Sat night 1-2 ($300)

Not a particular hand but a series of hands. question at the bottom

V ($1200) Loose pre Pas post flop

limps to H in mp, raises AA to $16 i 4 calls
Flop K85r
C, C, H bets $40, V pops it to $120... H folds, V shows K8

So the same as above happened 5 times in a 90 min period.

AK made tptk, I fold V shows set
KQ made tpgk I fold V shows 2 pair...etc, etc...

My problem...Question...How do I not eventually snap? I mean it's not pos that he has it every time because its hard to make a hand in poker. But he keeps re raising me. He's very passive and isn't ever 'being creative'...

I just have to be patient right? I mean, there's really nothing I can do (poker wise) to combat this?If I raise more pre ($25+) I'm gonna lose value as everyone might fold. If any one or 2 in between me and V call he will call anyways.

Hope this doesn't sound like a rant. Just looking for some practical tools/advise to deal with these kind of situations as they seem to be prevalent in my game (all llsnl?)

just be happy if the table were turned he wuda lost more. thats how u make money in poker because if you play long enough every will be in same situations with cards.

You need to accept that it is run bad and that you are not going to win in these scenarios. It happens to everyone.

All you can do is, at the end of the night, you can ask yourself, "I lost [X amount]...how much would a worse player have lost with the cards I got?" In your situation it sounds like the answer is, a lot more. You should learn to look at that as a win.

This is the easiest player to play against because he tells you exactly what he has. You were very fortunate that these beats happened vs him and not an aggro player.

Heh, sometimes at the end of a session I'll feel like a player soul owned me that night. Then I'll look back and remember that, of the five flops we saw together, he out flopped me four of those times.

The reverse is also true. We may feel like we crush a certain player who seems good, but maybe we just outflopped him the most of the time.

It's much easier to win the pot when you have the best hand.

We have to be careful not to mistake variance for skill and vice versa.

He doesn't sound all that passive to me.

He is a passive player. That's why hero folded each time the passive player showed aggression.

Ok I get it, it's just funny that he has to have folded to aggressive lines in every example.

This guy is an absolute dream! He calls you down with 1 pair and if you hit resitence it's 2 pair+ everytime? I mean can you really ask for more?!??!

You have had 1 bad session where he hit deck all night, you lost the minimum. I would consider myself very lucky the deck hit him not somebody else, it's second only to the deck hitting us.

I'd feel better if he showed his cards and kept telling me that I was making the correct folds. And it does make me feel better knowing that other players in my position would lose a lot more. It would bother me a lot more if he didn't show his cards because then I'd suspect I was being bluffed/outplayed. But here he is telling you that you played correctly.

It's one thing to lose because you run bad. But you can make your downswing much worse if you self destruct. If you "snap," you could end up handing this villain your entire stack.

Be happy that he showed his cards. It's even more frustrating when you think you're playing well, but you're not sure. If he didn't show his cards, eventually you would have thought he was FOS and called him down with the worst hand.

Are you sure they won't call more preflop? If he calls $16 with K8 will he not call 18-20? Even if it tightens his range only slightly, its profitable.

Everyone has pretty much covered it. He's a steam player with the bonus of showing his hand and validating your play so you don't Ben have to second guess yourself.

Chin up. I probably would have lost more too.

I play at a pretty tough poker room so when I encountered a loose passive table Friday night I was pretty ecstatic. The table must have stuck together from 1am to 12pm the next day. I was pretty damn drunk but just made a commitment to playing strong hands in position. I felt like I was playing EZ mode. I just value bet relentlessly, stayed away from trouble hands and didn't call the few raises the table was making unless I had a pocket pair or premium cards.

I didn't even get paid off on my few monsters and still ended up up $550 at 1/2. It was really boring at times - I had a 5 orbit stretch where I folded every hand but man was the game soft. C-bets and value bets yielded more profit than I thought was possible.

Instead of focusing on how you were beat and kept getting out flopped, you need to focus on how you ended up a BIG WINNER by your folds...

Think of the game in terms of Reciprocity.

Becoming a winning player is more than just cashing out at the cage every night. Granted, that is nice, but that doesn't necessarily mean you are beating the game. The only way we can beat poker long term is through Reciprocity.

What do I mean?

Well, Reciprocity means:
Every time we make a +EV play our villains would not make we win
Every time we avoid a losing play our villains would NOT avoid we win

In the hands you posted, you correctly folded hands that 95% of the LLSNL population would not have folded.

Switch the scenarios, instead of you having AA lets say you have K8s and villain had AA. How much money did he win off of you? In that hand, he won $56. However, if the situation were reversed how much would you won off of him? Lets say you stack him for $300. So in terms of Reciprocity, you actually won $300 - $56 = $244

That is how you need to approach these spots. When you make the correct fold you win longterm because when the situation is reversed your villains will NOT make the correct fold.

Saw a hilarious hand yesterday.

Game is 2/5nl eff stacks $600. SB is ABC rec fish, MP is ABC rec fish. Five way limpfest, checks through the blinds.

Flop($25) Q 2 3
chks through

Turn($25) J
SB bets $20, folds to MP who calls, every else folds

River($60) 3
SB bets $40, MP tanks.... makes it $140, SB tanks and says, "what do you have, that doesn't make any sense..." and then he sighs and shrugs and makes it $440, MP bangs his fist on the table and says, "you got a full house???" and then after about 4 minutes he says call.

SB shows J3o for the full house
MP shows K5 for the 2nd nut flush

What surprised me the most was that the ENTIRE TABLE was saying, "yeah, you have the K high flush, even if you put him on a full house you have to call or if he has the ace it's just a cooler"

Everyone was in firm agreement and I was amazed at just how bad everyone's thinking was.

that is a perfect example of how both players aren't beating each other since they both would have made the same play. They are just sliding chips back and forth. However, a +EV thinking player would have folded the flush because an ABC rec-fish isn't reshipping a lessor flush here on a paired board. I mean, is he really going to ship a Ten high flush like it's the nuts over the top of a big raise. No, he's just going to call...

In any event, chin up and all that. You actually won money with your folds, that is how you should view those spots...

thanks for input
I think for me it comes down to losing a sense of entitlement and ego... The amazing thing about poker is discovering some pretty ugly qualities in me that I didn't really think where there. Impatience, tilt, ego, entitlement.

Reciprocity... yes this makes a lot of scence

This is so true... As I was trying to control my tilt V was doing the same as he kept moaning that he wasn't getting paid off!!

I coming to the realization that tilt is the biggest leak in my game... and i have a few...

thx

Unfortunately you may not get full 'return' when the tables are flipped since he is passive and you must hold the betting line in place which opens up the suck-out door for him on 'his' terms. Just remember to look at how you played each hand, not the number of chips that moved around. Just make sure your 'value' bets are a touch higher for this V in order to make up some of the ground from you not being 'able' to raise for value when HU against this V.

Don't get lulled into thinking that someone doesn't 'deserve' those chips .. variance will occur. GL

Seems like u r playing ur cards face up. Why don't u widen ur range/mix up a little. Like limp and call/raise with strong hands preflop like 20%. Or raise with medium strength hands like they r ur top of range 5%. And when u show cards he wasn't expecting at showdown, he won't be targeting ur preflop raise like u r a big fish. He will be more cautious and will want to play smaller pots. He will think twice before raising with a set or two pair on a coordinated board. And play in position if possible. MIX IT UP !!!

Not much you can do. He's on fire, and hitting a lot of hands. You should be happy that you were disciplined enough to keep folding second best hands to a Passive's aggressive raises. Think about how much money you would have lost if you called.