11-15-04, LearnTexasHoldem:

Player Who Always Checks

Question: Hi,

I recently posted a question about a poker buddy that always checks no matter what he has. Actually, he sometimes checks, sometimes bets, sometimes raises no matter what he has. He can check pocket aces, raise 72o, whatever. This makes it impossible to figure out what he has.

How does someone play against this kind of strategy ?

Thanks!

Jeff

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

Answer: The way you play against him depends on a few other things: First, does he only play premium hands or does he play everything the same way? Second, does he check raise a lot when he actually does have a hand or does he just call down the whole way? Third, how does he play when you end up betting into him?

I wouldn't consider someone who checks a lot to be a threat. The raising and betting are more troublesome. If you are up against a really weak opponent -- someone who doesn't bet ever, they just check and call -- then your course of action is to play more hands against them and bet for value. Let me give you a few examples why this works. If the player is a weak tight player, he isn't going to make you pay to see the flop even if he does have AA or AK.

You just call preflop and then bet middle pair or even worse if the flop doesn't look like it helped him. If he calls you can always just check later. If the player is a weak loose player who plays way too many hands then you just bet your hands for value and if he calls, you might just still keep betting but not as much. If in either case he comes over the top of you with a big raise, then you can easily muck. What often happens though in no limit cash games with weak tight players who don't raise with their big cards preflop is that they get cracked for all their money. For example, he has AA and just limps in and I have 78 in the big blind. He thinks he is slow playing me but after a good flop, he is behind and loses all his chips.

Now about the aggressiveness... When someone "randomly" chooses a hand and raises with it and pushes the rest of the way like they have something, it is very hard to play against that unless you yourself have a good hand. My first question would be how often does he do this? If it is once or twice in a session then I would just let him get away with it and win a small pot unless I had a good hand to play back at him with.

On the other hand if he is making a habit of putting in a bunch of chips with crappy hands, I wouldn't hesitate to take a chance that he does have a bad hand and punish him. It is frustrating when someone raises three times in a row with nothing and the time you call them they have the nuts but you can't really prevent that. As you progress up in the limits and people are more aggressive based on position, you'll have more beats like this. That's just part of the game and it would be wrong if you didn't use this opportunity to break him.

The last piece of advice I can give you when you are trying to combat someone changing gears is to pay attention. Poker players often times see one play and base their whole view of the player on that one hand. That's dangerous because it leaves you open to someone intentionally mixing up their play a few times and then getting you to call with losing hands the rest of the day. So the point here is to make sure you are aware of when the person stops playing like a fool.

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