Adjusting to others thinking you are a Maniac

[CrazyAzn]

well being the crazy asian that i am... i am loose aggr in shorthanded games... (im actually very tight in ring games). i think it is probably widely accepted as the most profitable overall strategy in shorthanded play. feel free to comment on this style too.

my question is what do you do when you get caught being loose aggr and everyone thinks your a complete maniac and starts calling you down w/ A high, and bottom pair. You lose SOOOOO much value when u cant take down the pot w/ a bluff/semibluff preflop, on the flop or on the turn. Ive read that even hands like AQ do not have more value than stealing the blinds. How do you overcome the loss of abililty to steal??? my usual strategy is to become much tighter but still as aggr but it still seems like the results are not good when my image turns into a maniac.

thanks
peter

[Robk]

Hey Peter, I think that one thing you might consider is doing the opposite of what you suggested; that is, you should not tighten up, but play less aggressively. Don't bluff/semibluff at all but make more value bets than you usually would with hands that have any kind of showdown value.

[CreamPuff]

i think it is probably widely accepted as the most profitable overall strategy in shorthanded play.

I think it this is probably the most widely accepted
strategy by crazy asians.

You lose SOOOOO much value when u cant take down the pot w/ a bluff/semibluff preflop, on the flop or on the turn.

Now as you are aware, you're contradicting yourself.
Do you think your opponents are stupid?
Ok..some are. But even more reason to play tight.


Here's some quick advice:
Take any mediocre hand under the current circumstance
that you rate as 0 EV for the position your in.
When your image is semi-loose..Fold.
When your image is tight, raise
Determining what your opp's threshhold in perceiving
how loose/tight you are is another key.
If you sit there and rock down and they call you
anyways, then you have no reason to loosen up.
(Although limping with some hands now becomes ok)

I suspect the latter is the case against most
of your opponents..Assuming you play 20/40 or lower
in California with the rest of the crazy asians.

[CrazyAzn]

thanks guys,

you are right about about cutting out all semibluffs... after thinkin about it some i realize that semibluffs just turn into making myself pay for my own draw since i lose the most profitable folding aspect of the semibluff. I encountered the situation again last nite and i just switched into a tight and more passive(value betting) gear and it worked pretty nicely.

I still cant bring myself to limping 1st in... is this ever correct cream puff??? i can of course limp in after 1 or 2 limpers but if im gonna play i still raise 1st in... the problem i encounter here is that if I raise 1st in I always rope myself into at least a flop bet at least unless there are 3 others in the pot.... is there ever a situation where u can just ck the flop after u get only 1 caller after u were the preflop raiser???

I actually am a mississippi/internet player, and am not a typical crazy asian... lol, im just asian... i would say most true "crazy" asians dont take the time to read and study, they are there to gamboool.

thanks
peter

[mobes]

I play extremely aggressive in shorthanded games as well. After I get caught with my pants down, I will make sure that I have at least a pair at the river. I do this by sometimes raising with medium suited connectors, so when the board hits me, they assume it missed and I am bluffing. Then they see me take down a pot with 56s and they never know what to put me on so they start just playing thier cards and I can bluff again.

[CreamPuff]

I still cant bring myself to limping 1st in... is this ever correct

I agree it's tough to do in nature..And I rarely do it.
The best times to do it, is when your sure you have zero
chance of stealing both blinds.

Some Examples
SB and BB are loose, both never fold preflop. Your on button.

-----------------------------------------------------
*You have A2s. If they are so loose on the flop they
will call if they held (KQ) on a A93 flop..Then you should
still raise (but actually check a lot of 89T, 579, KQT flops vs 2 opps) But you might actually want to
limp with JQ, etc..


*You have A2s but they play somewhat normally postflop (loose pre)
a limp isn't so bad, especially since they will be
vulnerable to a trap at least once a session, and you
can bet and take some flops.
(You could also limp with just about anything playable
in the latter case)

Also there could be some situations where they are so
hyper-aggressive that you could just always limp
and trap/rope-a-dope them.

is there ever a situation where u can just ck the flop after u get only 1 caller after u were the preflop raiser???

Im assuming you mean in the case that you have nothing.
(not a slowplay).

There is the check-bluff vs. your better opp's.
Say if the flop comes (AAK), and you raised with 78s.
Now you can check the flop and bet the turn (if they
check) and most better players fold anything unless they
have an Ace or very strong draw (So you may not want
to check if there is a 2 flush on the flop, in case they
have a back-door draw)

--------------------------------------------
Dont force yourself into a set way of playing.

For every action/reaction by your opp. there is an
effective counter-strategy..Just think it through,
and you'll be right more often then not.