Faking weakness against aggro players

Played just a little over the weekend. I managed to get in a few games on Friday to tick over the Iron Man thing after some party organising. Was up, then even, had a bit of rotten luck there to be even, but was a bit tilted so probably quit at a good time. Saturday is usually non poker night, but the Mrs fell asleep after a huge day, so I played a $10 MTT. I played a very loose style, and never really got the luck to capitilise on the style (AK beaten AIPF by AQ and QQ hitting a set and getting no action for the first time) and bubbled the money. I then played hyper horrible cash games a bit drunk. Only NL10 and NL25 PLO, came out a few dollars down but had fun tilting some kids.

Last night I finally got something going in HU SNG's. Had a decent run and ended up over $300. When you are running well, people shove turn scare cards, and that's your card :) I rarely sucked out, more that I got action on my big hands. Running well comes in many different flavours I guess. I had one SNG where I got sucked out on 3 times, so I said to myself, that's all the bad luck for the session, and it was true. I have a lot of sessions that start off similar to this and then I hit some bad luck or some good players, but this time I quit while ahead and hit some NL10 tables again. Playing hyper horrible again finished up $48 on one NL10 table, and busted the other after being $21 at one point :)

A little strategy time. First of all, it's always important to know who you are playing. Some people hit any pair and can't fold. You value bet these guys for 3 streets always, never try anything different. Others re-raise bluff at odd times. Just wait for a hand against these guys, as they'll commit themselves with a weak draw or 2nd pair and have to call your shove with top pair. The trickiest I've found so far are the guys who take it away from you after sensing weakness. You cbet when you hit top pair they fold, you cbet again and get re-raised, so now you are a bit afraid to cbet with air. So when you don't cbet the 3rd flop, they bet half pot, or pot on any turn card, and you have to fold with air. This will keep going, and you feel like he sees your hole cards, as he's almost always putting pressure on your pre flop raise hands, and you are reduced to only raising quality hands, and basically you get run over.

So it came to my attention, that these guys love looking for weakness, and in HU you are almost always reasonably weak. But so is he remember. But eventually you will have a hand, and don't want him just folding to it. So two simple ways to show weakness. You hold AJ and the flop comes down J64r. You cbet, he calls. Now two things. It's very unlikely he hit this flop, and he's probably calling because he thinks it's unlikely you hit. Being OOP though, it's going to be hard for him to properly find out, so he'll almost always check the turn again and let you make your move. If you bet, you are saying you hit, and it's up to him whether he believes you or not. If you check behind on the turn, this is his signal that you didn't hit. He can bet a wide range (including a lot of pure bluffs) on the river, because so far you've cbet a dry board, and checked the turn, you must be weak. He fires a river bet, it's up to you whether to call or shove. The positive here, is you cbet a lot, so you hand strength is fairly well hidden, but the downside is he may like bluffing smaller pots, rather than tangling up with cbets, so you will fold him out quite a lot here.

So the 2nd method is far more sinister. These guys love weakness, we know that, so give it to them on a plate. Check behind on the flop. This is like putting a sign over the pot saying "free money" to aggressive players. Think about it, if they realise they won't hit a flop very often, they are burning money by calling too much pre flop. So they plan to take as many pots as you'll allow, and bet when they think you are weak and can't call. They will crucify you if you don't cbet when you don't have a hand, so use that against them and don't cbet here. They bet pot on the turn, call it. Again, you might start seeing scare cards etc, but if those scare cards hit him, then a raise won't do any good and folding would be wrong given your plans for the hand. The special aggro players will bet the river again, and again it's an easy call usually. I mean if 4 clubs are now out there, and you don't have one, it's probably time to let go, but otherwise if you have your player type down his range will include a lot of bluffs and 2nd pairs etc, so it's an easy call really.

A couple of disclaimers. Don't overdo any one action, keep villain wondering about what you have. Maybe as a simple rule to begin with, check the flop with top pair good kicker, bet the flop with top pair weak kicker. Don't use this against the wrong villains. Solid players will take a stab occasionally, but may shut down if they think you are making a move, and calling stations will call 3 streets, so just keep betting. Also unfortunately, you will get sucked out on sometimes. It's unavoidable in this play, you didn't cbet a flush board, he bets turn, you call, then the river brings the flush and he has the flush. You might have gotten him off it on the turn quite often, if you'd cbet and bet turn, but remember that these plays are +ev in the long run, which is why we do them, in the short term, shit happens. And as a great player said about playing this "smallball" style, is you don't have to pay him off when he hits. Maybe sometimes folding the river is a good idea even though we way underplayed our hand, although I'd be calling a lot of rivers.

Finally, got my rakeback, and cleared quite a few points recently. So I'm going close to clearning another CR membership by the end of the month, and will end up getting Bronze status unless I don't play at all one night. I'll hang onto my FTP points until later next month, and see if they don't offer a 6 month membership at some point in the FTP store, and probably save up my points if they do. I'm obviously fairly happy right now to be playing HU SNG's, so I'll keep it going for another week or two at least, and at this point plan to play HU SNG's all next month.