How do you play against bad players? (11 Viewers)

[Dbxela]

Play loose and aggressive but fold to agression a lot. Fold mini-raise, any raise river except nuts/near nuts. They won't notice you fold to their raise that much.But they can notice if you are too nit.
Bluff small pots no one care, but be wary to bluff flop turn when money is big.
Most important part: Make the game fun by not ranting when bad players win money. Applaud them, have fun with them because what will make you win in the end is more the fact you can keep the bad players coming than the way you play.

Yeah and shove a load of draws, you'll give up a bit of value (or not if called multiway) but it'll be good for not looking like you always have it when you get to proudly (and quickly!) table '8 high' every now and again.

 

[Labrat]

Poorly.

 

[MrCatPants]

How do you play against bad players?

Good. You play good.

 

[surfik]

As frequent as possible...

 

[BPTDirector]

Play good poker, but control the size of the pot instead of jamming all the time. That way when they get lucky you survive instead of spectate later on when the odds catch up to them. They can’t get lucky every time, the odds prove out sooner or later. You want to still be playing when they do.

 

[louBdub]

Dude…

Preach.

I lost with pocket rockets 7 times in a row, and 5 of them were preflop shoves. It’s a known record now lol.

I shoved with QQ once and a player I had covered called me with 7/2o…. HE FUCKING WON WITH A TWO HIGH FLUSH.

My group will call or bet just about anything, sometimes it’s insane.

But, it’s a blast, as long as you win the big boy games, the little boy games can be dumb and wild.

 

[Coyote]

Tighten up a lot and play as many hands as possible, so that Math can vindicate you.
If aggression hasn't worked till the Turn, back off. Poker is a game of audacity and cowardice; not bravery.
Edit: in super-fast online games (a fold takes you to a different table), at 2/5 cents, I need at least 600 hands to break even.

 

[Taghkanic]

If they’re playing 80% of hands from all positions, you play 40% mostly from late positions.

 

[ThrowBack]

By being the worst player!

 

[Zema1111]

3 steps:
1: Wait for decent hand
2: Push ALL IN
3: Pray

 

[Taghkanic]

3 steps:
1: Wait for decent hand
2: Push ALL IN
3: Pray

On this note:

I was playing last weekend in a private 1/3 game with a shortstacker who shows up from time to time.

He’ll buy in for the minimum, bet or call every street, shove with flopped top pair bad kicker, etc. Regs know to call him down on most any decent flop and it will be profitable.

The shortstacker typically punts off 4-5 min buyins, then either leaves on his own or gets cut off by the host (who will extend credit but doesn’t want this guy losing more than he can afford).

Well… this time the shortstacker simply could not miss. Called everything down to the river, seemed to catch his gutshot or runner runner or two-outer 95% of the time.

Example: Guy with AQs raises to $20 pre. Shortstacker calls. Flop is AJ2 rainbow. AQs leads with $75 overbet. 97o calls. Turn 9. AQ shoves, knowing the shortstacker will come along with any pair. 97o calls. River 7. WTF

One guy in particular got sucked out on so many times he finally left in disgust.

Shortstacker runs his first min buyin up to $1,500 in the first hour, then over $3,600 a few more hours Iater. The table was at this point just openly mocking/ marveling at his rungood.

Buddy next to me said, this can’t last, only question is who takes it back from him.

I’m sitting with about $850. Guy opens for $65 (1/3 game still). I look down at and make it $200. He shoves over my reraise and I of course call… Expecting his 95o or J3o to somehow win.

But this time he has a real hand — — one I totally dominate. Rags with no spade on the flop, he needs running kings to catch up (or some random low straight on the board to chop). I brace for the trainwreck, but my hand holds as it should.

A few minutes later another player catches him speeding for another big pot, and the short stacker packs up and leaves— still up maybe $1,400, but down more than $2K from his peak.

Patience!

 

[Taghkanic]

P.S. When the shortstacker went up almost 500BB in the first hour, he made a move to rack up and leave. The host told the guy he was within his rights to hit and run but not to come back again if he did.

So the SSer stayed, and we were all grateful that the host said something until he proceeded to run it up far more. At that point the roles were reversed—he didn’t want to leave and the table was eager for him to cash out. But variance caught up with him.

 

[upNdown]

I shoved with QQ once and a player I had covered called me with 7/2o…. HE FUCKING WON WITH A TWO HIGH FLUSH.

I remember getting called down by a 7 4 off onetime. It was tournament play, so yeah, sometimes that makes more sense. But this was like a 60 person live tournament, right near the bubble and I jammed some real amount of chips (10+ big blinds) and the giant stack called with 7 4 off. And I remember he immediately opened his hand, I immediately said “wow, that’s just mean” and I was dead by the turn. So mean.

 

[Seven2Wizard]

Just as the title entails, I am part of a whiskey group and there is 10 of us. We meet monthly and I suggested we do a poker game while we meet. Everyone loved the idea - so I get the table and chips setup and everyone arrives and...no one knows how to play. They know what hands win, well, one person had a poker hands chart with him ....Open folding/ folding when they can check,, folding out of turn, 3-4 betting with nothing, playing every single hand imaginable, getting to showdown with K high, etc.

I can't shake off the nit feeling I have from playing 3/5 in my cash game I play in. It's a lot of fun and definetly not complaining, I love the group of guys and it's a low stake $40 game. But two months in a row now I've 3 & 4-bet pre-flop jammed with KK & JJ and both times lost to Q-6 off suit and 9-10 off suit.

The pain is real, maybe I'm just venting

Agreed