Max I'm sure you know this already but the games around Austin are $1/2 with $5 kill in pots over $100. The game is basically $2/5 with average raises around $20 pre flop.
Anyway last night was my first night to play in a while. I sat down with $300 which had everyone at the table covered except for an ultra agressive player to my left who had $500. He either was betting into pots (most of the time) or checking them down to the river. From what I could see he would fire into pots whenever he sensed weakness but he never flat out bluffed (I could see his cards when he flipped them up, it wasn't even as if I was looking for it but it was just that obvious). Usually he would call a flop bet on a small board with a mid pair then bet if checked to on the turn. I couldn't catch a strong hand against him and was wondering what the best way to play against him would be. He had position on me which might not have been a bad thing if I was hitting semi decent hands. My thoughts were to just check to him all night and let him hang himself.
Here are the two hands that I was involved with him in. The first hand I had AKs in 2nd position. I raised to $10 (one of my first hands before I realized we weren't playing 1/2) and he called along with two other players. The flop came J 2 5 rainbow so I led out $25, Mark (agressive guy on my lef) called and the rest folded. The turn came a 7 at which point I decided to check. Without hesitation Mark threw $40 into the pot and I gave him some acting then folded. The next time I tangled with him I had 9-9 on the button. I had just won a kill pot which means I had to post $5 and was last to act pre flop. Mark from the small blind raised to $25 and 2 others called, so I called from the button. The flop came 8 5 3 with 2 diamonds. Mark quickly threw out $50 into the pot and the others folded around to me. Having just won a big pot, and realizing that I would have to play these 9s very strong to take this pot off of him I decided to fold. I put him on 10-10 to A-A with a possible A-K. I feel like I should have raised but it would have taken a decent raise to get him off his hand which could be a very expensive mistake.
What do you think? What is a good strategy against these ultra agressive players? I also noticed he started to get hit by the deck so maybe he is a little more tight agressive but was getting the cards to play every hand. He hit a few gutshots in raised pots and rivered a straight to someones rivered set. I ended up at about $500 and he was at $1400. I couldn't catch a hand so I decided to leave and come back to battle another time.
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2 comments:
Hey, I just had this conversation with Noonan over the phone and I told him that IMO, the best way to play ultra aggressive players is to give them a taste of their own medicine by raising and reraising. In this particualr case it was unfortunate that the ultra aggressive player was on your left as this compounds the problem, but nevertheless, you must be even more aggressive with these players. This will most likely bring about large swings in your stack, but, in the long run, you will make better decisions than him, especially if you are more aggressive than him. With the AK hand, I probably would have lost a lot more money than you. I would have limped preflop, then reraised him large if he popped it. For example, if I limp and then he makes it $10-$14 to go, depending on the number of callers when it gets back to me, I would make it somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-$120 to go, then shove on the flop regardless of what comes. If he just limps behind, I check and fold on that flop. If I limp and an A or K falls, I lead out softly and play it for value throughout the hand (if he outdraws, so what, shit happens). I would also play hands tricky with him. For example, if I had aces, and the board fell 10-6-2 rainbow, I'd bet the flop and check-raise the turn. I would also probably do a lot more check-calling when I did flop top pair. Every person is different, but in general, you must get aggressive with these guys and not let them run over the table. If they are SUPER aggressive, then it might be wise to play lock down poker, but this would be a rare instance.
Another thing to take into account with your games there in Austin is how loose/tight you should play. It seems like even though the blinds are only $1/$2 its usually something like $20-$30 preflop. On paper, with such a low blind-to-stack size structure, it would make sense to sit and wait for hands, since you won't bleed chips from the blinds. But I've never played there, so you two would know best - just my thoughts...
Max, you are right about how to play this type of opponent, but the only problem is that in these games every hand you are involved in is for a great percentage of your stack and it is crippling to be wrong. If our stacks were deeper I would feel more comfortable playing agressively in pots with this guy but its almost as if we are in a tournament at the table. I need to play with this guy again to get a better read on him, and see if he was not just getting hit by the deck. On the AK hand he probably had a pair such as 88 or 99 and knew once I checked to pull the trigger. Instead of trying to bully him I decided to play a monster similarily and let him do all the betting for me.
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