Going to battle with a (cash) table full of loose players...

Since moving over to pokerstars, I've encountered quite a bit of tables that end up with 3+ super loose players (I'm playing at the 5NL). Their game play is almost like a collusion against tighter players because they'll call and raise each other regardless of what comes out there, and when they showdown it's complete crap hands.

What is the best way to play against these types of players and tables, especially when the table is full of them?

TorreyB said:

Their game play is almost like donating tight players money because they'll call and raise each other regardless of what comes out there, and when they showdown it's complete crap hands.

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If they have crap, don't you want them raising & re-raising before the flop when you have a strong hand?

It sounds to me like you *think* you're playing tight, but you really really aren't. And my "you're not tight" hypothesis is supported by the hands you post in the hand analysis forum.

But since this is learning poker, here's the recipe:

1) Get dealt the top 5.7% of hands. If you're curious, that range looks like this: { 99+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }

2) Raise & re-raise before the flop until you're out of money.

3) Post flop, value-bet when you have 2nd pair or better. Fold if you have nothing.

4) Roll around in all the money they've just donated to you.

Here's the image from tonight.


Just because of one hand posted doesn't mean anything.

Also in this image the highlighted table that's negative dollar amount was because of losing with AA twice, and also a QQ once in that 37 mins.

Thanks for taking the time to write your reply to my thread!

well if thats what happened, then its just bad beats and youll come around...if not, then refer to ch9 up there and realize thats pretty much the bible of beating .02/.05

TorreyB said:

Here's the image from tonight

Click to expand...

3 things jump out at me from this HEM image:

1) You're pretty passive preflop.

2) You played looser on the table that was supposedly full of loose hyper-aggressive players. This is actually the opposite adjustment you should be making. Could be that you were just getting cards, since the sample is so small, but you don't want to fall into the mentality of "oh, they're playing junk, so I can too".

3) Losing with bullets & queens happens, especially in such a short period of hands. Learn to accept it move on when you take bad beats, rather than letting it affect your game.

You shouldn't go about finding leaks in your game as a result of taking some bad beats. You should systematically look through your sessions after the fact to find things you did wrong. Leak finding as a result of taking bad beats usually ends up with you working on leaks that don't matter (avoiding coolers) or making adjustments that in themselves are leaks.

Today's Image (as of this posting)


[img removed~tb]

This aggressive style of play works so much better for me compared to every other style I've tried out.

Big Losses During the Day

-$5.00 // AKs vs 22 (kind of surprised this girl played a 22 against strong 3bet)
-$4.88 // 34s vs QTo (flopped a possible straight draw & flush draw)
-$5.71 // A9o vs Q6s (played in the moment and tried to plow over a reraise on the turn, he has a set of 6's)

The second hand there needs a little adjustment for those situations to avoid major loses, and the third hand is a leak that's much easier to fix (pay more attention to reraise warnings!!!)

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c9, The tables that have a looser PFR are ones where I get hands like connectors or some suited combos and it's .03 to call from the SB, extremely tempting sometimes.

id be wary of playing a9 suited or not, if your attempting to tigten up then a9 is not in that range

What a major bitch of a day since I started making improving adjustments a few days ago. I'm just glad to make it 0.08 ahead for the day, and you'll see why a little further down.

I'm seriously starting to believe AKs/o is way overrated!

Today's Image

[img removed~tb]

I turned down the aggression more on this day compared to the last two, to not leak any unnecessary cash in marginal spots.

Biggest Loses of the Day

AKo vs 55 // -$5.05 (he got his 5)
KQs vs T8s // -$2.90 (I was way ahead and the guy chased nothing but a flush draw all the way to river)
JJ vs ?? // -$1.90 (bad flop for me, good flop for him)
KQo vs ?? // -$2.00 (slightly dominated turnout for turn and river, plus a possible flush)
QQ vs KK // -$4.55
88 vs 33 // -$5.00

There might be one or two I missed while scrolling, but coming back to the positive side of the days cash flow after getting tore up all day felt pretty good. Next up, posting some hands over in the HA section...

If you find you're almost always successful with AKo/s how do you play it out, and in what cases do you fold it?

Rather than focusing on your biggest losses, focus on the hands that you think you played the worst, or the hands where you are not sure about how much you should be betting on any street. If there are any times where you think you should be doing something different, these are the hands you should pick out and review.

Typically at the end of the day I go over the various hands played that day and do exactly as you mentioned.

I post up the biggest losses with the image because I'm amazed at how many strong holdings end up failing. Although for a few hundred hands maybe it's normal? I'm paying a lot more attention now than I ever did.