Articles

Combating Maniacs

In my previous two blog posts, we discussed how to exploit Calling Stations and Weak Players. Today, we will discuss combating Maniacs.

We will classify a maniac as someone who will apply pressure whenever given the opportunity. It should be obvious, but the way you beat maniacs is by rarely folding your decently strong hands. This should lead you play your strong hands in a manner that makes it nearly impossible for you to have to fold. One of the biggest leaks amateurs have is they will call a flop check-raise from a maniac, call the turn, and then fold on the river, believing that the maniac simply must have a strong hand to fire all three streets. This is exactly what maniacs want because they win a free flop and turn bet. …

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Don’t be a pushover

jacksThe following hand illustrates a common leak that many amateur players have in their poker strategy. When they face the least bit of resistance, they fold all but their best hands. With blinds at 250/500-75 with 25,000 effective stacks in a $500 buy-in tournament, the cutoff raised to 1,200 and our Hero in this hand reraised to 3,000 with Jh-Jd on the button. Only the cutoff called. …

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Multi-way Pots

multiway-pokerIn small stakes games, it is not uncommon to face opponents who think it is a good idea to limp in with a wide range of marginal hands. While this is almost certainly an indication that you are in a profitable game (because limping in is usually the sign of a weak player), you must be careful to not fall into the trap of overvaluing your marginal made hands once numerous players see the flop. …

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No one wants to quickly bust

Today I am going to share a hand with you that I played last year in the $1,500 buy-in Monster Stack WSOP event. This event was different from other $1,500 events in that each player started with an overly deep stack. This was third hand of the day 1.

A 35 year old guy who I did not know raised to 525 out of his 15,000 stack at 100/200 from middle position. Everyone folded around to me and I called with 4c-3c from the big blind. …

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