One Way I am Losing a Lot of Money

[DaveduFresne]

Is against super aggressive players. For example I was playing against this guy yesterday at 50 NL. He had about 150 in his stack I had about 70. Every time he was in the last three seats he would raise preflop to between 4 and 5 dollars. (The standard raise is usually between 2 and 2.5).

I let him take a few down before I realized what he was doing. Then I wake up in the bb with AK. I think I made it 12 to go. He calls. Flop comes Q98. I bet pot, he goes all in. Of course I fold. He flashes me 107 offsuit.

A similiar hand happened later where I had AQ and reraised him, missed the flop once again, and again he bet me off it.

So I was getting a little peeved and this time saw AJ offsuit, pushed all in and he called me with AQ offsuit and took my just recently reloaded stack.

It was a little unusual for his hand to be this good, he seemed to mostly have something like 97 offsuit or other similiar one gappers or two gappers. He was up from hitting a lot of flops, so he seemed to be running well.

Basically his strategy was to raise with any two cards from late position, call any reraise (at least up to three times his initial raise) check the flop, wait for me to pot it, and go all in. As I was missing every flop, this got quite costly for me.

I dont like going all in with Ace high.....Anyway, I'm out of ideas on how to handle this kind of player. I seem to get myself in a lot of trouble trying to play against them preflop when I know their flop strategy. My pocket nines that I push run into AQ that hits or like yesterday my AJ goes up against AQ.

I know nines losing to AQ is somewhat unlucky, but I want to avoid a coinflip against this type of player in the first place.

So, to make my question concise, how do you deal with a player that raises you a tenth of your stack preflop, and is willing to get it all in on the flop?

What type of hands should I be waiting for preflop, and what should I do if I miss the flop?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

David

[Bukem_]

First of all, yOu don't have to play vs this guy if you don't feel you have an edge vs him.

If you are going to reraise alot with big aces, you pretty much have to be willing to go with them.

Pocket pairs 77 or higher are monsters vs this type of player.

Commit as few chips as possible unless you willing to put them all in.

[DaveduFresne]

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First of all, yOu don't have to play vs this guy if you don't feel you have an edge vs him.

If you are going to reraise alot with big aces, you pretty much have to be willing to go with them.

Pocket pairs 77 or higher are monsters vs this type of player.

Commit as few chips as possible unless you willing to put them all in.

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At this point I am actually at a disadvantage against this type of player as I always seem to lose to them. I would like to figure out how to beat them though, as I often see other players at the table stack them off.

So basically are you telling me a big ace or pocket sevens are an all in on the flop hand even if you miss?

[aK13]

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First of all, yOu don't have to play vs this guy if you don't feel you have an edge vs him.

If you are going to reraise alot with big aces, you pretty much have to be willing to go with them.

Pocket pairs 77 or higher are monsters vs this type of player.

Commit as few chips as possible unless you willing to put them all in.

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At this point I am actually at a disadvantage against this type of player as I always seem to lose to them. I would like to figure out how to beat them though, as I often see other players at the table stack them off.

So basically are you telling me a big ace or pocket sevens are an all in on the flop hand even if you miss?

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I would prefer calling first to see the flop, then deciding whether to push or not postflop.

EDIT: I also don't mind letting him take my .50 blind, and just waiting for a monster to stack him.

[Bukem_]

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So basically are you telling me a big ace or pocket sevens are an all in on the flop hand even if you miss?

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You can't beat this player if you are going to reraise with middle pairs and big aces if you are going to always fold when you miss.

Obviously some flops will be better than other when calling with A high. Not fun, but it's one way to do it.

Other is only call(preflop) with very good but not monster hands, and call down with most pocket pairs and aces that hit. He has to be bluffing alot for this to work.

[DaveduFresne]

Yeah I think I have a tendency to get into a contest over my blind which I should avoid. I don't mind an occasional blind steal but if they keep doing it I want to play back at them.

Anyway, good advice guys...anyone have anything to add to what's been said?

I think reraising with a big ace against this type of player from the blinds is probably -EV. Because you're never going to outplay this type of guy after the flop. They're ego players and want to ALWAYS outplay you. They're going to call your raise preflop, your bets after the flop, and not fold until they're absolutely certain they're beat. Unless you hit the flop, you're going to dump a lot of money to him. If he raises and you're looking at a big ace, just call, and then value bet if you hit. You're only going to hit the flop 1 out of 3 times, so reraising has you committ a lot of money and playing a big pot OOP when you're going to miss 1/3 of the time anyway--and I would add, against someone whom you're NEVER going to outplay. And of course, I would reraise preflop with big pairs, since it's already a made hand.

I think the most important thing is to not let your ego get involved here. Relax. Let him have your $.50. You're going to him eventually. But if you keep pissing aways a few dollars here and there because your ego is bruised, you're not going to be making as much as you should be.

[ethan]

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So basically are you telling me a big ace or pocket sevens are an all in on the flop hand even if you miss?

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You can't beat this player if you are going to reraise with middle pairs and big aces if you are going to always fold when you miss.

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It's important to note that you can't always call down vs a LAG. At least, not vs a good one. If you start doing too much of this, he'll value bet vs you and lag it up vs everyone else.

Good LAGs are tough*. But reraising preflop is a good start as long as you have a plan for postflop.

*good lags are also probably rare in your games.

[DaveduFresne]

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I think the most important thing is to not let your ego get involved here. Relax. Let him have your $.50. You're going to him eventually. But if you keep pissing aways a few dollars here and there because your ego is bruised, you're not going to be making as much as you should be.

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Great advice. The main thing I hate more than wasting my blind is wasting a big Ace. But I guess I'm still getting 10/1 implied, and I have a 1/3 shot of catching so I should just be patient and wait to hit. Very frustrating to play against such a player when you're missing the flop.

[DaveduFresne]

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So basically are you telling me a big ace or pocket sevens are an all in on the flop hand even if you miss?

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You can't beat this player if you are going to reraise with middle pairs and big aces if you are going to always fold when you miss.

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It's important to note that you can't always call down vs a LAG. At least, not vs a good one. If you start doing too much of this, he'll value bet vs you and lag it up vs everyone else.

Good LAGs are tough*. But reraising preflop is a good start as long as you have a plan for postflop.

*good lags are also probably rare in your games.

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I actually don't face a tough LAG very often at my stakes, but I believe I have encountered a few. I may play with one only like once a month or so, but I often lose several buy ins to one, so I really need to close this hole even though it doesn't come up too often at mini stakes.