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!
Picking Your Spots
March 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Picking Your Spots
A major component of any poker session is being able to pick the right spots. This aspect is especially critical in bluffing. As stated before, you should never bluff just to bluff; it should be profitable to do so. If it doesn’t seem like it would be profitable, you shouldn’t do it. There was a hand that I witnessed recently where there was a total of 4 bets in the pot. No one seemed to be especially interested in the pot, as everyone was checking. On the river someone decided to put in a big bluff by betting $130 into a $20 pot. I am sure this guy was thinking he would just put a big bet that no one would call. Unfortunately for this guy, someone did call with bottom two pair. Not only was this a horrible bluff, but there was no reason to bluff at this pot. There wasn’t enough in the pot to justify bluffing as much of his stack as he did. In cash games, it isn’t as important to protect your blinds and bets because there is time to pick better spots where it would be more profitable to make a big bluff.
This can be a bit of a touchy subject in tournaments because every chip counts in a tournament. There are a lot of elements to consider in a tournament because of timed blind constraints. This theory applies to the tournament setting in bluffing postflop. In post flop play there should be risk/reward assessment when bluffin. If the pot is not worth risking a portion of your stack on a bluff, it may not be worth it to bluff in this situation. The best situation in cash games and in tournaments is to bluff when the pot is sizable enough to add to your chip stack, and when it seems probable that your bluff will succeed. In terms of tournaments, it would not be very profitable to bluff all in just to steal the blinds when they are at 25/50. It would be a better situation to bluff when there have been at least a few bets in the pot, and when the chips in the pot are going to add to your stack. Now, this doesn’t mean that you can only bluff at huge pots, but the pot size should be considered and the size of the bluff should be assessed in relation to the size of the pot. It could be very profitable to make small bluffs at smaller pots, but there is no reason to risk your entire stack for a pot that is going to do very little for your chip stack.
The same rules apply in cash games, but can be applied more stringently because there are no timed blind constraints. In cash games, players have the ability to wait for long periods of time for a good situation to bluff. The easiest bluffing situations arise in heads up play. However, don’t be afraid to take stabs at multiway pots. A few months ago I was sitting on a $2/5 NL table, and it had been raised $50 with 6 callers in front of me. I was in position, so I called. The flop came one over and two unders. It was checked around to me, and I made it $150 with no pair no draw. This was enough to take down the pot while not risking very much of my stack, and it was a generous pot to add to my stack. When choosing a good position to bluff in, the pot is the reward and therefore should be worth the risk you are putting your stack in.