What to do when the table figures you out?

[marchron]

It's been said that micro-limit players, especially online, are unobservant and generally thick-headed. I've discovered recently that that's not always the case.

The last couple times I've played, the other players have picked up on my betting pattern. Not so much that they know what I do on the flop when I have unimproved overcards and a backdoor draw; more generally, they know I'm aggressive and that I raise. A lot. I raise with good hands; I raise with good draws to knock players out; I raise with decent hands to pressure the other players.

The donks at the tables may not notice much, but they can quickly figure out who's going to raise and reraise their bets: me.

So what do I do when my reputation is so established after just a few rounds that virtually every time I'm in a hand and I'm either on or have bought the button, I get check-called? Or in early position, when I can't check because players know I'll raise behind them and will check around to take free cards?

Do I change gears and play more passive for a few hands, knowing I'm not maximizing my expectation now but hoping people will recognize that and start betting into me again? Or do I just find another table, even if the average-pot and players-to-flop stats indicate it's the loosest, donkiest one at that limit?

[Bodhi]

If your play passifies the table then you have done exactly what you want to. Check-calling is also what bad players do naturally, so you may not be as responsible for it as you think. The one thing to watch out for is that if you're over-betting a good player might check-call to trap you, but I don't think you need to worry about that here.

[Entity]

[ QUOTE ]
I raise with good draws to knock players out

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't like the way you phrased this or the way you're thinking; I'm not quite sure which.

Anyway, I'm not sure what your problem is. If by "figuring you out," you mean that they're letting you bet when you have the best of it, that's ok. I wouldn't worry much.

Rob

[marchron]

Perhaps it's an adaptation to my game I've yet to make. I seem to do better when a helpful loose-aggressive player unwittingly conspires with me to jam the pot when I have great hands and two or three donks call down with crap.

But when I can't make them all pay two or three bets to see cards, they are all getting proper odds. In this case, as it says in SSHE, their weak instincts just so happen to be the right play. Heads-up, this isn't a big deal; but if I have top pair against four or five others, I could be facing draws from all of them and implicit collusion allows them all to have a crack at beating me.

Rereading some of the relevant portions of SSHE, I suppose I could, as they recommend in some situations, forgo betting on the flop. If I successfully dodge a draw card, I can then hit them with a big bet, or maybe even raise someone just trying to take a stab at the pot.

I know that it's beneficial to me if players are chasing me with longshot draws, but the draws seem to be winning a little too often. I want to make sure I'm stacking the odds in my favor.