Profile Strategy

[Gene2x]

I'm having a tough time figuring out a strategy for the following 6-Max 0.5/1 player:

VPIP of only 31%. Will bet & check raise with middle or bottom pairs and flush draws on flop and turn. Will bet or check/raise top pair weak kicker. Will bluff on river if turn is checked to him. Inconsistent with small/medium pocket pairs (passive or cap betting pre-flop and flop).

I'm thinking:
Pre-Flop: No changes (he's playing good cards for 6-max).
Post-Flop: Cap the betting if I have top pair good kicker. Play back at him if he might be on a draw and try to steal on the river if it looks like draw missed.

I'm assuming I'm one-on-one in the hand.

[jrz1972]

Against this type of player, I tend to play more passively than I would against a fish. The guy you've described likes to raise (and check-raise) substandard holdings, and he apparently likes to bluff. He's presumably also playing his really good hands strongly.

When he starts betting at you, you don't have to play back at him if you have a merely good hand. Let him keep betting.

When you're in position, you should often check behind on the turn against a guy like this when you have a decent hand that you want to get to showdown with. Getting check-raised on the turn sucks, so when you know this guy will check-raise a broad range of hands, you should be much less inclined to make questionable value bets HU when you can check behind instead. By all means, bet the turn if you have a strong hand, and feel free to bet the turn if you have nothing and can confidently dump to a check-raise, but otherwise just check behind with your decent hands and pick off his river bluffs.

Chest-thumping aggression (which you seem to be advocating) is not optimal against this kind of player, at least in my experience.

[Gene2x]

Since his draws will miss most of the time and he pushes second-best hands too hard, wouldn't it make sense to get aggressive with him? The variance might be wider, but the total $ won in the long run should be more. Am I thinking about this wrong?

[jrz1972]

The problem is that when you go to war with these kinds of players (decent players who overplay a bit and play too trickily for their own good), they're usually able to find the fold button when they have middle pair or somesuch.

If you get real aggressive back at him, he'll fold his crap hands while punishing you with his good hands. That's the opposite of what you want. By going passive and letting him make bluffing mistakes, you'll lose the minimum when he has you beat while often increasing your winnings when you're ahead and he bluffs his chips off to you.

I'm talking about decent but not fantastic hands here. When you have a set or two pair, yeah sure be more inclined to go to war with the guy and hope he has something good that he'll pay off with. It's just that this type of opponent (over-aggressive and tricky) is not the kind that you should be trying to push thin edges with.

(Edit: A lot of others in the forums have more experience playing against these sorts of players than I do, so I'm very open to correction if I'm offbase here).

[jrz1972]

Here's another way to think of this. Against the typical Party .5/1 6max player (fish), we tend to play marginal to decent hands pretty aggressively. We do this because the fish will call with all sorts of crap we beat, and he won't play back even when he's got us crushed. When a fish check-raises you, it's really easy to get away from middle pair.

The person you've described is sort of the opposite. He'll play back hard with all sorts of hands, which means sometimes you'll make the mistake of calling down with a loser and sometimes you'll make the mistake of getting pushed off the best hand. You want to avoid getting yourself in the position of making either of those mistakes, which means not betting as much and walking into fancy check-raises. It also means inducing bluffs.

[Gene2x]

I see your point. I just started using PT to analyze players and then track them down on PP. I guess this is one I'll take off my list of players I want to play (he disabled search on PP anyway- a pain to look for him table by table).

[deception5]

[ QUOTE ]
A lot of others in the forums have more experience playing against these sorts of players than I do, so I'm very open to correction if I'm offbase here.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't say I have more experience than you but I just wanted to add agreement to what you are saying as your advice is right on as always. There's a huge difference between a maniac (who you would want to employ the cap with top pair good kicker strategy against) and a lag who can get away from hands. Very often the most effective lines against the latter are call/call/call or call/call/raise.

[kapw7]

[ QUOTE ]
The problem is that when you go to war with these kinds of players (decent players who overplay a bit and play too trickily for their own good), they're usually able to find the fold button when they have middle pair or somesuch.

[/ QUOTE ]

That means that we can play back at them with agression. Which is not an easy thing of course.


[ QUOTE ]
By going passive and letting him make bluffing mistakes, you'll lose the minimum when he has you beat while often increasing your winnings when you're ahead and he bluffs his chips off to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

What if he sniffs passiveness and reduces bluffing thus we end up calling his value bets and not making enough when we are ahead?

To the OP: this a good opponent if you want a challenge but better avoid him if you want to make money at the table

[Gene2x]

Here is a profile of another player I analyzed. I think I will chase this guy around instead of the first one:

VPIP 75%, Never raises pre-flop, Only bets top pair, (Re-)Raises two pair, Check-raises/slowplays sets or better, Calls to river with any pair, Plays any draw, Never bluffs