There's a new player in my game that seems to be becoming a reg. I've never seen someone lead so much, and I was hoping to get advice on how to combat this player. Here are a few HHs of him:

1. Tight passive reg has straddle +2, $300 effective.

TAG kid opens HJ $15, loose passive calls SB, villain calls BB, straddle defends +2.

Flop ($60): A T 4. Villain leads $45, +2 calls, TAG kid folds.

Turn ($150): 6. X-x.

River ($150): 2. Villain bets $85, and +2 calls. Villain has T 9 and his hand is good versus 8 7.



2. $600 effective, villain has straddle UTG.

Hero opens CO A 3 $20 and only villain calls.

Flop ($43): 4 4 2. Villain leads $35, hero calls. Is this too light?

Turn ($113): 8. Villain bets $80, hero folds, and villain shows 2.

3. $650 effective, Nit has straddle +1.

Tight passive villain limps LJ, hero raises CO $25 A 9, villain calls UTG, nit defends straddle, LJ calls.

Flop ($103): A T 5. Villain leads $75 and only hero calls.

Turn ($253): 7. Villain bets $150 and hero calls.

River ($553): 3. Villain bets $150, hero calls. Villain has A J. I would've folded the flop versus a good chunk of players, and the turn versus almost everyone, but this guy has been so button clicky that I felt like it would have been too tight.




Anyways, with these three HHs in mind, what adjustments are you making? I hope this isn't too general... Would you defend way wider than normal on the flop, and then fold to turn aggression until he proves he'll fire the turn with marginal hands or worse? I would normally do that, but I feel like HH2 he genuinely just had a pair of 2s. I find it very difficult to play against players who are aggressive and have no clue why they're doing what they're doing .

So he donks with medium strength made hands. Pretty common. Does he have a fold button? If so, consider raising a lot of his donks.

It seems like he's leading every flop he gets a piece of. I've seen players who lead every time they have top pair or a draw, but this guy is all over the place, and is doing it four ways.

I'm not sure about the fold button, I don't have enough information yet. I was really hoping someone else would try it out for me . I'm afraid to try it out in a spot like H3 with AK and get him to fold AJ. I also don't want to punt off with a Broadway gutshot in H3 and find out that way.

He's a regular in your game. If you don't know if he can fold a hand by now, you need to get your head in the game. That's something you should know in an hour or two of play. You don't need beyond reasonable doubt, just a preponderance of the evidence.

In weak games, he knows most people will give up if they don't have a strong hand. So he pushes them. It is very effective in LLSNL.

The solution is to have a better pf range than he does. Mix in some calls and raises if you have anything (back door draws are fine on the flop). If you're strong, rope a dope him. He'll go broke or back off.

H1: This hand shows villain is aggressive but isn't totally spewy. He has some sense of when to slow down. His betting river here is very aggressive when he can be easily facing a higher flush.

H2: Fold unless villain bluffs a lot and you want to bluff back at some point. Your hand just has too little potential. Your actually OK against 2X but against any other hand with value here you are in bad shape.

H3: This may be played fine depending on how aggressive villain is with middle and low pairs.

Villain seems to be betting hard with any part of the board. The solution is too call down with good hands that are ahead of his range. You will need to pin down his range to see how aggressive he is with hands like bottom pair and middle pair on turn/river. Variance will be high because you will be playing bigger pots on the river.

Find out what he does when raised. If he doesn't have a fold button then start raising more with your really good hands. If he does then throw in a few bluff raises when you whiff.

Also see what he does in hands when he doesn't bet. If he bets all of his made hands and checks his air/draws you instantly have a good idea where you stand. You may be able to bet any hand he doesn't bet.

IS THIS A MANDATORY STRADDLE GAME?

H1 tight passive straddles ?

H2 fold to V's bet like you said he bets with any piece and you have nothing

H3 NIT straddles ?
tight player limp calls the straddle
prefer call with A9 vs raise here
UTG call should send off warning bells

let him keep leading and trap with your good hands and fold your bottom range
yes it means folding hands you would call others with but that's why reads are important.
V leads with any part of the flop you don't need to be table sheriff !
money to be made is by letting him feel he is running the table ; the last thing you want to do is slow him down.

+1 all of this imo

I would raise the leads/donksmore polar than linear/mergy (OTF especially) and then go from there depending on the run-out etc. So like low SDV gutters, OESD, FDs, bottom pear, underpairs, and then TPTK+

turn more weak pears into bluffs

I mean this is all standard donkbet stuff. He bets to "see where he's at". So tell him he's behind and raise him with your air. With your big hands just call and keep him guessing so he tries again on the turn.

seems like the perfect opportunity to raise with our whiffed flops/semi bluffs and call with our value hands

Also when he checks and you have air, bet flop and turn. He’s not able to withstand heat. This also works well as a strategy for your monster hands since he will be inelastic with his now polarized checking range on flops (he will have a lot of trash which will fold out eventually, and some strong hands that will give action to your monsters anyway)


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I like the general advice in the thread. Yes, this is a mandatory straddle game with a rock - this means whoever won the previous pot has to straddle for the position they're in, unless they're in the blinds.

