Joined New Home Game...Advice Needed

[Rosencrantz1]

Welcome to the forums.

A couple other guys recommended SSHE -- a great book, to be sure, but it is for LIMIT play, not no-limit.

I would HIGHLY recommend Ed Miller's GETTING STARTED IN HOLD'EM (GSIH). Althought the first 2/3 is about limit play, he has a very good intro to all forms of no-limit play (cash game, tourney, etc.)

In terms of playing against this guy, here are the things to note:

1) He's hyper-aggressive and most times will probably be unscarable. What this means for you is that raising with marginal hands will more likley than not just result in him calling/re-raising.

2) Just because he's usually unscarable doesn't mean he ALWAYS is. You need to pay close attention to when he DOES fold...how big the raise is that pushes him out, etc.

3) If he's seeing flops 90% of the time, he is, most often, playing with CRAP. As someone else recommended, when you DO have a hand, you need to punish this guy.

4) He is a great candidate for the Hammer (Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 1). Since you can be pretty sure that he will bet at a flop, you can trap him for a lot of chips when you do have a hand. An example:

You are in early position with AQs. You raise for 3xBB, pushing out some players. The villain calls (as he always does) as does the BB. 3 players to the flop.

The flop comes AQ3 rainbow. you now have top-two pair and almost certainly have the best hand. The BB checks to you. You make a small bet, hoping that this aggressive guy pounces on it. He raises and you come in over the top with a huge bet or just an all-in push. He must choose between folding (after having just raised you) or calling when he is almost certainly behind.

5) The final thing is that you really want to maximize your position against this guy. When he is acting before you, you can be that much more aggressive with your raises. Not only will this lead to some useful free cards on the turn, but it will start to make him think about his own aggression.

Good luck.