01- 4-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Beating The Loose Aggressive Player
I have been playing Texas Hold 'Em a little over a year with my younger brother. We have weekly short-handed (only 4 player) tournaments in which I normally do well. My brother and I are tight players, but aggressive mostly once in a pot. However, at the table there is a player who has won the last few times in a row. He is loose-aggressive at times, but mostly just a calling station. I would not bluff against him in a pot or do anything out of the ordinary, knowing that he could have anything and if he did, he call it down even on a draw. So repeatedly I find myself checking on the flop when I missed my hand, and then the other player bets big. I either fold or catch him bluffing. Then he catches his needed cards, and I end up paying him off. Because there are only four players, I cannot wait for the nuts since I will lose from the blinds. Even when I feel I have the best hand against the player, I play cautiously and try to figure out whether or not he is drawing or has a smaller pair or even nothing. Is this the right way to play against this player? Or this a hole in a my own game? Thank you for your time.
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Answer: The first piece of advice I can give is to redefine what you consider loose play. Is a loose player someone who plays any two cards till the river and hopes to win? Sure. Is a loose player someone who puts pressure on you when you have shown weakness? Maybe not. I would consider your friend to be a loose player if he was calling your bets with weak hands. I would consider him an aggressive player if he was making you fold everytime you checked.
Aggression is good if it is applied in the right way and within moderation, you can't go overboard or it becomes a weakness too. It doesn't sound like this guy has gone overboard; it sounds like he has found a way to beat you and he is exploiting it successfully. This is a problem that all players will face if they progress up the stakes ladder -- people taking advantage of your checking. At lower limit games, it isn't unusual to see the entire table check and take a free card. That will rarely, if ever, happen at the middle limits or above.
The reason is because people at those limits are playing your cards as much as they are playing their own. What goes through their heads is something like this, "he has checked which means he probably doesn't have much. If I bet, I will probably win in this scenario enough to make it profitable." And that line of reasoning is correct. So how do you combat it?
First of all, you have to take a shift in thought. If a person is willing to bet religiously whenever you check, then it would be reasonable to assume that he/she doesn't always have top pair or even middle pair. If that is the case, is it right then to only play your best hands against them? The answer is no. Against that type of player, especially in a 4 person game, a hand like middle pair or even worse is most likely good. Get in there and mix it up with him. You'll end up beating him in the end because you'll be able to fold just a bit more when needed than he will. Do more calling against him, with much less hand strength than you normally would.
Secondly, it is much harder to be an aggressive player if you don't have position to work with. So that is the next tip, try to play hands behind him so you can maximize your wins and minimize your loss amount on the losing hands. Thirdly, in short handed games, draws go way down in value and any pair goes way up in value. Try to rearrange what you consider a good hand on the flop. You would much prefer to have bottom pair instead of a flush or straight draw because heads up, it is very hard to flop anything.
Lastly, most of the time no one will hit a hand on the flop. You can't just allow him to bet and win everytime you miss. You need to do some of the betting into him even if you have only Ace high. This adds value to later hands. You don't want the players to think that you only bet when you have something great. Bet out on the flop sometimes with bottom pair, gutshots, etc. That last piece of advice is primarily for shorthanded play.
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