At one of my local card rooms, there are quite a few regulars who put the preflop raiser on AK-AT (the range depends on the PFR's position) and if the board is baby cards, they're potting it on the flop and if the turn is a brick, pushing all in. While this sounds great as the PFR any time you have an over pair, it puts you in a tough spot when you don't.

The buy-in is $100-300, so they're either short or medium stacked.

What is the best strategy when facing these guys in the blinds?
Not raise preflop without a decent pair?
Keep the raise small enough that you can easily call the flop getting odds for an over pair?
Raise enough to put them all-in preflop? (that seems exploitable by them too)
Randomly choose a time to push the flop after their bet?

Sitting to their left is viable, but they don't usually have the deep stacks at the table, and even then, if a UTG raise is folded to them, the same thing happens.

Yeah some people have a hard time putting players on pairs!

I think one thing you can do is raise more preflop - in the long run it will cost them more to see a flop and hopefully your range will be ahead of their.

The other idea is to possibly check a few flops that you hit and call or raise them. This will force them to slow down a bit on dry boards.

The fact that they are low stacks should prevent them to see a lot of flops if your bet sizing is right.

Play deceptively and raise with small cards, so they fold on high card flops and bluff into you on low card flops

If the entire table was that way you could do something like that but that is rarely the case. And for the most part this is such a long term losing strategy you don't need to adjust much at all.

There are some tweaks you can make to your range to exploit them. Play a bit fewer aces, don't play every unsuited AJ/AT even if your opening from LP. Open a few more suited connectors and low pairs. Bluff at more pots when big cards hit. Just give up on the flop when you don't have some draw to go with your over cards and they bet.

It can be annoying at time when you not hitting anything and these big bets force you out of pots. However, like any overly aggro strategy, you give up a lot of small pots to their bets and get their stacks when they run into your strong hands.

Op what does your Cbet frequency look like. What does your PFR range look like?

I'd def make sure to have some mid suited connectors in my lp opening range vs the deeper of these opponents. If they are ranging is on Ax Broadway's we should be able to occasionally stack them when we hit hard and, if what you say is true, our Cbet bluffs on A hi and K hi boards should get respect since our perceived range hits them hard.

It's ok to sometimes chk back flops that hit your opponents range hard and take a free card. It's also ok to fold flops with Ahi.

Against the short to medium stacks you can also easily put some value hands in your flop checking range since you don't need 3 streets to get stacks in. Having a value checking range may give the overcard hands in your checking range a little protection.

But mostly value town these guys with your overpairs and flopped 3p+

Also with these shortish stacks, 3! Shipping AK to get folds or see 5 cards should be considered.

Grunch

Don't cbet against them when you have AK-AT and the board comes out 7 high because their perceived range of your hand is correct so they will play perfectly against you. You can rep over cards when they hit on T/R even if you don't have them, though if the board is 7 high and the turn is a Q and you have AK/AJ/AT and bet and they call a bet, they probably are falling into the old "he's got AK" mentality and I wouldn't bluff further

As your position gets closer to the button, you should be widening your raising range so that you have lower SCs, like 76s, and all PPs in there. You can rep the big cards if they come (and Vs are fit or fold) and when little cards come, you still have board coverage

Are they doing this will all their hands, even the ones that don't beat AK? If so, why not just call their bets? It's hard to make a pair.

OP, you have been a 2+2 poster since 2005.

What do YOU feel is the best strategy......and if you have been using the strategy and (obviously) not working.....why?

Aggro short stacks can make life difficult because it forces you to make a hand, which can be very difficult when card dead. I would get a table change to a table with no short stacks.

KingSpew - i stopped playing for a few years and am just now playing again. From the short time I've been back on 2+2, I realize I am playing loose passive preflop and not aggressive enough post flop (I can put people on hands, but I can't seem to pull the trigger to take the pot from them).

As for playing against these particular villains, I'm folding if I miss since I am not getting the right odds to call. This in turn has made me want to limp with AK and AQ and instead try for LRRs which then gets me into an even bigger loose passive mode. Obviously if I have an overpair, combo draw, or maybe middle pair I will probably call (depending on the odds of course for the combos).

I just feel like I must be making a mistake folding because it seems like wasted value for AK. If flop includes A or K, they check / fold. If flop does not include A or K, they open push. Either way, I get no value from them other than their preflop call when they are actually ahead.

btw - bobman0330 - they are calling with pairs. They've shown a couple of times or I've seen them at showdown with someone else who called and their pair held up. I've seen MAWG, these guys seem to be OPPODs (Old Pocket Pair Only Dudes).

So your question is what to do when your opponent has or makes a pair and donks into you strong on flops where you don't make a pair?

Um....fold? Be glad they didn't cost you a c-bet?

How is folding a mistake if you are behind and not getting proper odds?

SwolyswoND - I posted because I am not sure if I'm making the right plays.

After the feedback so far, it is clear I'm not making a mistake folding, but it has made me realize I am making a mistake not raising when they are in the blinds in later hands.

Also, I need to raise with more hands against these guys because they're going to assume I have AK and if I have JT instead and the flop is T43, they're going to stack off to me thinking I missed the flop.

JT should really already be in your raising range in late position... I'm not sure how these guys can be hard to play? Fold when you have nothing and call when you have TP, you lose 4bbs when you don't hit and win 100bbs when you hit, lol.

Raise to 10bb+ pre with 100% of your range.

Problem = solved.

Op I really think you'd be better served to post a few actual detailed hand histories.

This was the most recent hand from a couple days ago.

$2/5

Stacks 'n Reads:
$150 SB OPPOD
$300 BB regular at the table, mostly weak tight
$300 MP1 Hero

Table overall is weak tight with a couple of decent players.

Preflop:
Hero has AK off suit

2 folds, Hero raises to $20, 4 folds, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: T63 rainbow
Pot: $55 (after rake)

SB pushes all-in for $130, BB folds, Hero folds...

Open to $40 and they'll still call.

Flop will be $120, and action is obvious.

Lol-live poker. Play as exploitable as possible.

I didn't realize this was a 60bb cap. I assumed it was 1/2 or 1/3 not 2/5. That's a super shallow game. It's all preflop and flop if that's the case play a tight range and set up small sprs like Lapidator suggests.

There is no way they are open shipping every time an A or K doesn't hit.
But if they are.
Raise 100% off your range from LP every time. By the time you have raised from the HJ LJ CO and BTN you'll hit a flop and be rewarded with their stack.
Don't be afraid to gii because they showed down a pp that one time last week at midnight when the moon was blue.

Op, this is slightly off-topic but the game you are playing is seriously horrible and may not even be beatable. The stacks are literally so shallow, the rake is going to eat up everyone's money in like 2 hours.

This place is 20 minutes away and it is ~60 minutes to the next closest place that runs a NL game. So my options are limited since I have a finite amount of time I can spend at the casino and if I waste it all on driving....