Strategies for beating the crazy LAGs - 25NL Party

Hello all,

This is my 1st creation of a post, so if I'm being uberstupid please let me know.

Anyway, I've noticed that there's frequently guys in the 25NL Party who are crazy aggressive. These guys can be up to 80/50 and are frequently raising between 8xbb and 12xbb. I typically play a TAG style. However, I see these guys and I know I've gotta change something to maximize profit on them.

My 1st instinct is to find any PP or AQ+ and raise him all in if I'm on a short stack or reraise him big if i've got a sizable stack on any sizable raise he makes (8xbb+). Sometimes, if the guy is really crazy I'll also raise (only if I haven't done it a bunch already) with any A.

This seems to irritate them and they will start calling with hands like KJs and maybe even worse.

I've got 3 questions.
1) This seems to be profitable mostly, but I don't have a very large sample size, so does anyone have any reasons why it is or isn't profitable?
2) I think another way to beat them might be by calling their raises with mediocre hands as well - stuff like J9s (especially with position) - and trying to outplay them on the flop. This is harder and I might not be aggressive enough to do this. Anybody think there is any merit to this?
3) I could take the easiest approach and only play the best hands - maybe 99+ - mixing it between reraising and calling. Am I losing potential profits with this method?

[Nuprin]

play TAG. I find they're pushing any Qx - AA...at least when i catch them. This is assuming they're pushing every hand. If they're raising big every hand, i call with KJs+ usually and then try to catch them doing something stupid post-flop.

[djoyce003]

sit on their right. Limp a lot...let them raise, when you catch a premium hand push and see if you can trap people in between you. this is an unbelievably effective tactic.

[passion]

I would avoid your second stategy. What you don't want to do against a good lag is try too laggy. Remember that these guys have practice being lags and you don't. Even with position your probably at a disadvantage relative to a good lag when the game turns really ugly (people raising marginal hands and playinig marginal hands to a raise).

Passion

[aces_full]

Not all LAG's are created equal. I find there are also plenty of donk-LAG's who will raise nearly every hand pre-flop to .50 and then they will either check or make a weak continuation on a missed flop. Against them I will make reasonable reraises with premium hands pre-flop, and I will call with more suited connectors (or any two heads up with position).

Against the maniacs who raise big and follow up on the flop, I just gambool with them. I will go all in with any pair TT or better AJs,AQs,AQo,AKs,AKo. If I'm OOP I will limp-push with these hands. I simply don't feel that I am good enough (but is anybody?) to "outplay" a guy who will aggressively play any two cards. I'm not willing to play "guess what he has" for my stack-I would rather put him to a decision before the flop when I know I am either ahead, or at worst a coinflip with the crap he is likely to have.

One thing I have learned is if I am going to gambool it up (I never buy in short so I'm always risking at least 100BB) with these types is that I need to be patient. I want to watch this guy for a few orbits to figure out if he's an idiot or a winning LAG. I want to see what he raises with, how he bets, what he shows down, how he plays later streets, what he calls all-ins with, etc.

Sometimes I may slow down, say he raises into me and I have AA and it's heads up. I just call with the plan of getting the money in on any flop. Or sometimes I will open push with AA-I think it challenges their manhood. I had some donk LAG cold call with Q /images/graemlins/diamond.gif6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif when I opened for $35 UGT with aces. I guess someone else raising "his" pot was too much for his testosterone to handle.

Nuprin: This is close to my typical tactic. Although, I might be a little tighter - JKs I'll usually fold to their 8xbb+ raise unless I feel like they're really getting outta hand.

djoyce: I've actually used this a lot as well if I happen to be on his/her right. I'll do this sometimes with almost any PP or AQ+ - especially if there were several callers of his raise.

passion: I see your point and haven't really tried strategy 2 very often - I'm not so good at it. But if I can enough experience to tell the difference between stupid lag and good lag, then this might be a useful skill to have (against stupid lags)

aces_full: This is similar to what djoyce has said and, like I said before, limp-push or reraise-push is my 1st instict. Also, I agree, some of the bad lags are really insulted when you reraise their 2 face cards and feel like they need to buy a very large truck or call you to ensure their manhood. Even the ones that aren't concerned about their impression of manliness still seem to get irritated when this is done to them multiple times.

Thanks for your responses.