Online Poker Forum - Situational Advice

NilesMonkey · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject: Situational Advice

I found myself in a tough spot last night in an SnG, and wanted some input on how to handle it.

Seated to my immediate left was a humongous fish. Here were the following traits I noted:

1. He would call any PF raise (examples of showdowns after PF raises were 96o, K4s, etc.).
2. Would call down with any piece of the flop (called 3 streets of bets with 82o after a flop of K-Q-2).
3. Would bet any flop when checked to (bet a flop of A-9-7 with K5o), bet multiple streets, and often shove the river (no showdows with this pattern, though).

In most situations I wouldn't have much of a problem with this player, even seated to my immediate left. The thing that made this tough was that he had been slapped by the deck early on and had over a 2:1 chip ratio on me when we got to bubble play, even with me in 2nd place.

Usually, I try to use the bubble time to snag chips away from the smaller stacks by raising and taking their blinds away. Only this time, whenever I would try a raise with one of the other shorties in the blinds, the mega-fish would call and the shorties would fold leaving me heads up and outchipped.

I find it hard to develop a strategy against these players because I never know what to do. Here's an example:

I'm UTG, dealt A-7o. I raise somewhere in between 2.75-4X BB - the amount doesn't realy matter because - megafish calls, and the blinds fold. The flop comes out Q-6-3 with two hearts. I have no clue what to do. I should c-bet, but he's calling down if I'm beat and he's folding if I'm ahead. If I check, he's betting at the pot all the way down, and probably putting me all in by the river. Can I call a river shove with A high? Probably not... he could have a pair of threes here.

I hate the idea of HBL'ing pre. Fold pre??? What the hell am I thinking?

Basically, should I be shutting down and waiting until heads up to turn up the juice? Or should I get even more agressive and start shoving flops and PF if I think I'm ahead of his range?

What made the situation even worse is after we made the bubble (where megafish made the bubble bursting KO, lengthening his chip lead), he began bleeding chips to the other shorty, turning my 2:1 ratio over him into a mostly even race.

I would appreciate some feedback on this, after the obligitory "tl:dr" responses. Very Happy

rebel361 · High Card Joined: 30 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

That's a situation I hate to be in myself. I find that a lot of the time you can limp from button or cut-off and end up in position in a 3 way pot with fishy and BB. If you hit, you can either try to double up through fishy or try to keep the pot small and check it down hoping your hand holds up. More often than not, you'll have to take a stand against him if he's bleeding chips into the other player, and if you try it this way with a little luck you could do it with a solid hand.

cardfish2 · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 7:25 pm Post subject:

LOL Are you sure he's a fish? Sounds like he has you pegged.

Anyways, just fold until the bubble is cracked and then turn up the pressure. Might even want to shove some hands PF.

And what is HBLing?

NilesMonkey · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:07 pm Post subject:

cardfish2 · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:46 pm Post subject:

PJs Ronin · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:29 am Post subject:

Surprising how often these high VPIP players hit something on the flop and won't fold to any abuse/suggestion. When faced with these guys I tend to shut down and play only premium hands; QQ+, AK. If I get one of these hands then I put on the blinkers and forget all about the dude on my left and just play/bet the hand as I feel it should. "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" kind of thing.

However, premium hands don't come along often enough so there's always Plan B. Sit back and relax as uber dude decimates the rest of the field, or gets coolered. Either way, he's doing the damage for you. Don't worry about him accumulating too many chips... in an SnG you're rarely more than a double up away from anyone.

Danduy · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 8:05 am Post subject:

Well, i didn't wanted to be in this spot either!! Against such a player you rather want to play in position.

But against this player, you're A7 should be a fine hand. But then again, you're under the gun and he will call you with anything and still reactions need to come from other players.

Here it would be a HBL in the situation. If an ace hits fine, let him do the betting. If not, let it go. wait for a better spot to take him on. You will see when you try to take him out, it will be the other way around. Seems to me that he could have any hand on this board here. Tough spot because putting him on a hand is very difficult.

If you have a stack that's still bigger then 12 - 15 BB play him with a good hand, if less you know what to do. Top pair at minimum. No bluffing and no calling to see if he really has 'it' with ace high. Play conservative against these cowboys.

dcdoorknob · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 11:19 am Post subject:

You pretty much have to steal less (I'm prob folding A7 UTG there) and let someone else get it all in before you. Once you're about even stacks with the other 3, you can pick a hand that rates to be solidly ahead and just shove it (assuming blinds are high enough), but even then you've got to be pretty tight.

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