I've been playing $1/2 NLHE around South Florida for a few years.
(Fla has a $100 max buyin no matter what the limit, so I really dont play much $2/5 and avoid $5/10 and esp $5/10 $5 ante which, IMHO, is just a sick allin fest)

anyway, I started playing again at a venue I haven't been to for a while, and just about every night, there are many players that seem NOT to have a clue.
They call multiple streets and even allins on the river with 2nd pair...3rd pair and sometimes even Ace High !!!!!
many of them seem to raise from any position with just abut anything. and it's hard to get a tell from someone that thinks a pair of 7's are the nuts on a KQ8 board.


I've managed to make a profit every time (since I started playing at this neew venue 2 weeks ago) ....... but sometimes after initially losing hundreds to someone that called an allin with crap that sucked out.
the very fact that they dont know seems to make them more difficult to read and sometimes to play against.
I pretty much stick to TAG play, but there must be some way to squeeze more out of these players and maximize the profits (some nights over $500, but last night less than $30...??? grrrr)

any suggestions?


I have Sklansky, Malmuth and Miller's "Small Stakes Hold 'em" but it is about Limit HE. ... are there any books like that (playing against unskilled players), but for NLHE?

i agree with your tag strategy...just keep building your roll. it may come in handy when you begin experiencing the negative effects of that super high variance world.

If they suck out, they suck out. Not much you can do. If villan calls AI with only 20% equity, it's better than when he's folding (unless when pot is like 100$ and villan only has 10$ behind). Still, he's going to win 1 out of 5, so you just have to go with that. If you'd win 100%, the fish won't come back.

Iso in late position with any 2 broadway, K9+/A9+, any suited ace, 89s+, any pair 77+, K7s+ and valuebet top/overpairs or better hard (skew off the bottom of this range according to position, stacksize, villans in the pot, etc). Valuebet secondpair more often on multiple streets (for example AJ on JQ6 two-toned is usually 2 streets of value vs the villans you describe) than you would normally do. Sometimes, you can even valuebet ace-high.

Limp behind with speculative, non-highcards hands, like low suited connectors, onegappers, small PP's if effective stacks are deep enough.

Don't try to steal pots, reduce your Cb% if they call with anything (just Cb enough air so they don't figure out you are valuebetting most of the times), don't open steal trash hands in late position (unless people behind you are tight).

In short: play raised pots with high cards and valuebet and play limped pots with speculative hands and valuebet if you hit big.

Bet for value
Don't bluff the fish

effective stack size can be a real roblem, esp with the $100 max buyin. It seems that many of these newbies buyin for the min, ($40) and will even start a pot with just a $10 stack or even less and only add more when they see felt. (or when they get down to $5, they add $20 etc. etc.)

I do, of course, try to target the bigger stacks when possible.

Bet sizing is strange too. I'll see pots where there is an EP raise to $10, it gets 4+ callers and on the next street, one of the callers becomes the aggressor, betting $5 or $10 each street,...often making the pot odds almost irresistable to anyone that understands and has ANY kind of improvable hand.

I've been caght up in these more than once ...where I just have a middle pair, or some kind of draw, but I'm getting better than 10 to 1....or something like that.



overall, your advice makes a lot of sense. TY

If stacksizes are shallow, than stick to the high cards/pairs/suited aces stuff and just don't play the speculative hands unless there's a 80bb+ stacker in the pot who is a fish.

Try figuring out what they have when they bet small like that. Some do it with mainly with good hands, some do it mainly with weak made hands or draws and some do it mainly with air/A-high. Some also mix it up, but that's less likely. So the first time someone gives you irresistable odds, just call him down. Than let him showdown and memorize what he showed and adjust your play accordingly.

So against someone who shows TP or better, just fold the next time he does it, unless you have a real hand or strong draw yourself.
Against someone who shows a marginal hand, keep calling him down with hands that have sd value, but try bluffraising hands without sd value (if he calls your raise with a marginal hand, than shut down and try to go to sd so you have another read to go with. More often, he will fold).
Against someone who does it with air, same thing. Bluffraise hands with no sd value, call him down with sd value.