When they just lay down and die

[2ndGoat]

I was playing at a partypoker 10-seat table this afternoon that stayed shorthanded for awhile. My opponents were basically playing their usual bad full game strategy. It was 3 or 4 handed most of the time. No one except me raised pre-flop without a legitimate non-steal full-table raising hand, and everyone but me was uncomfortable betting anything less than top pair on the flop. Most hands played out with me betting a couple times and taking it down, sometimes they would get frustrated and call me to the river with garbage. I could safely through most hands away against a bet or raise; they rarely bluffed or semi-bluffed.

My question: Will you back off just a little against players like this, just so they're less likely to realize what's going on? I followed HEPFAP's advice and let go of a couple pots that was borderline steal-able- last thing I want to do is encourage any kind of semi-bluffing/semi-bluff raising against me.

So what do you think? Be absolutely merciless, or play just one notch short of all-out abuse so that they don't wise up right away? Time is a factor, I'm only generally going to get to play a shot-handed game like that for 10 minutes max before the table fills.. but I've been similar spots a couple times before where I think I overdid the aggression, even though it was a good bet at the time, because they later started playing back at me.

2ndGoat

[Webster]

LOL - I LOOK for full - shorthanded tables just for those situations.

I'm "absolutely merciless" to a point. Sometimes after a few wins in a row I'll NOT raise and give them a break (ha) hoping to catch them thinking I didn't have a good hand.

Hey - they can always leave right?

Let me guess - they NEVER tried to steal a blind?

Did they complain about your luck on catching everything and never folding?

[Ikke]

If you're only playing a short time with them shorthanded and will not likely play them more often then you can be absolutely merciless IMO. But often you will be playing long enough that your opponents pick up on you and recognize what is happening. In those situations I will give up the very close to zero EV situations. For instance, when the blinds are too tight you can raise every hand from the button. Well....once in a while just dump the 72o ;-) (BTW, I've been known to raise this hand against too tight blinds. But be aware that if you get called and a showdown and win the hand your image will drastically change :-)

Regards