dealing with aggressive preflop players

[dark_horse]

when playing at a table where players know not to incorrectly cold-call preflop raises without 3betting or folding, what's the proper play with hands you would have limped with but are now facing a raise, when there's a good chance the raise in front of you does not indicate a strong hand? the postflop play in this game is typically "normal," that's to say, it's not as aggressive as it is preflop.

for example, one of the aggressive preflop players in middle position raises, and i'm looking at KQo in the CO. i'd like to play it. if it were limped to me, i would have raised. if it was raised before me in a game with no reads, i might cold-call here. i certainly don't want to fold, although some suggest i should. so you 3bet here to buy the button and try to get it heads up? cold-call? it gets confusing. and then i find myself playing overly aggressive postflop when i miss because the pot has swelled, my opponent with an inferior starting hand ends up pairing his T9o and he's not folding. these game conditions often turn my normally winning game into a losing one. instead of walking away as a +EV move, i'd like to learn how to deal.

[toss]

Coldcalling is bad even against aggressive PF players. You fold the hands you normally limp with and 3-bet accordingly against the aggressive raiser.

Edit: If aggro villain raises first in and its folded to you with KQo, you either wanna fold or 3-bet it. This depends on villain's raising standards. You don't want to cold call it and let the blinds in cheap.

[chief444]

I'm sure I would never cold-call here. If the raiser were somewhere between LAG and maniac I may 3-bet. But KQo normally hits the muck.

[RatFink]

If you are uncomfortable playing it then fold it and your winrate will stabilize again.

If you have solid reads on a loose raiser then you could three bet to isolate, but KQo is a hand that needs to be played carefully this way. It is easily dominated and has very little information value.

[Pokey]

Thinking of this as a "table issue" is counter-productive. This is a "player issue." You have a player (or a few players) who have loose preflop raising requirements. Many other players play very tightly against a raise preflop. Put this together and your confusion should disappear.

If the raiser was one of your "loose raisers" who had a PFR% over 15, then your KQo is good more often than it is dominated; given that everybody folded between the two of you, now is the perfect time for an isolation reraise. Then post-flop you're just playing a heads-up game against a decent starting hand -- proceed accordingly.

If the raiser is a normal player with a PFR% under 8, your KQo doesn't hold up very well against the likely range of hands he'd have given that he splashed the pot preflop. Now it doesn't matter that everybody else has folded; your hand is often dominated. You can lay it down with a clear conscience.

[dark_horse]

You fold the hands you normally limp with and 3-bet accordingly against the aggressive raiser.

Alright, I guess this was the advice I was looking for. Sometimes when an aggressive PF raiser comes in for a raise, I take his raise for a "limp" and if I would have limped behind a limp, I'd cold-call my pocket sixes, or something like that. I guess that's the wrong way of thinking about it.

[chief444]

I'd much rather cold-call with pocket 6's than KQo. I'm not saying it's right to cold call with 66 with no other opponents in yet but it's less wrong than KQo.

[Pokey]

[ QUOTE ]
Sometimes when an aggressive PF raiser comes in for a raise, I take his raise for a "limp" and if I would have limped behind a limp, I'd cold-call my pocket sixes, or something like that. I guess that's the wrong way of thinking about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is absolutely the wrong way to proceed, but not for the reasons you think.

Look at the facts of this situation:
1. Only one person is in the pot so far.
2. That one person raised, but likes to do so with mediocre hands.
3. Everybody else is skittish enough to fold to a raise.
4. You've got a pocket pair, which plays extremely well heads-up.

Reraise to isolate against this doofus. You'll have a pocket pair that's about a coin-flip against this hand on the river, and that is usually ahead on the flop. You'll get to bluff-bet at any A or K. You'll have position on him. You'll have dead money from the blinds.

This is the picture-perfect, textbook-example time for an isolation reraise. Make it happen.

[dark_horse]

thanks dude.