How to Beat The Maniacs And Bullies At Online No-Limit Hold’em Tables

Poker table bullies are those annoying semi-maniac type of players that you meet in your no-limit cash game or tournaments, and they often accumulate their large chip stacks by sheer aggression alone and sometimes catching someone off guard when they happen to land a strong hand amidst their relentless aggression. These players don’t like to show down a lot of hands, usually because most of the time the have nothing much, as they play to win by exerting immense pressure on their opponents with every hand they’re involved in a pot with, and when they occasionally get lucky and actually do hold the best hand they usually win a lot more than they should do.

Table bullies win over both weak players who don’t have the heart to put money into the pot, and tight-aggressive players who don’t like to put in their money without what seems to be a lock hand. Here is an example hand that to give you an example of how to use their uncontrolled aggression to your advantage.

Slowplay the maniac and trap him for all his chips.

Imagine that we’re at an online late-night $2/$4 no-limit hold’em cash game. The player directly to our left has decided to play table bully for the night and is making every hand expensive before the flop and then not hesitating to shove in the rest of his chips on the flop, turn, and river if necessary in order to take the pot from us.

Not wanting to turn it into an expensive coin flip, most of us are praying, “PLEASE let me pick up those pocket Aces before this guy dumps his money off to someone else”. But Aces don’t come often at all. In this example, this hand actually came up in a real game played:

I was dealt Ah-6d from the small blind. Certainly not a powerhouse by any measure, but with the maniac and two other limpers in the pot it seemed worthy of another $2 to see a flop. The bully in the big blind checked to a flop of Ad-6h-2s, giving me top two pairs – a great hit. Naturally, table bullies love to take control so I decided to check to him to let him start the betting. It was obviously an unconnected flop, with unsuited cards on the board and so I didn’t doubt that he was going to bet out here. To my disappointment, he just checked behind.

Play moved on to the early position limper who made a $16 bet. The late position limper folded and I just called the bet. Without delay, the table bully goes all-in! Jackpot city! The original bettor thinks for a while before finally folding. The bully had more than I did (about $300) so I already had the checkbox on “Call”. Normally, I might hesitate and worry about a set in this position but rarely (if ever) will I lay down top two pair on the flop with a board like that. I make the call and the bully is forced to show his 9-3 offsuit – a ridiculous starting hand in hold’em for a multiway pot. After that hand, the table bully was completely crippled and soon busted out shortly thereafter due to his much reduced chip stack afterwards.

I like this hand for its fun value and the truly awful bluff that the bully tried to pull, but there is a lesson to be learnt here. Such players are becoming more common in no-limit hold’em cash games or tournaments, especially online. When an ultra aggressive player tries to take control every hand, the rule is to let him do the betting for you when you have a monster of a hand. If you bet out big to try to build a pot, these bullies will often be scared away (unless they are truly stupid, but most of them aren’t that stupid). After all, they thrive on dominating the action and winning pots without showdowns… so they have to bet and usually bet big to achieve this.

This strategy echoes a comment that the infamous Doyle Brunson mentioned in his book “Online Poker” – if you’re playing heads-up against a highly aggressive player, let him do the betting for you, fire a second bullet, and then get him for a raise on the river. If you aren’t fortunate enough to get in all your opponent’s money on the flop as I did, you definitely should consider slow-playing table bullies on an disconnected, harmless-looking board. It works!