05- 1-06, LearnTexasHoldem:
Playing Against Conservative Players
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However, with conservative players, I may win small pots here and there, but I can never get them to put more money in the hand. I try to raise and bet hard with drawing hands every once in a while or I raise more often, hoping they think I am bluffing when I have a hand, but they seem to just call me down with only small bets. Now I am not losing with them, but my profit is barely anything noticeable.
My question is how do I get the more conservative players to put in more money? Thanks
Answer:
You've heard the saying, "every game is beatable." And that is true. There is a way to beat any game out there (so long the rake isn't too big). The problem with this is that it leads you to believe that if you change your style/strategy, then you can get the same results from any game. There are two problems with this. First of all, changing your style in this context usually means you'll be playing more hands and drifting over into a looser game than normal. That causes problems of its own. Secondly, games where the opponents are all rocks means you won't make as much as a loose game. Plain and simple, there are good games and bad games.
To make a game worth sitting in, you need bad players. One thing that isn't mentioned much in poker literature is game selection. If you look at any successful long term poker player, one of the key points they will site is which games they played in and avoided -- game selection. Profitable games are those where there is action, betting. This can range from crazy games where every hand has five plus players to the river, or games just a bad player or two at a table. As you get more experience you'll find which you prefer.
Wild games are more profitable but can sting you nicely if you don't run well that night, so some players avoid them. The point is to not play in crappy games. Games can turn bad if a loose player or two leave and good ones sit down. Often times that signals the end of your session (or a table change).
Now, given that the game isn't horribly tight and worth playing in, what are some things you can do to get more money out of the tight players? I wouldn't recommend loosing up a lot and trying to push them around. Most likely you'll do that for a while and get a little ahead, just to lose it all back and then some in a big pot. Now, this is only true if you have "tight" players. A tight player is someone who won't give much action unless he/she has a solid hand, both preflop and postflop. There is that type of tight and then sometimes you have players who are tight only in their preflop raising standards, but play loose out of the blinds and call down a lot of hands.
Against these types of players, I would start raising more hands that would do well against their blinds. You can open up your game some against them and profit. Against the rocks who won't give a nickel without AK, then your best bet is to try to be more deceptive with your good hands. (Deception comes with a price, but I already said that these games aren't ideal.) I would probably limp in with AA or only call someone else's raise preflop, same with KK if someone raised. I'm looking to get them committed to a hand and then pull the trigger.
The best you can hope for is to catch one of these players when they have a solid hand -- like you having AA against his AQ with a Queen high flop. If you play deceptively in these spots and try to get them to bite, you may be able to pry a chip or two away from them. One of the main weaknesses a player like this has, is getting married to a hand, so gear your strategy to that. Another thing you could try if the game was a tight and passive, meaning there aren't that many raises preflop, is to limp in a lot more with hands.
I wouldn't suggest doing that in limit holdem because the implied odds aren't as good. No limit allows you to bust someone in one hand, so limping can be profitable. You might try limping in with some more cards until the game gets aggressive. Your hope here is to flop something deceptive and strong when an opponent has a big hand. A nice side product of this is that if you limp with AA later, no one will assume you have it. It's fairly obvious when a tight player limps in under the gun and then wakes up. Likewise, you may actually get other players to limp in a bit more too. So, those are a couple things you can do, but again, they aren't ideal.
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