Sounds like you just have to make a hand and call down except in the worst run outs. It's high variance, but you're typically going to be getting your money in as a favorite against his range of hands. It's quite possible you just run into some bad run where you ran into the top of his range. It happens.

I would consider playing passively, never bluffing or semibluffing, and turning almost all of my normal value-betting range into bluff-catchers.

If he is defending such a wide range, I'm tightening up my range to avoid getting into places where I don't know where you stand, and playing my hands aggressively. TAG makes it easy.


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Sounds like he's a calling station who craves action and is also capable of bluffing, so bet/calling is the ideal adjustment.

I dunno, I'm not sure how you can put him on a flush here after he checks twice. Does he absolutely know that you will autobet here OTT with your whole range after the flop checks through? Would you?

In a vacuum, it seems like this guy owned you pretty good here. Do you have particular patterns when you play against him? Does he know you better than you know him? Generally a bet/check line for a made flush works better vs an aggressive player, so does he really have a reason to deviate from this with you, or is he just clicking buttons?

OK, so you're starting to get a read: will bluff shove with nothing. Sweet! I'm getting a little tingly just hearing about this guy.

Next, what does he do with TPTK? Call it all in? Shove it all in? Tryin' to be all sly and whatnot?

How does he play draws?

Every hand with this guy should tell you something. If he plays enough, you should start figuring out his frequencies for even more chocolatey goodness.


I think tightening up against this guy is the wrong adjustment. He's donating chips to the left and to the right. His deep and abiding hatred of his money is evident in every move.

And we want to play *fewer* pots against him? For me, not so much.

I'm widening my range against him -- especially if I can isolate. Hands that are snap folds against more rational opponents are real money makers against him.

I'm not suggesting checking my brain at the door, or playing stupidly, but I am absolutely going to get in more pots to take advantage of the bonanza that awaits. I'm not going to the all you can eat buffet and having two leaves of lettuce and a slice of cucumber.

Variance is going to be high. And I completely understand that some may prefer lower EV in exchange for lower variance. Fair enough -- but benefits accrue to those that can handle it.

And I'll be watching every hand he plays like a dog watching someone eat steak. Actually, that comparison is pretty apt.

But why not on flop?

So his value shoud look like J9, 95, 25, J5s and all the sets. Does he have a tendency to lead here OTF with any of these value combos or does he never have a leading range here?

We also beat worse in his value range like worse Jx and a lot of draws/bluff combos that picked up equity OTT. This is a board where villain is going to have a lot of bluff combos, but i think this guy still has a lot of value combos present given how he calls so wide. How would he play his value range in this spot?

Should be a +EV call in this spot w/our hand vs. his range

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Ask yourself questions and try to work it out... it isn't a tough spot IMO.

I'm not sure there are a ton of hands that are gonna give us action that we beat.

TPTKNFD 60bb whale call wtf

I thought you wanted to bet/call against this whale? We are ahead of pairs and he's not turning around and going home with a high diamond now. If we are bad off, we are still better on the flop.

Looks like 36% to me.

210 / (60 + 50 [Mike's bet] + 260 [Villain's shove] + 210 [Mike's remaining call amt]) = 36.2%

Not sure why this is a thread. Call. Next hand.

Generally yes. My original line was based on the limited reads OP provided. Now, bet calling might be correct OTF. I haven't done the stoving TBH.

AP easy call,

high variance is unavoidable vs this type of villain

He sounds like he might be the sort of player who doesn't like to fold preflop and attacks on scary boards or against players he thinks are weak.

It's probably ok to make a few folds that feel weak-tight against this player because he will give you other opportunities to stack him.

But I want to stack him all the times

It's probably not ok to make a few folds that feel weak-tight against this player becasue he will give you every opportunity to stack him.

A lot of players spew against an obviously bad player because they have a sense of entitlement towards that player's stack. I am pretty good at trapping players who feel that way.

Skipping a positive EV play because there will be a better EV play later is like not picking up $5 on the street now because you think there will be $20 later.

That may be true, but $20 + $5 > $20 for all values of "5", "20", and "25" commonly in use.

They're not dependent events. Do you want $5 now and $20 later, or only $20 later?

You might make a weak tight fold now to set up a big play later, though that depends on V still being there, having noticed what you did, remembering what you did, and adjusting as you would like him to. You might make a weak tight fold because there is another player in the hand who you think is good enough to exploit your exploit of the whale. But making a weak tight fold to avoid variance is... well, it's weak tight.

Sometimes players spew against whales because they recognize it's a fleeting opportunity and that it's important to adjust as rapidly as possible, and the adjustments turn out to be wrong. I'm OK with that within reason. I'd rather be probably right in time to make money than definitely right after it's all gone. (Obviously this can be taken too far; I hope the point I'm making is clear.)

I assume there are other decent regulars in the game that do beat him regularly. Pay attention to what they are doing, perhaps even posting an observed hand. Their actions will tell you what you need to be doing. Who knows, some of them might even tell you why they played the way they did.

Only thing to add here is he may be playing differently against you than everyone else. Any reason you may have pissed him off in the past? He may decide that he likes taking your money and donating it to the rest of the table.

SN checks out

lol

I haven't pissed him off but it does seem like he plays much more carefully against me than others. He must think Im tight and nitty or something. A few days ago I raised and he called heads up.

Flop was KQT...check/check
Turn 4...check/check
river 8 and he open folded out of turn and said "I know you have JJ"

I had 6 high.

I think due to his image of me which is totally off, I may I need to forget how he plays against other people and adjust to how he is apparently adjusting to me......OR....it could just be that I ran into a few monsters against him recently. I still cant decide.

I really hope you showed your hand while raking in the pot and then talked some **** about winning a pot with 6 high at showdown. Prime spot for banter with the whale who thinks your a nit. It's not often you get to loosen your image vs. stations while winning money.