Can I get some advice . . .

[Billman]

I'm still a babe in the woods compared to a lot of people here when it comes to Hold 'Em but I've been doing my homework reading Skalnsky, Lee Jones, etc. and playing tons of Texas Turbo Hold 'Em as well as trying to get in as much online play as possible (and a little 2/4 action at my local b&m).

I play fairly tight. I might play as many as 24% of my hands or when I'm getting cold decked all the way down to 12%. When I'm playing at a loose/passive or even a tight/passive game I can usually rack up the wins pretty easily. This has been even more true as I've begun to become more aggressive and raise with my big pairs pre-flop and try to use my position at the table to push people around a bit to blow them off draw hands.

My problem is, and I know a lot of people have heard it in micro-limits a million times, I get my butt kicked when I'm at a loose/aggressive table. You just can't get these guys off a pot. I mean last night, I'm playing against not one or two but what seemed like a whole table full of guys who would just not lay it down. Table is AAQ95 and these guys are betting into you like they have the AQ boat and at the showdown they're holding 57. Worse still is several times they would raise me on the river only to turn over ZILCH! Not even a pair.

My problem is that I go passive in games like this. I might win a couple pots and then I'll get spanked 3 or 4 times in a row for big money and then I turn into a total wuss. If I bet, they raise. If I raise, they re-raise. Next thing you know I'm check-calling every hand and dumping it the second something scary comes along. If I happen to get my nerve back up and try to take a pot with KK I get sucked out with a runner-runner flush and then I'm back in wuss mode again. In fact, at that point, I'm in double-wuss mode because I feel like no matter what cards I have I can't win unless I have the absolute nut so I end up taking very few hands past the flop. When I do take a hand past the flop some scary card will come up on the turn or river and I'll just check-call it down for fear the guy made his straight or flush. So even when I win, I'm winning far less than I'm losing because I'm too wussed out to play the cards right.

Last night was one of those especially "I can't seem to win" nights as I watched three 4 of a kinds get dealt in 10 hands (two with a pocket pair and a pair on the board and one with three on the board and one in the hole), and about an hour before that, in about 20 hands eight flops came up suited. In fact, 5 of those suited flops happened in a row. There's no better way to kill your hopes for your pocket rockets than to watch three suited cards flop with 8 people in the pot and you don't have even one of the suit. Of course, the real kick in the nutts is that after you toss your aces you watch a fourth suited card being dealt and on the showdown when everybody shows their cards, NOBODY HAS A FLUSH!!! The aces were good!!!! :-) I'm pulling my hair out. Not because I lost but how can four guys all go all the way to the river and nobody has a flush? Maybe one complete idiot might think his pair is good but four?

Ok, enough bad beat stories and whining. How do you play at these tables? I've found that during the afternoon I can work a table pretty easily but around 1am (which is when I usually can play) the maniacs start coming out. I can't necessarily adjust my life to only play when they're not playing and I know they can be beat but I just can't seem to figure out how. How do you develop the cahones to hold on to a pair of aces with four suited cards on the board? :-) Seriously though, I've read Lee's book and I know he calls low limit "No Foldem." In fact, I enjoy those who will call down a dominated hand. More money in my pocket. But how do you deal with a table of maniacs (or 2 or 3 of them at your table)? Do you just walk away? The variance/swings just seem to be way too high. Seems like all the tables at the lower limits have the maniacs running the show after midnight though so there doesn't seem much escape.

Any advice or pointers to info would be greatly appreciated. :-)

Bill