There is a player at my game who is a super LA/A player. Most LAA are foolhardy, however this is a player who has cashed in the WSOP and plays regularly at high stakes. Here are his standard lines.


Raises almost every pot to 10-15 dollars (1/2 game) depending on the number of limpers. He follows his preflop raise with a pot sized bet regardless of his holding. If no one raises him on the flop, he will bet a good amount on the turn regardless of his holding.

His reading skills, however, are excellent, and he is completely unafraid to put money in the pot if he feels he has the best hand (or a decent shot of forcing you off of a hand). I have very few reads or tells on him, even though I have played with him for some time.

Is the optimal strategy to wait for big hands and then drop the "hammer" on him preflop (Harrington)? The problem as I see it, is if I show big strength preflop and follow it up with a big bet on the flop, he will fold. I feel like I am missing a lot of EV that I could get by smooth calling him and popping him on the turn for instance; however I feel wary at the concept of giving him free cards by only calling his bets instead of putting him to the test.

Anybody have any advice? I can give you a lot more information about his style of play if necessary.

Advice? If he's really that good, how about, don't play with him. Don't challenge him. Find a better game.

"Don't challenge good players. Challenge weak players. That's what they're there for." - John Vorhaus, Killer Poker.

Hi longwy

When I read the subject of this post I thought you talked about yourself... I have played with you on ub and you are very difficult to play against.

You ask some interesting questions. I have also thought about how to play against a good lag.

The best advice I can give is not to get into the pots he is in. This is easy for a solid player like myself but I know it doesnt suit your style. But you could tighten up preflop when you can see he is going to play his hand or tighten up if he is behind you and hasn't acted.

C&R writes about how to beat a bully in PL and NL Poker:
- Play fewer starting hands.
- Dont play shorthanded against him
- Sometimes act weak (check-call). You risk being outdrawn but you also teach him that a check from you doesnt mean you are weak. But of course it is also important to vary your play.
- They also say that you sometimes have to take a stand. Fight fire with fire. (I dont know if this is the best to do against a good hand reader)

I need a little clarification here before answering, I think. You say that he raises almost every pot to 10-15 at a 1/2 game. What is your buy-in? What's his? Is there any hand selection going on at all on his part? If so, what is it? A start on that one is: How many hands is he playing? I mean, if he's literally making this raise 90% of the time, it's not all that hard, but stack-sizes do play a big role.

From what you've said, I think the real problem is that he's playing a game which he considers too small, and that creates difficulties for those who consider a 1/2 game to be real money. But, it's really ultimately all about the blinds in NLHE, and I think any strategy that doesn't escalate on that foundation is actually a faulty one.

Pending further details, I'm not afraid to go up against this kind of player.

I fourth the sentiment of just moving on. You have to be a very good read to pick and choose the right spots. That is very tough.

I loose more money to maniacs who I'm trying to outsmart than any other type of player. Don't believe me? Just read my stupid play in forum/viewtopic.php?t=4529

Tim

I definitely agree with your statements about game selection. In reponse to Aithesis, the stacks start at 200 but move up as the night progresses because many people rebuy.

Because the 10-15 raises are a significant portion of my stack, an isolation reraise would be about 30 % of my stack. I think the solution is to just wait for my big hands because I will get paid off on them, trouble is, those of you that have played with me know I don't like waiting lol.
tha
Ok, thanks for the advice. BTW Kalle, this guy is MUCH tougher than playing against me online ( I 'm not that good anyway ).

His hand selection is part of the key, though.

It sounds like he is good enough that it is going to be very hard to stack him directly.

I have to at least know how many hands he's playing and roughly which ones. If he's seeing 90% of all flops with a $10-$15 raise, it's VERY different from making that raise on more like 15% of all hands.

I'm not at all sure that you really even want to attack him normally if he's good at this, as I assume he is. The main thing is that you don't want to allow him to interfere with your own ability to bet.

Again, without any further info here, I'd at least like to have position on this guy. If he is raising $10-$15 on 15% of hands (with no distinction in terms of hands between $10 and $15), I'd come over the top for about $60 with JJ-AA as well as AK--just as a start.

He's going to fold most of the time there, I'm almost certain, but he just gave you a very good profit margin on these hands (when he doesn't fold, you're going to lose your stack with JJ or QQ vs. AA/KK, but once in a while, you'll also have AA against his KK or something like that). But most of the time, you're winning quite a bit.

Anyhow, his raise isn't excessive at that table. From what you're saying, I'm just assuming that you think he raises too many hands. Depending on what these hands are, you just have to keep him out of your way in playing the remainder of the table.

I really just don't see one strong and difficult player at the table meaning leaving an otherwise profitable game, but you do have to let him know that he's not going to push you around when you want to play a hand. If he tries to do that, you have to make it unprofitable for him.