local card room taken over by aggressives

[FredJones888]

I recently bought in for 30BB at the local brick and mortar card room, which is usually enough for me never to need a rebuy. I noticed it was a different crowd than usual. The games were looser than usual. One big fat guy was raising almost every single hand pre-flop and winning. Whenever he raised, he won the hand about 70% of the time. He seemed not to care about the money at all, even though he piled up about 50BB profit in 2 hours. I lost my 30BB and sulked away. I came back to the card room, went to a different table ( the fat guy was still there with a new table full of suckers ). The same experience happened all over again at the new table but instead of the fat guy it was a grungy biker dude cleaning everybody out with what seemed like wild play.
I want to know how to hang with these aggressive types without become a wild man and blowing my bankroll. What are they doing, do they just seem wild, are they reading my face, what gives ? I can't go back to that card room until I figure this out. If I can only play against rocks I will never be any good.

[mmanne]

My general approach with a maniac is to tighten up a little, and then get over aggressive back at him. One other tactic I sometimes try is to go into a tighten up pre-flop and go into a calling mode post flop, in order to basically let him bet your hands for you. Either can be useful, but my overall strategy relies on tightening up pre-flop.

[37offsuit]

I go for the let him bet my hands for me strategy. When you have a maniac, you have to figure that you're going to be paying two bets for every one you make, one bet for every check/call. So let him bet for you and then release some timed check/raises and reraises when you land the nuts or near nuts.

He's going to be staying in to the end most hands and so will others who can't adjust to his style, so you're still going to see some bigger swings. Just don't let the "bad beats" throw you. You'll have more of them as people draw out to inside straights, catch runner-runner flushes because they flopped middle pair - poor kicker but held in, that sort of thing.

And when you do flop a monster, and call the river bet, reraise the turn and then the maniac bets back into your nut boat on the river and you repop him again, you'll drag down a nice pot.

[KUBowler99]

If your image is tight (and the other players at the table have some idea of what tight means and recognize it), I would try to isolate the aggressive player. This is especially true if his raising standards are far less than optimal.

[bernie]

if it's only 1 guy really raising preflop all the time, watch how the others are reacting to his raises. if you have position, use some isolation. however, watch how the table reacts to that also. this will help you in choosing the mix of hands to play as youll see if it's more likely to be sh/HU or multiway.

dont just concentrate on the LAG. lots of players will do that and forget about the other 7-8 players in. you know how the LAG plays. watch how the others react. then tailor your game to that.

then of course you get beat by 4 22-1 shots in 2 hours like i did today on this type of table. cost me quite a bit. but that's what makes it so fun, isnt it?

btw...for all who think moving up youll see better play, the 22-1's were on 10-20. meaning, you will face the same type of idiots as LL.

cya

b

[Yerma]

Hi fredJones,

Listen, it's very important to keep a poker face at all times. A grungy or dirty biker dude especially will now when you are crying on the *inside* as he is beating your AA with bottom 2 prs. It is most important for the biker dude to not know when you are bluffing or really have it. Listen, you don't know when he has it or when he is bluffing? That is why he is causing you all the trouble!

[pilamsolo]

This might seem like common sense, but the first thing I do is take a seat change to get him on your right. In my experience guys like this can be very unpredictable, raising 4 times in a row, then checking or folding, which can be very frustrating if you were trying for a CR. I personally like to isolate these players on the flop when I have any kind of pair. If the rest of the table doesn't respect your raises then its time to tighten up and hope your sets don't get cracked by a runner-runner flush.

Hope this helps.

[brick]

Here's what I've learned to do. It has really improved my play at a local card room. This place gets crazy and I used to get crushed.

1) Be 100% sure that I can beat a normal soft game. This will really increase your confidence when you sit at a table where every pot is raised pre-flop and often capped.

2) Understand how big the swings can be. Are you sure that after loosing 80BB you could still make the correct decision because you know that you're playing correctly?
Can you loose 100BB, continue to make correct decisions, and be sure that the you have a 150 BB run coming your way? Play 300 hours of .5/1 if that's what it takes.

3) Play a game of "Imaginary EV" in your head. Each time your make a bet with a Set and get 5 callers.... well that's a bunch of points. (ok don't actually keep track, but you be sure to make the correct decision every time)

4) Play specific hands pre-flop. Play hands that will really fit the situation. A6s after a manic UTG raise and 6 cold callers. Raise 77 on the button in a with 6 callers. 3-bet the manic with QQ and AK.

5) Make loose calls on the river. The pots get big and these guys often bet busted draws that they check raised on the flop, and bet on the turn.

5) Fold missed flops. These games are full of opportunities. Don't feel like you must bet AK when you miss the flop.

6) Check-raise the manic on the turn to narrow the field. He'll often 3 bet you and then show A high when you both check the river.

7) Don't play trap hands. QJo, QTo, KTo are the worst. If a decent player raises, toss the AJo. But if you're in MP and the manic open-raises. 3-bet him with AJo and take him to the river.

8) Understand NL hold'em as it compares to limit. Learn to find situations and exploit them at no limit. Find ways to make things happen. Next, understand that you can't make thing happen to the same extent in Limit. You must adjust your thinking and play what develops... rather than trying to create something from nothing. Find and exploit all of the opportunities that arise when the manic (and all the other players who are influenced by him) make mistakes.

9) Finally. Don't let yourself be influenced by this guy. Be happy winning 6% of the pots even though he wins 18%. Win big pots by winning the big-hand over big-hand confrontations.