Why Russians play like maniacs?

As the tittle says... why this kind of players play like real sick maniacs? the poker world is not the same since black friday...

Not all do this. I have a Russian friend who plays great poker. Perhaps this playing style by many of them is because of a "boom" in Russia. That is to say many new players in a short amount of time. Many may have seen such naked aggression on TV and try to emulate this. People often fail to realize these hands don't occur as frequently as is shown on TV. I say try to use his aggression against him by employing traps and using selective re-raises he may think has him beat.

TV poker and industrial quantities of vodka?

I think part of their style is due to the fact that Chess is their national game. They take poker very seriously, like they do chess, often with a very aggressive style, similar to the very aggressive chess style some players use. Others use a very careful style, similar to very careful positional chess players.

no se porq pero esos rusos me han ganado con todo yo con AA vs 22 o etc..

You're talking about people from the same country, who during World War II, did mass human wave attacks...in some cases with no weapons... against invading German troops who had machine guns.

It says a bit about the mindset right there...

edwin269 said:

no se porq pero esos rusos me han ganado con todo yo con AA vs 22 o etc..

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First, here in DC Forum talk only english please, second, the Russians are very aggressive and play with the luck factor, you can not take into consideration their ability!

I think they got big amount of money and play very aggresive without being afraid to loose, so they play with many kind of cards and really often catches best hands

I also have the feeling that the players want to play only from Russia. So go with whatever they have and then defeat a through happiness. So on pokerstars and Full I had the most impressive. Should be no insult

hobonc said:

I say try to use his aggression against him by employing traps and using selective re-raises he may think has him beat.

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I agree. I think that we can learn something from russian players. Take something of their game like above all aggression or idea to play some marginal hand like they do that.

Russian...? I do not think so... They sometimes play very tight...

It's been my experience that many russian players play like it's their first hand of poker. But as some others have stated, there are some decent russian players. It does seem like most of them play like a maniac though. And look what happens, they usually donk 4,5, even 6 hands in a row, cracking any premium hands held by other players. If they knew what they were doing, they would stop and play right after amassing all the chips they have donked. And i have seen some do just that. That might be their strategy, all or nothing at first, and if they get lucky, tighten up and play right. I play with a certain russian player, and that's exactly what he does. Recently he won back to back tournaments playing like a maniac, of course a seasoned player knows that kind of play won't go far in the long run.

have to agree every encounter with a russian at the table has been baffiling..they do play atc it seems

People get aggressive when drunk. And Russian never play poker without vodka(Russians i know), & i know them well

Yes i know there are some great russian poker players but in general - RUSSIANS DONT GIVE A F###. Most of them are reckless. And its not about vodka . They just live "I DONT CARE" style .

RajDev1979 said:

People get aggressive when drunk. And Russian never play poker without vodka(Russians i know), & i know them well

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Lol I was thinking the same....shots of vodka and then All In

hobonc said:

Not all do this. I have a Russian friend who plays great poker. Perhaps this playing style by many of them is because of a "boom" in Russia. That is to say many new players in a short amount of time. Many may have seen such naked aggression on TV and try to emulate this. People often fail to realize these hands don't occur as frequently as is shown on TV. I say try to use his aggression against him by employing traps and using selective re-raises he may think has him beat.

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Good point my friend, I think this boom comes from Alex Kravchenko and Ivan Demidov....Tv educate people

Well aside of the 2 or 3 competent responses, most casual players I see playing very aggressive but a lot of the Russians on Lock that I have seen are very tight and just precise in their actions.

I think they are actually playing off of reads.........and some just use aggression as a part of their game no matter what .....I like their play

add Ukrainians to the list. They are worse than Russians

As I noticed , its not only the russians, there are also ukraine, belarus , romanians and bulgarians who have this style of playing poker. The only way to handle this style is to stay tight and hope u can catch them with a real good hand. If the get lucky then with their crap hand its just poker.

I just love how poker Unifies everyone.

Russians on poker will play aggressive on the weak but with the right table image they respect you. And I've come across only 1 decent play in the micros and I swear he was a bot.

Russians play pretty well in poker . And are good in it too . Aggressiveness is their way to win . If you have problem with it avoid them or outsmart them . They are nice people haha lot of russians are in poker rooms as if everyone there is playing poker i like to play with them but little but irritatin in sit n gos one on one when they raise everytime in small blind haha .
If i loose my state of mind by gettin irritated , then i lose . So yeahh they are good

psychotie said:

As I noticed , its not only the russians, there are also ukraine, belarus , romanians and bulgarians who have this style of playing poker. The only way to handle this style is to stay tight and hope u can catch them with a real good hand. If the get lucky then with their crap hand its just poker.

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Yeah, actually I think it is the Romanian style that gives me the most trouble

Has it changed much since the Americans are not in the rooms, they were the great masters of stars, due to black Friday! In these end times note that most of the freerolls are won by Russians, then I focus on seeing his style of play and the truth is that poker has nothing only play all in the majorities of lucky hands and also accompanies have the advantage of being a very big country so there are many players and most are in the collections!