@jdr0317 Going off of the OP that's golden advice. However, I tried that last night, and now I'm confused:

$800 effective, villain has straddle +1. Hero opens BTN $20 A T and only villain calls.

Flop ($43): K 7 5. Villain checks, hero bets $15, villain calls.

Turn ($73): J. Villain checks, hero bets $60, villain calls.

River ($193): Q. Villain checks, hero bets $250, villain snap mucks.

I'm so confused after playing this hand. He didn't lead the flop. I think he had to have had clubs, because nothing else really makes sense. I guess this means he doesn't lead his draws?

There’s probably going to be some things in there (though having the Tc in your hand makes me question how much). It’s possible he was slow playing a big hand but didn’t like the board runout (he did call a huge river bet), or maybe he had QcJc exactly and backed into two pair. Or maybe he doesn’t always donk his top pairs.

One thing I will say is that we can probably be much more exploitative on the turn and bet smaller when we don’t have it and bigger when we do. I do like that you absolutely bombed the river when you got there, though. Heck I might even approach $300 on my bet.


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I think you read that wrong. V folded facing the river overbet, not called and mucked, I'm pretty sure.

And this makes it pretty likely that V is donking meh made hands, which is the most common donking range ever, and not betting draws.

I don't think there's any way he had two pair. I saw him call three streets yesterday on A K 5 7 Q, and he couldn't beat KQ. He appears to be a big station, but I'm also confused as to why he never led that hand if he had value . It's like he changed his strategy for yesterday.

It’s possible. Or he’s just a monster calling station. Or since he’s a live player, he donked a board like AK5 with AT and got raised and called down and lost to AK and now he’s traumatized. Or it’s possible he actually check calls down his strong top pairs sometimes.

I’d definitely pay attention to hands he shows down after calling flop and turn barrels when the river checks through


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Club draw is the most likely. Not one with a KQJ though because he donks KX on the flop and likely calls the river with the others. Some chance of 86/64 with some villains depending on how loose he is preflop.

Depending on villain he might also have had 5X or a pair >66. He was willing to call small bets but when you over bet river he folded. With some villains there is a small chance they call down with some monsters out of a misplaced sense of balance but if he had a good two pair or a set he wasn't folding river.

Your betting pattern here is a bit weird. If you are figuring he had air when he checks flops then the small bet is fine. When he doesn't fold to that there is little reason to bet turn because hero has nothing. If he is chasing a draw you can get him to fold whiffed rivers with a small bet so there is no reason to inflate the pot. If he did have a low pair this might be the right pattern but it's unlikely.

You make good points, and I agree. I'm definitely paying extra close attention to the hands that he's in.

I'll obviously learn a lot more about him as time goes on, and adjust my sizings and overall betting strategy to max exploit.

My thinking otf was he's going to miss very often. We can deny equity, get value from a FD, and/or be able to bomb turns that will show a card over 7 and less than K.

On the turn, he should never continue with 7x-TT, we can get rid of his unimproved floats, and we could also get called by a FD. Obviously I'm rooting for a fold. Again, time will tell us how good/bad this line was versus him.

As far as if x'ing the turn is the best play...We wouldn't even have to put a small bet otr because we beat all of his missed draws, unless he has a pair with his draw.

what made you want to bet 1.25x pot on the river? Since we opened OTB and are trying to isolate, I assume we’ll get here with a lot of Kx, low SDV suited SD’s, and high FDs that bricked out.

Are we going with a different sizing scheme with all of that? How are you determining the sizing scheme in hand when exploiting?

so I'm glad you showed a hand where villain checks flop. Personally I dont agree with jdr's assessment that he'll fold to cbets. Why? Because it all revolves around his propensity to donkbet and what that says about him as a player. If he donkbets weak pairs then what does he call with? Draws. You arent getting him off a draw unless he whiffs the river, and the danger here is that he may actually just pink a random top pair or even 2 pair to beat you, too risky. Just stick to hands that have some legit equity like overcards or draws of your own, and adhere to a mostly one n' done approach. Dont worry he wont exploit you for it.

Also be just a little more selective in what flops you raise his donkbet. I saw that he actually lead out with AT on a AJx flop or something. Thats dangerous because it means he isnt just literally "paying for information" he's just autopiloting every pair he makes, including hands that could have you dominated. In fact it is the ace high flops in particular I would avoid bluffing him on, because random Aces are going to be a big part of his range. Anything Kx or lower I think is safe. You could consider floating his donkbets on Axx flops but I think at this point we're just getting too fancy vs a fish.

Highly disagree. He will have draws that call multiple streets, sure. He will always have pure junk that he’s not properly protecting.

Basically everything can be grouped together, monsters, strong made hands, marginal/weak made hands, good draws, bad draws, junk. However you’d like to classify but let’s use that. Monsters are rare. He’s donking his strong made hands. Unless he’s a massive station, he’s folding his weak made hands with little chance to improve to a lot of heat. So whether he folds turn or river, he’s borking his range in a way that makes it hard for him to defend against multiple barrels.


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