I play at a local card room with mostly Tight-Passive players. There is one guy who who is totally loose-aggressive. He always straddles, raises pre-flop if no one else does, if he's first to act, he'll throw out a bet blind before the flop comes, if he senses weakness, he'll throw out large bets based solely on his read. He's a good player, knows what he's doing but he likes to seem like a reckless player (which sometimes he is). Any pointers on how to deal with a player like this? Typically I play super tight against him, set mine with small pairs and play aggressive with strong hands. If I have marignal hands, I call pre and fold if I miss regardless of what happends. Any pointers on how to deal with a player like this?

Thanks

The line you're taking is the one you don't want to take. By playing fit or fold against this type you are burning money. He knows that you only play back when you're strong, so he will fold when he's weak and stack you when he has it.

Two ways to handle this....one is to let him hang himself when you have something like middle pair and you're fairly certain that you are ahead of most of his range. Just c/c it down so that he will see that you won't let him run over you.

The other is to play back at him. Practice board reading so you will know when his range likely missed and use these opportunities to 3 and 4 bet him.

Very true that LAGs can make a lot of money by betting and then folding whenever someone shows aggression. At the same time, that destroys their image, so often they will usually raise your "reasonable" sized-bets whether they have nothing or the nuts, but usually call with middle pairs and such.

I'm not sure that board reading will tell you much about his range, especially if his range is ATC. Sometimes you need to just be patient against these players. Play as many pots as possible without him there, and if you're OOP limp-raise aggressively with super big cards. He will eventually hit a dry spell, at which point you can open up a bit and try to take command of the table. I think I've lost a lot of money trying to wrestle control from someone with a lot of momentum - I think sometimes you have to accept that you will be run over for a while, and wait for the right opportunity to get your own momentum. Ideally, you can take a pot or two from him and then you can take turns running the table and you will both try to avoid playing pots with the other.

Tighten up OOP, but IP you can 3 bet lighter partly due to your 3 bet value range becoming wider.

Play draws more aggressively i.e. CR when OOP and raising when IP.

Slow play more with your big hands, and take more bluff inducing lines.

But keep perspective on the entire table. Don't go out of your way to get in pots with him.

just call him down super light show him the nuts (5th pair) and pretip the dealer before u call... ez game he doesnt **** with you anymore and will pick on easier marks

for the most part i try to stay away from guys like this but you need them for the game to move the chips around and create wave of emotions in the other players to make the game softer and also sometimes he is good camouflage for you (all eyes on him meaning less on you)

I come across players like this often and agree with all of the above.

Position is realy imortant, if you are sat to his right its gonna be hard for you,

widening you 3 bet range and calling range is good advice, for example im folding A 10 v tags but probably calling or raising v him HU.

Agree again patience is important and dont forget there are 7 or 8 other players around that table.

These guys are usually good players but they are basically playing against 8 or 9 players and will get themselves into some tough spots.

agree with some of the advice, just keep in mind everyone else at your table is going to be calling this guy with a wider range/trying to trap him so you are likely to be in spots where the pots get huge vs several players who have decently strong ranges if they are willing to get the money in.

I agree you can 3bet these guys somewhat widely and others players pretty much never adjust.

value bet wider/checking turns sometimes will get you extra value with weakish hands.

just calling/hoping to flop vs these players is a pretty good way to loose money unless you are willing to float/semi bluff hard/ be willing to commit with less than top pair. so unless you are comfortable doing that just flatting raises might not be the way to go.

Just open up your 3bet range when you have posiition and don't sit to his right.

3bet like AK, KQo, QJs,KTs, K9s, Q8s JT, 77+ and stop calling except when u have position with really strong(AQ, AJ, ATs, KJs, QTs, 9Ts) suited hands so u can bluff raise random flops and have a really high chance to value bet thinly.

Timely thread for me. Playing 1-3nl live this past weekend. Was to the right of LAG all night. Called too much hoping to snap him off. Called big river bet with weak ace on non scary board early in night. Ever after he was more aggressive in our pots. It was a long night for me as my reads were good but I was consistently getting outdrawn and missing every draw/flop.

Made me really question how well I played and whether he was super good or just aggro lucky. I think both. He was good no doubt about it but hitting cards and acquiring ammo from people calling super light. I think it's a high variance style.

Either play your perceived range if you are good enough, or if you think he is the stronger hand reader then tighten up a lot oop, make sure he is on your right. If he is on your left leave the game. If he is an aggro monkey you could start trapping with a lot of hands and call all streets. But if he is good/balanced then you might get the worst of it.

One thing that you mentioned you are doing is set mining against him. Set mine against tight ranges, not wide ones. Open up your value raising ranges preflop against him. Shrink the SPR so that you are clearly committed if you hit TP+. Don't do much bet/folding against this guy - either c/c or b/c, but rarely b/f. Know whether you are committed or not on all streets before any action you make against him, so that he might be thinking he has fold equity when you already know that you will call before you make the bet.

On the river, use small 'blocker' bets with the strong hands OOP to induce and then call his raises.

While Aggro maniacs will bluff/semi-bluff the flop and turn, if it gets to the river, their wager usually represents at least a thin value-bet. Calling them with 5th pair will usually be a loser, as they know they are getting called there based on their rep.
Also while I think maniacs are good for limit holdem games, I don't welcome their presence in NL, for among other reasons that they force loose/passives to tighten up their calling ranges, thus killing a major profit source for you.

i tend to 3b ppl with any playable hand in position to cut the number of players down and you will always see the turn for free because he will check 100% of the time. it really depends on his 3b calling tendencies tho and how he will react. but i agree with spyu 100% he nailed it on the head. honestly with a made hand i would let him barrel away. dont be so scared of draws if hes always 3 barrelling when he sees weakness. just because a draw hits doesnt mean he has it.

im basically giving away tips on how to exploit me