why cant I beat these aggro stupid loose russians

I cant beat these guys. vpips of like 80 pfr like 40... I wait and wait and 3bet them and have good hands and somehow they catch up on the turn or river.
That or they hit like a crazy two pair like k3. OMG i wanna break my computer..........

The best you can do is to get your money in +EV consistently, and then wait for the math to make doing so profitable.

Playing maniacs is high-variance, but when you're mentally and emotionally prepared to handle it, it's also nicely profitable. If/when you're not prepared, you can table select so as to avoid them.

Is it? My understanding is that variance is a function of your edge against someone. If somebody spews money then surely variance should be less thna normal? You have a huge edge against a maniac so variance should be small compared to against a BE reg where edges will be small.

yeah but if you're seeing more cards when you're edges pre are smaller then you have more variance right?

60/40 with AQ vs whatever, especially if they're not folding = more variance in theory.

Yea but overall your bb/100 is going to be a lot higher V a maniac than it is on average so them not folding doesn't make variance higher surely?

it just means when you hit you can value bet more, but that works against all bad players so... not really?

when you miss or flop 2nd pair hands maniacs will make your life difficult post flop so you'll lose more often.

also if he's decent he should be semi-bluffing a lot of the time, so sometimes his draws will get there etc.

well thats my thought process on it really, probably wrong but whatever.

Keep playing your game in the long run, you will see that you were right and he does not, the money will come to you ...

This is assuming he's decent.

I like making decent hands, closing my eyes, and calling down vs maniacs.


Villain 83/64/12, 3bet 34%, with an apparent propensity to donk barrel shove. 140 hands.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BB: $44.19
UTG: $69.07
MP: $50.00
Hero (CO): $50.00
BTN: $50.00
SB: $63.28

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 4 A[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/club.gif]
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BTN calls $1.50, SB calls $1.25, BB calls $1

Flop: ($6.00) 8[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/diamond.gif] A[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/heart.gif] 4[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/heart.gif] (4 players)
SB bets $3.80, BB folds, Hero calls $3.80, BTN calls $3.80

Turn: ($17.40) 6[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/spade.gif] (3 players)
SB bets $13, Hero calls $13, BTN folds

River: ($43.40) 7[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/spade.gif] (2 players)
SB bets $44.98 all in, Hero calls $31.70 all in

Final Pot: $106.80
Hero shows 4[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/club.gif] A[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/club.gif] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
SB shows J[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/diamond.gif] 8[image: http://static.deucescracked.com/images/club.gif] (a pair of Eights)
Hero wins $103.80
(Rake: $3.00)

Your profit line will angle up more, but it won't be as smooth because the wins and losses will tend to be larger.

Russians and Italians are hard to play.

Select a site where they are scarce. There are not many on Carbon.

cant talk about Italians cause I see so few of em.

I love the agro Russian players that think they can bully you off a pot. . (You can substitute any nationality there tho)

Saw a guy today, raises 3x in EP if he has a good hand, he 4.5 x it UTG, got 3 bet from HJ, and jammed a 220 BB stack - HJ only had 120 tho - and he flips over A4s... HJ had QQ. flop Qxx- He was Russian, and real agro, whats not to love????

Usually those crazy guys play a little more realistically post flop. Beware the checkraise. More often than not its a monster.