A strategy I haven't seen before

I've played primarily on Bodog for the past five years with varying degrees of success. But lately the action has begun to feel a little stale. So with 2011 I thought I would move some of my action to PokerStars for a bit more of a challege and a little education. While I have yet to turn a profit at Stars, I am getting the challenge and education while enjoying a more serious and diverse player pool.

But I digress.....Now this may sound weird, but while in a tourney at Stars, during the second level I had 2x my starting stack and I notice the player on my left (who was a silver starVIP) has not played a hand. Now I don't remember the exact hands but the next six times that I called or opened, he was right on my heels with a raise. I mean he was in no other pots....only pots that I lead into. Then he was moved to another table. During those six hands my stack went down while his went up and we were essentially even.

So what I am asking is this. Was this some type of strategy on his part where he was targeting me....Did he see something in my play he was attempting to capitalize on...Has anyone else used this strategy effectively....What do you look for in an opponent that woukd dictate using this strategy...OR...do you think it was merely a coincidence that he only played when I was in the pot in front of him?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.
FITEMAN

....and how can I avoid being targetted like that in the future,

Thanks Again,
FITEMAN

It's probably not a strategy. It's probably a coincidence, unless you "always" bet in steal position and he noticed that decided to resteal.

You cannot avoid being targeted like that.

Probably just a coincidence I'd say, if he was doing it to you the whole game I'd say maybe you've got a big leak but 6 hands isn't really enough to deduce much...

If you were limping pots and folding to raises he might of targeted you as a person that won't take a stand.

Targeting limpers is definantly a strategy.

You being exploited. Sounds like you cold call too much with hands that should be folding.

Tighten up your range... & try 4-betting him.

Try 4-betting. See if he does it when he's OOP too (such as when he's SB). Maybe he likes playing pots in position against you.
I think 6 hands is probably just a coincidence though.

If he was a solid player he wouldn't be bothered to re-steal with low blinds he'd just wait for higher blinds or solid hands.

He could have noticed something about your play. Perhhaps you were stealing too much. Or played too many hands (i.e., loose). Or folded to 3-bets often.

Or he could just have landed a streak of good cards after starting with lots of garbage hands and he would have 3-bet anybody.

One thing to ask yourself is why you were always in these hands. Not necessarily why he was always raising you.

I've had the opposite a few times and almost felt guilty that I was constantly picking up good starting hands against the same player or big blind.

doops question is a good one: 'One thing to ask yourself is why you were always in these hands'

If you have noticed it happening, then you have to tighten your range and only play hands that can withstand a raise.

I had this happen to me about 3 tourneys back.

I simply tightened up my range, and found the leak in his game, and then capitalized on it.

I was twisted all day about how I was exploited. The guy who exploited me was named Belky with a few numbers following his name. As I said , I am new on PS and don't really know who's who yet.Well anyway, later that night I'm listening to a taped 2+2 podcast and during the news segment in the beginning of the podcast, the announcer says, "...and we would like to congratulate 2+2er Belky*** for coming in 2nd in (one of the Sunday majors, I don't remember which one) on PokerStars." So, I really didn't feel so bad after that. At least I wasn't exploited by some shmoe. It just goes to show you how important it is to take notes and know your opponents.

Also, thanks for all the responses

FITEMAN
























" (on

If he was to your left, he had position on you, that is all.

nothing personal but sometimes this is where keeping notes on players comes in handy.you know playing the player not the cards.this is where your ability to change to the situation comes into play as well.not saying you are getting played but worth taking notes.been there and done that.lol

Funny that you mention that FITEMAN.
I was thinking of a tourney I was in (after reading this post). It was a SCOOP even on PokerStars but one of the lower buyin ones ($22). I was doing quite well, building up a bigstack, 3betting the two players to my right, taking down alot of pots (& running kinda good too, lol). Well, about 3hrs. into it the player on my immed. left all of a sudden comes to life & the fkr is 3betting me EVERY SINGLE time I raised!!! Finally about the 5th time I got po'd at him & chose to 4bet... only for him to 5bet me allin... I timed down & folded.... which was awful, lol.
I looked him up afterwards & discovered he'd taken down the $1K SuperTuesday for 1st & 2nd.. and had won a WCOOP Event too, lol.

Yeah P.O., it's just like buzzmania said, it's good to know your cards, but sometimes its better to know the players. Play the players not just the cards.
Lookin back on it , I have definitely learned a lesson. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

I've found this a fascinating thread to read - never heard of this strategy or seen it before. Admittedly, there's probably a lot of things I've never seen or heard of on a poker table before! If someone is playing like that on your immediate left, the only time you'll have position on him is when he's in the small blind so perhaps that is the time to attack him. If he's that good though, he'll probably recognise what you're doing even before you've done it! It's certainly a tough spot to be in.

