Joined New Home Game...Advice Needed

Hello all. I'm a new 2+2 member and this is my fisrt post so if its in the wrong thread I apologize. Anyway here's my problem. I've been playing poker now for about 6 months and recently got hooked up with a local home game through a co-worker. I've been playing the game, held once a week, for 4 weeks now and am doing ok. Its a regular cash game with 25-50 cent blinds. I've bought in for $10 twice and $20 twice and am overall up $36. I dont really see anyone at the game as a real dominating player, but there is one guy who has been at my table the past 3 weeks who i've been having some trouble with. He is super agressive and likes to play almost every hand. He probably sees 85-95% of his hands to the flop, He very rarely makes a PF raise, mostly just calls the BB if he can or any other PF raise if its less than 4X the BB. He has a very intimidating table presence and is usually able to bet and scare off whoever else is in the hand. When the hand does make it to the river he probably wins about 50-60% of the time. Most of his hands though are never exposed bc he scares everyone off, so its hard to really get alot of information off of him. I do know he is willing to PF raise with any Ax,Kx,and high suited connectors like 8-9 or 9-10; and it seems he likes to slow play premium pocket pairs. Also from the few hands I've seen he will push hard with flush and straight draws and will call big bets with them too. I really think I could be doing better if I knew how to play better against this type of player and it almost seems like I'm playing scared alot of the time against him. I don't really have alot of experience as i'm still fairly new to the game, and this is my first regular home game. So I was wondering if there is any general strategy/tips/suggestions you guys could offer to dealing with this guy and other super agressive players like this. Any comments/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[beekeeper]

Hi EmptyPockets, welcome to the forum.

First of all, check out the Beginners forum regularly, because related topics to your question come up there often. In fact, recently under that forum and/or the Psychology forum there have been a few threads about playing against these types of players. You could probably do a search under these forums for "loose" or "LAGs" and see some analysis.

Secondly, many people on the sight will recommend you get some books and start reading. You will probably find out, now that you've started playing, that you're interested enough in the game to invest in some good books. The books from 2+2 are fantastic. I would recommend, if you don't own any books, starting with these: Sklansky's Theory of Poker, which introduces you to the fundamental theorem of poker--a concept that gives you a tremendous edge over your non-reading opponents, and Small Stakes Hold'Em, which gets recommended many times on this site in response to questions like yours. You can find these titles under the Books forum.

I would also recommend that you read some contributions on the site and then look up other posts by contributors who you find helpful. As a relative newbie myself, I've received a lot of thoughtful advice from these posters: SheridanCat and AKQJ10.

There is a lot of good information on this site relative to your question. In addition to whatever responses you receive, I'd check them out because you'll find tangent issues you hadn't considered. Good luck.

PS: You'll soon find you can use this player's aggressive style to your advantage.

H

Wow is that a beatable game. Can I come? If your best player is raising Ax & Kx as well a middle suited connectors you should be able to clean up. Slansky's Beating small stakes holdem and you should do well. Beating a weak agressive player requires you to be tight and very aggresive knowing when you are in a hand you usually have better cards than he does. Don't be afraid to raise as much as you can when your hand hits.

[ChuckyB]

Follow BeeKeeper's advice to the letter.

The basic rule for dealing with that dude would be:
Play tight and wait for a good hand. Then use it to beat the living hell out of him. Get him in for as much money pre-flop, then eat his children after the flop.

You have to know that he didn't hit the flop as often as he's representing. If you have a good draw on the flop, and there are just two of you, you may very well have a better hand than he does. Especially if he'll raise Kxs regularly...that's just awful.

Once in a while you can try to re-raise him if you think he's full of crap. It can really slow down an aggressive player...especially if you've only shown really good cards.

Ah, LAGs that slowplay big pairs all the time....sounds like my game

Well, oftentimes these bad LAGs dont react well then people push back, so don't back down. If you have a nice draw, be more inclined to make an aggressive raise. However, for this play to work it is important you maintain a solid image, so show him a few winners, then he'll be afraid to mess with you.

If you're not quite comfortable with this strategy, perhaps you can tighten up and slowplay a litle more, although you'll get outdrawn more too. But don't make tight/passive play a habit

Thanks for the help guys. I'm definately gonna look into getting some books and i've already found a ton of great info on other threads here.
Looking forward to using your advice in my monday night game...we'll see how it goes.
Thanks again.

[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.