Dealing with Aggro Fish 5 or 10 NL

Hi guys,

I have a lot of trouble dealing with Aggro fish especially when they suck out on me.
I get so mad. Especially because I tend to play way more nitty against them. I wait for a proper spot but get ****ed anyway. Like yesterday against a guy with vpip 85. I raise with JJ on SB (he is BB). He calls. I flop a set on a rainbow board king high. I bet he calls. 3 of spade on T. I bet he raised pot I call (I could have raise but I wanted him to keep bluffing). Another spade on the river. He bets pot. So ok he can have a flush but also a set of 3s or total air which is a typical move from fish as well. So I call. The guy has 74 of spade...
The problem is that it feels like it happens pretty often.
On the other hand I make also good money against those kind of guys like today. But the ratio doesn't seem right. And further more the feeling of getting sucked out by maniacs makes me so mad. I don't how to deal with it.
I know we all been through this kind of situation so I'm wondering how you deal with them.
Thanks.
Cheers.

Tilt is devious

Phil2307 said:

Hi guys,

I have a lot of trouble dealing with Aggro fish especially when they suck out on me.
I get so mad. Especially because I tend to play way more nitty against them. I wait for a proper spot but get ****ed anyway. Like yesterday against a guy with vpip 85. I raise with JJ on SB (he is BB). He calls. I flop a set on a rainbow board king high. I bet he calls. 3 of spade on T. I bet he raised pot I call (I could have raise but I wanted him to keep bluffing). Another spade on the river. He bets pot. So ok he can have a flush but also a set of 3s or total air which is a typical move from fish as well. So I call. The guy has 74 of spade...
The problem is that it feels like it happens pretty often.
On the other hand I make also good money against those kind of guys like today. But the ratio doesn't seem right. And further more the feeling of getting sucked out by maniacs makes me so mad. I don't how to deal with it.
I know we all been through this kind of situation so I'm wondering how you deal with them.
Thanks.
Cheers.

Click to expand...

You are tilting. You need to read the books "The Mental Game of Poker" by Jared Tendler.

You will recoup 10x the money you spend on owning these books and following the advice contained within.

After you purchase them and read them at least twice. Post questions and I will guide you if I can.

Hope this helps

Maniacs are the most profitable players to be up against, since they lose their money faster than anyone else, and sometimes you just receive random gifts of an entire stack, when they go on some crazy bluff with a complete airball. But they also increase your variance, and this is why, they can be frustrating to play against.

This is mostly a mental problem, and a lot of it is about ego and feeling entitled. Because he is so bad, we feel, that we deserve to win even more, but unfortunately that is not, how poker work in the short term. So first of all try to get rid of this entitlement and go into the game with a much lighter mind. After all the maniac is playing for fun, and you are playing for pennies, so its not rational to take it so heavy.

From the more technical point of view dont nit up against maniacs. Reduce bluffing, since they typically are not interested in folding, but widen your value range and never ever slowplay a vulnerable hand.

In this hand you still had essentially the nuts, when he raised the turn. So instead of just calling and trying to induce bluffs on the river, smack it back in his face with a large 3-bet, depending on stack sizes maybe just go all in and be done. If he wants to play, thats cool, but lets play for all the chips right now, when we are still almost 100% sure to be ahead.

Maybe he fold to this, and then he is technically not making a mistake. But you protect your hand, and having to fold also tend to put maniacs on tilts, so that he perhaps make a really crazy move in the next hand. For me part of the tilt in this hand would come from knowing, that I could have gotten the money in on the turn, when I was still ahead. But instead I slowplayed, allowed him to get there, and paid him off. Arrrrrgh.

This hand is an example of, how you "get" a maniac by widening your value range. Obviously AJs is not a hand, I would normally stack off preflop and expect this to be for value. But the stats of BB was VPIP 88 / PFR 62 / 3-bet 44 over 28 hands, and he had literally squeezed on every single opportunity, he had. So I was actually "setting a trap" for him by flatting with AJs in SB, and planning to go for the backraise, if the original raiser either folded or just called. .

Unfortunately, there is an element of luck in poker and no one is insured for bad luck. When I see hobby players, I am very happy, even if I lose my money. You need to try to keep your anger under control and continue to play against this opponent. It is advisable to write notes on these players as often as possible and select tables before the new game, in search of a meeting with them.

eetenor said:

You are tilting. You need to read the books "The Mental Game of Poker" by Jared Tendler.

You will recoup 10x the money you spend on owning these books and following the advice contained within.

After you purchase them and read them at least twice. Post questions and I will guide you if I can.

Hope this helps

Click to expand...

Thanks Bro,

I do have this book in audio format which I had started but didn't carry listening. I did this last days and it's true it's really good. Unfortunately I tilted again today. It happened again the same situation as the one I described in my post. With JJ again. Against an aggrofish. I flop top set. raise call ect... We go Allin, he gets a back door straight. I will start to feel like Negreanu with JJ... So even if I was more prepared the tilt got me again. But why those unprobable scenario keep on coming??? How do we make money if it is so frequent? I know the answer is in the book but man it's so brutal.

The pain the pain

Phil2307 said:

Thanks Bro,

I do have this book in audio format which I had started but didn't carry listening. I did this last days and it's true it's really good. Unfortunately I tilted again today. It happened again the same situation as the one I described in my post. With JJ again. Against an aggrofish. I flop top set. raise call ect... We go Allin, he gets a back door straight. I will start to feel like Negreanu with JJ... So even if I was more prepared the tilt got me again. But why those unprobable scenario keep on coming??? How do we make money if it is so frequent? I know the answer is in the book but man it's so brutal.

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding.

You answered your own question by mentioning a successful player who also loses with JJ.
You have to keep playing for thousands of hands so the math can work. NL holdem is a dead card game except for the suckouts. Better players win out when the math equalizes but it takes thousands of hands.

We can get angry but it does not help. Suck outs happen, I lost 9 out of 10 all in hands in tournaments last week when I was no less than 70% in every hand and 5 hands where I was 90% preflop!

Did I yell and scream, yes, to let it out and move on. Then back to battle again. This is a nothing run math wise 10/1000000. . 00001% focus on that. That it is the truth of poker. It is a bankroll killer if you let it infect your mind and adjust your play.

You are tilting because you are focused on the short term.
Poker is a marathon. If you were running a marathon and 30 runners passed you in the first mile would you change your planned pace. No of course not. Would you rip off a shoe and throw it at them? I hope not.

Same thing here. Keep playing keep making reads and know just like Negreanu you will lose some and win many if you grow your skills and play the math.

Hope this helps

I would say dont focus more on the result of the hand, which at first playing you will tend to determine your success because of that . look at always are you making the right decision. If you are doing that over the long run and especially if you are running good, you are going to eat up the competition.

Just like in the above replies you have to understand that tilting can really affect your profits. You lose a hand, try to win another hand. This game is swingy and always will be, just know if you lose the least and win the most you will more than likely come out ahead. Good luck in the future.

Be aware that it is the exception and the rule is you will gain most of the time against them, so thank every aggro fish that sit on the table with you. That is my advice

You define the player as an aggro fish. That translate to a bad player that likes to put in a lot of money in the pot - often without good cards.

Seems like a dream opponent to me.

If you instead have a player type like: NIT, TAG or a good LAG you can easily see that is much harder to win in the long run against those.

The variance can be very high in the short run against maniacs/aggro fish but play for value with good hands and you win more against this player type than any other.

They can't get lucky forever.