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[jstoc]

Hey, I play in a college home game with usually 5-7 people sometimes 9. Anyway, I seem to be having trouble, and would appreciate some help. The players are pretty knowledgeable although very loose and aggressive. I find they treat medium to high pp's almost the same as aces and kings. They tend to bluff alot with hands like A-5, A-8, K-Q, etc. I've tried just playing tight and waiting for cards, but too often I don't get any and I end up just getting blinded away, or finally coming in and everyone folding. So lately I've been playing wild and reckless, and they all view me as a wild player willing to push my chips with a draw, or moderately good hand. Anyway, I would like to change, and do better, what tips do you think you guys could give on how to use my image to my advantage and how to combat these players. Also, one player is very aggressive, and always seems to come out on top. He is willing to play any two cards and sometimes raises with junk so it's hard to determine when he actually has a good hand. Then when you think you have a read on him, boom he flashes a monster. Well I think that is about it, thanks for any help you guys can give me!

[Ben]

From the top of my head:

Read Theory of Poker if you haven't.

Post hands that you have trouble with here.

Find a balance between playing loose and waiting for hands. Notice how you can't tell when the 'very aggressive' player has a hand or nothing, but usually shows down good hands? Shoot for that.

If your opponents raise with junk often, be willing to reraise with your decent hands. If they see you as wild they won't give you credit for hands and you should be able to get a lot of cash in with your big hands.

Try not to play pots with really good players.

-Ben

[tdomeski]

If you feel like you aren't a favorite in this game then you should find another game.

Also what are the blind sizes and buy in?

If it is not a capped buy in I suggest always maintaing the largest stack at the table.

[DavidC]

I'm new to NL and to live NL also. Please take my advice with a grain of salt, and anyone who disagrees with me, please let me know as well as the reasons for it.

Firstly, experience is what you need... sucks to say it, because you have to buy experience, but that's the way it is. However, you buy experience far more cheaply if you simply pay attention to everything at the game...

I want to point out that you should know, but not focus on, your opponents' hand selection. What you should be focusing on instead is what hands they hit with their garbage, and how they play them, what kinds of tells they have, etc.

(Man, if I actually took this advice myself I'd be a pro by now!)

About getting blinded off, you just need to make sure that the blinds are small in relation to the buy in. You want to play in a game where people have between 100xbb and 300xbb or more on the table. A way that you can accomplish this is by coming into the session late, after they've had a while to beat on eachother.

The only problem is that you don't get as much experience by doing this, and you don't know for sure who's up or down in the session.

Just remember to try to keep your head on your shoulders and remember that there's no such thing as a brick. Sometimes you're going to lose TPTK to two pairs, 4's and 7's, or a2s... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

--Dave.