It would be very unlikely that player would have real reraising hands six times in a row when you raise so it sounds like he thought you wouldn't play back without a extremely strong hand and was taking advantage of fact... As others have said you either have to tighten up or be willing to 4 bet back at him if he continues...

It is tough when you have a strong aggressive player sitting on your left. I would think on the 6th time they would likely have a big hand & are counting on you playing back at the wrong time

It may have started out as a positional play but I agree with Rufftuff that after a few times of doing this he will need a hand as the likelyhood of you rolling over should deminish and you can expect either a donk raise or a raise with a monster.

I sometimes do a variation of this where if I have found that I have caught cards and position against a player multiple times or have been able to steal from him I will contiue to overbet him with position (this only works if you have not had to show down or have only shown down great hands). This works best when these plays are one after another in terms of the hands the villian trys to play. A few times this has worked beautifully as it put the villan on tilt either by my hand or another player.

The thing is, IMO, as the aggressor, you need to do this with increasingly solid cards after 3 or so times of picking on one player as each time you increase the likelyhood that he will come over the top of you (which should be the desired result so you can get all of his chips in the middle).

I think the way to fight this is to tighten up for a few rounds and wait to play in position or only with a premium hand. If you get a real monster out of position you may consider trapping by playing weak aggressive or overly strong (whateveer you think will have the best desired reaction) to induce a raise... Even if the particular villian folds there may be another players who think that they can bully you and may try to 4-bet or push you around.

Once you win a few hands this should help break up that 4-bet play... I would still be careful about what hands you raise on out of position but once you take down a few pots or show down a few good hands he should back down a little.

If you find that this happens a lot to you you may want to consider looking at why opponents feel they can come over the top of you. If it happens often to you there may be something in your play (like playing out of position often, or raising with weak hands) that helps get a play like this started.

... couldn't agree more. just earlier today i had this going on with me and someone three bet my pots (yes they are mine when i enter them) anyway i tightened up a bit and had a good hand to 4 bet with unfortunately i think that was the only time he had a hand worth calling. it worked out in the end i started off behind on the flop but the turn was nicer to me. i'm glad it was a ring game and i left shortly after that to find a table where my seating was better.

THIS.

dont limp in.

I agree 100%...... Limping is a basic sign of weakness.
Always find places throughout a tourney to raise pots no matter what.
What I first learned was the clock method. Pick a time on the clock and raise
it then. This is one of many ways but its to insure you mainly to look compitent in your playing.

The guy above will raise with 23o oop just for kicks

FYP

To me it seems like he was targeting you, frankly at some point I would have reraised him with or without a hand, to let him know you would make a stand.

raise smaller. Usually he will not bother to do so as he's not winning as much.

yea theres a few major points here that are of most importance: he simply had position on you, you should never limp in, and you need to tighten your range...a 4bet would have given you a better idea of whether he was just messing with you or actually had premium hands he wanted to play with, but that still doesnt take his position advantage away from him...overall it sucks having someone like that to ur left, but it leaves the door open for a more deceptive strategy you could employ and perhaps get a huge pot out of him

yeah have to agree first never limp. though i like have the laggy types to my right if they are on my left it just becomes another factor to my leading into the pot. if i know that lag villian is going to reraise me then i have no worries about raising lightwith a good hand. let them build confidence in position and do the raising for me throughout the hand. one or two of those and they quickly start thinking about reraisng me. then I can open with rags

it is a play I do have trouble with any tightening your range does work except if you fold for 2-3 orbits its see through as **** and he'd pick up on this and if he had any brains he'd fold..

But I really have to ask for my own piece of mind, most of the time when you do get a person continuously raising you lets say I raise KQ or whatever and get reraised.. would I be wrong in thinking even though reluctantly folding alot is that they're shoving a wider range? hell I think these chaps are raising sc, A-rag alot of the time.. I would love to shove back.. but sometimes I'm just too scared to especially when their stats are like 16/8 or something similar... only really happens in SNGs probably cause I'm aiming for the leaderboards and don't wanna jeopadise a good start i.e having 200 points in 5 games just on a misread

I see this play quite alot to and it really makes me lol, tight at **** nits who have stats of 5/5 or 8/8 or some shit, they double up then out of ****en no where they double up, call extremely wide ranges and shove on any piece of the board.

ironically their SNG finishes are either early like the first one to go or make it to the money, theres no inbetween, I call them tight-sheriffs. To an extent they have a clue but they will shove on top pair or insist on a showdown on a avg hand alot of the time.. no amount of reraising or whatever will get them off their mediocore hand.