[sweetjazz]

[ QUOTE ]
Why not tend to say "Look buddy, we've been through this before, and I'm here to tell you - you're going to have to dig a little deeper to gain initiative/ free showdowns / etc vs. me here"

[/ QUOTE ]

In fairness, the read of the OP is that the villain often tries to keep the initiative too hard, leading to overplaying of marginal hands (and paying off when the OP has a real hand), and often doesn't take free showdowns on the river.

So while I agree with your philosophy in the abstract, I am not sure this is the kind of opponent against whom we want to apply it, based on the OP's read.

It's true that in limit it's easier to play too passively than too aggressively, but online there are many players who play too aggressively and the correct counter strategy is to become passive in certain spots.

I'd rather show him that we're going to take a lot of his money everytime we hit a big hand and then if he adjusts we can start playing back at him with a wider range of hands.