Playing against really bad, loose, inexeperienced players...

[EvilSteve]

A few of my mates received Poker sets as Xmas gifts and have started wanting to play. We had a few small games (very small) with 2/3/4 players. I'm the only one who has any experience playing and has any idea of even the basics. They all remembered the hand orders (most of them most of the time) but none of them have the faintest idea about how to play.

I find it incredibly hard to win against them. We played a few low buy in tourneys, usually when playing online against bad players I tend just to play tight and play the premium hands and take advantage of any weakness and attempts to make a bluff I find. This strategy didn't work here.

None of my mates respect a raise or a bet, they call any bet with any two cards and practically every hand ends up as a showdown after the river. Theu just cannot lay hands down and never read the board for what it is, often missing straights or flushes or think they have hands they don't. This sounds great right? Easy money? Wrong, because they play any two cards and can't lay down anything, so you can never put them on a hand because any hand to them is playable even with a huge raise preflop those 28os and 73os are playable hands. You can't even guess what you might be up against and because they won't lay the hand down it ends up as a showdown every time giving them the chance to actually catch something and the amount of times they ended up ahead was unreal.

I need a strategy for playing against such terrible players, even most internet players at the low levels are better than this bunch.

[divaflava]

I've been teaching various colleagues how to play...and winning quite a lot. I find they don't respect the bets you'd like to make but do fear large overbets. So I talk a lot and overbet the odd bluff then show them the cards, then wait for a decentish hand. I'm also a lucky so and so, which helps.

I think a good rule of thumb is to play 'one step ahead' poker. i.e do the opposite of what you've just done and don't play a hand against the worst calling stations. Also, play less hands then you would normally but when you do play, play the board as much as your cards...this is where your previous running commentary comes in handy

[Gryffles]

Bluff less, and loosen your starting hand selection a bit.

Also lie about the board "I have three pair". ( I pulled this once )

77 vs AK on a 1010JJ5 board.

[Highstack]

I'll add that to my notes on you mate and look forward to Saturday

(will have to find somewhere for an orange juice before the final table - but remember to take Zelda with us this time   )

[madasahatstand]

i think u should stick to your guns and keep playing tight. you dont need to worry about what 2 cards they are playing because you are only playing the big cards. fish always get caught and you should not let their gambling and lack of knowledge get yuo down. teach them to play better and you will eventaully have more competative games

good luck

mad

[divaflava]

Looking forward to it H - it'll have to be an OJ again, I'm in January detox. Yes, we'll have to make sure we remember to take zelda  this time, I hear she's 1/3 to make action jack's hot women heads up team 

We should think about the HU team - especially if dubs and pommo put in an appearence. If not, wonky's going isn't he? And I can think of a couple of others who might be interested.

Mind you, the way dubs claims to be running at the moment, he probably qualifies as an opponent on this thread   

[EvilSteve]

When they wouldnt respect my bets n raises (when I had strong hands) and kept catching cards to put them ahead I decided that anytime I thought I was ahead I'd go all in and make them pay too see more cards...but this didn't seem to bother them. They'd call for all of their chips on a runner runner straight draw...and bloody catch it.

It seems like luck favours the stupid.

[jezza777]

I totally know how you feel m8. I have a £10 Rebuy on a Monday night and there is a player who plays who will not lay a hand down ever , I find him tough to play . On Monday there were 8 of us playing at the end of the rebuy session there was £370 in the pot and this guy had 45,000 chips (2500 per rebuy). He was destroying every hand with rubbish. He did not last long after the freezeout started tho, he could have easily folded to heads up but just kept gambling. I havent fully decided how to play him yet as he is also massively aggressive which causes more problems , I think preflop raising is a waste of time but I will be doing a lot more calling . Still havent come up with a final strategy tho.

[EvilSteve]

I felt like raising preflop was a waste in this game, every player calls anyway and then guarenteed someone hits a card or two that puts them ahead. You never know where you are. I think it's quite funny because my mate has lucikly won the last 3 games (he's knocked me out when we both had trip Kings he ended up hitting a full house, he hit a straight flush on the river when I had an Ace flush etc) and he's started to think he's cracked the game and he's really good. Started telling the other players (who don't give a shit and just play for a laugh) that he's getting really good and could beat any of us. He got really upset because I told one of the really inexperienced players that he could raise (he hadn't realised) and this pissed him off because he thought he'd end up getting raised out of every pot.

[Highstack]

Yes D see who turns up mate. Sure we can put some kind of team BFWCOP together