A discussion at Pokerschoolonline last nite concerned the tactics you might employ against a bully at your table.

Some suggested playing a wider range of hands, lower your standard?

What's your take?

Kenny can you tell me the definition of a value bet please

Value betting..at least my definition of it..Is when you are on the river..you beleive you have the best hand so you bet an amount you think will get called. Therefore getting "value" to your hand. The problem with value betting a bully in NL, is that he can come over top of your raise and you will find it very hard to call. Your top pair may have looked good...but with an over the top all-in...not so much so

Value betting should be done against calling stations to maximize the profit from your hand.

Of course if you have the nuts or close to it..you can value bet against the bully. But most of the time your hand won't be that good.


hope that helps

i think that is good advice AL. a few other things that i think about are my position relative to the raiser, but not in the conventional sence.
if most pots are heads up then i agree that you are better off to be on his left, per conventional wisdom.
if however he has loosened up the game and there are many multiway pots i like being on his right, so you have position on the field.
many hands that you may be willing to play against your bully would be easy folds against othetr players. also the other players will be slowplaying and checking and raising more than often, and if you are on bullys left you can end up getting trapped for a lot of chips right along with him. this is a major difference from limit where your ability to isolate him would make up for not knowing what the field will do
anyways, i think this is often overlooked when dealing with loose aggressive players.
also, if he is the type of bully to give up on the turn and river if he misses then the only time i broaden my playinbg requirements are with hands that have showdown value in itself. a hand like AT where you would normally not call a raise is not in as much danger of being dominated against the bully.
matty

kenny,

The only exception I would take to your definition is that a value bet is not limited to a bet on the river. It is possible to value bet on any round - although it occurs more frequently in hold em on the river.

TUP

kenny = owned!