Calling down a Loose Aggressive

[Yako]

Opponents like this guy get a note from me that says that I should cap every street with TP or better...

[olavfo]

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I disagree with the whole "fish sometimes have AK also" saying, at least the concept that it would affect your play. If you think about the "sometimes" part of it, its about equal to as often as when you have AK.


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This is not about whether he has AK or not. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

You may be missing the most important point here, which is that going to war against a maniac can be risky with a hand as weak as top pair.

With this hand this there is nothing wrong with letting the maniac control the betting. Since he is near impossible to read, you need to be careful with your marginal hands and let him give you his money little by little. Those times you're behind this strategy will save you some bets.

Wait for a better hand before you start a raising war. You'll still get his money.

That was my question, whether there was anything wrong with capping the flop. It's capped so it's only going to cost me .5 BB.

As you can see on the turn I felt I was still ahead but choose to take the "better safe than sorry" approach anyway once he raised me. It seemed goofy to go beyond that.

I totally agree with your strategy and that's what I actually do in most cases.

However it's still not a matter of worrying about AK, it's a matter of worrying about all sorts of goofy other hands that he might have (that make two pair or better).

That is why I capped it on the flop where I felt I was ahead, but then on the turn I choose to take the safe approach (after he raised), there's no way to know if the turn card helped him or not.

And for the same reason I certainly wouldnt of been the aggressor on the river where yet another card can help this guy. (which it did not that it matters)

It's better to do that with 2 pair or better. with just top pair (if it's not TPTK) you'd be better of just calling him down for as cheap as possible because you dont want to pay him off those times when he gets lucky.

At least your varience will be lower.

Ive been putting these guys on my buddy list on Party. It's getting pretty full...

Im winning so much money from players such as this that Im almost afraid it's going to screw up my stats as to make it hard to ever move up to a higher level. (unless 3/6 and 5/10 has these types of players as well...)

[tetonpete]

i see nothing really wrong with capping the flop. I might have gone for a CR on the turn, but that's just me.

My point is that you are now describing a maniac, which is not what you seemed to saying in your initial post. Regardless, let's say that, as you believed, this guy is going to cap all rounds, with anything better than ace high. You also know that you are ahead of him, and that he is at best a 5-1 shot. Your biggest problem here is that there is a cap. If he will bet the max no matter what his hand is, then his bets are meaningless as a source of information. All you know is that you were ahead, and by a lot, and so you want to put as much money in the pot as possible. It's essentially the same as being able to bet the max amount for all rounds, but doing it at once, on the flop. It's a great bet if he's a 5-1 dog.

The problem is most maniacs don't fit this desciption. They may raise or reraise when they sense weakness, or when they are convinced someone is bluffing, but they don't automatically cap every round with bottom pair. And so their bets mean something. At some point you need to worry about your read. At least I do. And so you don't know really know if you are ahead on the flop. Hands that this guy could easily have that beat you: 44, KT, K4, T4. Likely? No, but becoming more likely with every raise and reraise.