Cheating 101: Password Thieves Strategy Discussion

OK all I am copying this from the Titan May 30 thread, also relates to games where we all see thieves, in various proportions to the field. At Titan it is epidemic now in the Saturday game.
I am posting this for discussion because I got busted in 2 CC games today by thieves, playing uber-donk style in both cases, so perhaps we should discuss any common traits we see in their play, and what might be done to squash these roaches on the table. People are seeing, and complaining, that these bugs often place and win, and take early or prolonged leads....
Some thoughts on today:
"I got cot also today at our Tilt FR by a thief, one of the few left there. His play is similar to the Roms at Titan, and many other crashers I have seen: Push any paint or Arag preflop and push some more... fold if anyone pushes back... call insane all in PF reraises with almost any 2... generally play like a maniac and piss everybody off with suckouts, then clean up with cards as people tilt out. I think their play is worth a thread of its own.
First clue: They are thieves and play as if they have nothing to lose.
Problem being: At Titan they comprise some 33% of the field, the chances for collusion and chip dumping are endless. One may bust, one may take 1st. Over time individually it is a donkish stupid losing strategy. In a group against another group, of nits (us)... do some math...
Any thoughts???

They do have nothing to lose and thrive on the suckouts. There is not much we can do except wait till we have the nutz and bust them.

PooffyFooffy said:

They do have nothing to lose and thrive on the suckouts. There is not much we can do except wait till we have the nutz and bust them.

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Au contraire, at Titan they can lose a fin, and there are at least 5 of them buying in. We have more there to lose than they do counting the add on; they came to take our money, not lose theirs...

Also, I saw today at Tilt the maniac strategy also pays because after a couple of double ups, villian became unbustable and started pushing harder.

Of course in the end they can be busted but what if they change gears?

all we can do is wait until the mods of this forum get a restricted list going around.

from what i hear and i read it should be coming soon so be patient

They are talking about buy-ins - we will never have restricted lists for those.

With a 15 min post requirement it will always be easy for any member to gain access to buy-ins. Fortunately it is not a huge issue in most of our games.

PattyR said:

all we can do is wait until the mods of this forum get a restricted list going around.

from what i hear and i read it should be coming soon so be patient

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dakota-xx said:

They are talking about buy-ins - we will never have restricted lists for those.

With a 15 min post requirement it will always be easy for any member to gain access to buy-ins. Fortunately it is not a huge issue in most of our games.

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K mebbe you can amend the title debi, this is not about stopping PW thieves, there are loads of other threads about that. BTW I was talking about both games today, the 200 FR and the buyin.

Point being, all good work by CC and other forums aside, these thieves exist in some form just about everywhere, so... until they are all gone, what are good strategies for dealing with these roaches at the table??

I'm not changing the way I play. I do appreciate people such as NevadaNick turning up at our tables and telling us who the PWTs are at the table, and that gives us the opportunity to let them know how we feel about them.

NoWuckingFurries said:

I'm not changing the way I play. I do appreciate people such as NevadaNick turning up at our tables and telling us who the PWTs are at the table, and that gives us the opportunity to let them know how we feel about them.

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Agreed about the play style. Would love to know the PWT's identity asap in any game. Rarely do I check the tourney chat thread until the game is over. Gonna have to change that way of thinking as long as some one posts who they are. Kudos to the mods... only two today from what I read.

Frankly, if PWT's buy-in to real money games, then so be it. Yeah they can play like complete idiots, and its their right to do so because they put up the buy-in just like everybody else. Its the freerolls with money added that get to be really bad because at that point - they really do have "nothing to lose".

The answer is always "Play smart poker". If you have the nuts on them, push hard. If not, then bet and fold according to the odds, not table image. Utra-agressive is a valid strategy, you just have to be prepared to deal with it.

arahel_jazz said:

The answer is always "Play smart poker". If you have the nuts on them, push hard. If not, then bet and fold according to the odds, not table image. Utra-agressive is a valid strategy, you just have to be prepared to deal with it.

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I agree with this mostly. BUT I would not recommend pushing the nuts against these aggressors, they usually fold fast when they meet resistance. With the nuts, I would slowplay till the river then raise or min bet and reraise.
In most cases you will be HU as they have scared everyone else out, usually preflop, and they are often drawing dead, so slowplay is OK.
A corollary to this is: Dont be afraid to push back at them, with weaker hands -- they will often fold.