Home game question

[Gbob]

First time here, and allready I'm asking for help. Geesh.

I'm flummoxed. For the past couple of years I've been playing a Sunday night home game. Not too large. Everyone brings a hundred or so, with as many buy ins as needed. Lot's of new players each week, and a damn fine table. Good players, with many making more than half their income at casinos each year. I was happy, and felt like I was playing at my level for a while. Over the course of the first year I was up by about 100 bucks, and against this crew I felt good about it. Then the villian came on the scene.

Young kid, early twenties. Nice guy, but he's been killing me for the past three months now. I've tried playing tight against him, playing loose against him, playing into him and avoiding him, but every single week he gets the best of me. If I bluff he gets me. If I have the nuts, he cracks 'em. It's feeling pathological now. He's good, but he's not that good. I just can't seem to beat him and it's ruining my Sundays.

Now, short of beating him with a shovel, how to you avoid a player at a table? I've tried sitting to the left of him and to the right, but I still can't really escape him. I would describe him as an agressive player but definatly not wild. As Yogi Bera said, 50% of baseball is 90% mental. I'm sure that's the case here as well. He's put me on tilt though.

What's the best way to deal with a player that gets under your skin like that? Obviously my "just play into him and take his money" approach isn't working. Is there a good approach to avoiding an arch-enemy?

G. Bob

[jtr]

So we're absolutely ruling out beating him with a shovel?

[Gbob]

Well, one should allways use all the weapons at their disposal, but I think there's some silly house rule against the use of shovels.

I still don't know if it's better to simply play super-tight against him and let him smash himself into every other player instead of me. The other option of trying to force him off the pots, as i mentioned, isn't working.

[BigToga]

I have one of these at my table too - and I just try to avoid him as much as I can in big pots. He's got me calling when I should fold and vice versa - very frustrating. He's the only player that's ever gotten me totally off my game and completely guessing...

For me, what worked was to start getting good cards against him [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[jtr]

In all seriousness, I think I'd just treat him with a reasonable degree of respect, but try very hard to stop myself letting it get personal. I think you are in danger of making poor plays once you get that feeling of "he's putting a play on me again." Often he isn't, of course.

Try something like assuming that he's got the strong hand he's representing with a 66% probability. That's probably an overestimate, I'm sure he's stealing more than that. But if you basically treat him as someone who has the goods, you won't lose big pots to him and will free yourself up to focus on just playing your own game well. Sure, you're giving up some EV, but if he's that good, maybe not much.

And probably best to sit opposite him, so you're not caught up in blind-stealing confrontations with him.

[PokerGoblin]

OK

On a scale of 1-10 w/ 10 being the best player you've ever played against, how would you rate this guy?

What kind of hands does he typically show down? Is he getting lucky against you by calling down with garbage hands then sucking out on you? Does he typically win money in your home games or does he go home a loser?

If he's getting lucky against you all you can do is play solid poker against him. It sounds like more than anything your read on this guy really sucks. Pay attention to his mannerisms, what he shows down, what he calls raises with, what he chooses to play out of position etc. If he's solid, then be a little more choosy when calling his early raises, when he calls you down etc.

I play in a regular home game (w/ a few 2+2ers) and there was a guy who always had my number... but I realized he also always went home broke. I found the holes in his game and I exploited them.

Try to determine the type of player he is, and that should give you an idea of how to enter pots w/ him.

Hope That Helps

PG

[ipp147]

[ QUOTE ]
What's the best way to deal with a player that gets under your skin like that? Obviously my "just play into him and take his money" approach isn't working. Is there a good approach to avoiding an arch-enemy?

G. Bob

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi,

Two things, if he is actually a better player than you then well done for admitting it. If its online you can obviously find another table but as your not just sit on his left.

When he enters a pot then drop your marginal hands that you would normally think about calling. Play your bigger hands a bit quicker against him.

Thats it really, not alot else you can do.

[Gbob]

Thanks for the replies folks. It gave me some confidence to go in tonight with my game face on. I put down my hundred bucks and geared myself for the approach of my enemy.

You know those nights where the cards don't seem to come up right, but you make enough good plays to run the table? That was tonight. My AK turned into a boat, and yet I still got a caller to go all in. I slow played in the right places, and laid down when my spider senses started tingling. I left with more money than my wallet could handle. Literally. I couldn't close the wallet. It was a perfect evening.

So are the demons exorcised?

Sadly no. Wouldn't you know that my best night of poker is the one evening where my enemy has the flu. Now I dwell on the inevitability of next week when he's back.

His skill level? Well, it's a home game so it's tough to say. One player in our group plays for a living. Two are really tough players, and one is wild enough to keep arriving. Other folks are people who heard about our game and drop in....usally to leave after a couple weeks. I would say it's decent play. Casino mid to low level good. My enemy is about middle of our pack. Better than me, not as good as others. I play for fun and my bankroll is usally spent by my wife and son before it can grow.

I think it may be like when pitchers find batters they can't strike out. I don't know, and that's why I can't seem to find an approach to beat him.

Now another week of dread. Thankfully I have a large number of twenties to keep me warm.

[FourKing Hell]

[ QUOTE ]
Sadly no. Wouldn't you know that my best night of poker is the one evening where my enemy has the flu.

[/ QUOTE ]

LMAO

Seriously though, I recognize your problem. Had it with a guy in my home game. My solution was not to 'read' him anymore, but treat him as a random unknown player. If you keep acrewing up trying to adjust to him, it becomes a mind game. He'll notice and put plays on you more often, putting you even more off balance. If he's a better player to begin with, why give him that extra edge? Once you've established that he's better at the mind games than you are, minimize his opportunity to use it against you. There is no ABC game-theory-derived unexploitable perfect strategy of course, but it's always better to be beaten out of a little $$ than a lot, IMO [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[rdu $teve]

I used to have the same problem in my home games. For the past year, I've played with pretty much the same group. There is one pro, and a few others who make a large portion of their income from poker. The one that has given me the most trouble, is very LAG; he raises 30-40% of the pots with any two cards, he is very good at the psychology games, rarely have I seen him lose money.

Pots that he raises, always got me into trouble. I found that it doesnt matter where I sit relative to him, but if he raised preflop, I had to drop about 50% of the hands that I normally like to play to a raise. For a while, I played him straight up ABC preflop, and tried to mix it up post flop, when heads up. Now I've gotten to the point that I can play my normal game against him. My biggest problem is that when I get him cornered and know I have him beat, I sometimes focus to much on him and miss the other player who has me beat.

Try to play him heads up sometime, or only play him in HU pots for a while. That will help you develop a working strategy against him. Once you figure him out, he will be just another tricky player that you have learned to handle.