Dealing with reckless fish early on

I'm wondering how you guys deal with the maniac fish players at the beginning of an MTT.
I find in tourneys, bigger than 50 players, often have people who are ridiculous in the early hands.
Going all in and placing silly high bets.

How do you deal with play at the early stages? Are these players actually fish or do they have some sort of weird strategy in the early hands?

First off don't bluff when blinds are 20/40 and you have 5000 chips. Also don't go all in unless you have AA and expect someone to call you. There is no reason to risk your stack for 60 or 90 chips with an AQo or JJ.

Don't be afraid to limp or be passive with small-mid pairs and suited connectors. When they hit be aggressive, when they miss just fold. Know the odds if you choose to chase a flush or straight.

Most of all, have patience. Each time crazy, loose villain doubles up, that is more chips you can win from this weaker player if you are smarter. So be smarter.

Finally, don't forget about the good, tight players at the table. Sometimes we focus on the fish so much, we forget about the guy behind us.

thehangdude said:

First off don't bluff when blinds are 20/40 and you have 5000 chips. Also don't go all in unless you have AA and expect someone to call you. There is no reason to risk your stack for 60 or 90 chips with an AQo or JJ.

Don't be afraid to limp or be passive with small-mid pairs and suited connectors. When they hit be aggressive, when they miss just fold. Know the odds if you choose to chase a flush or straight.

Most of all, have patience. Each time crazy, loose villain doubles up, that is more chips you can win from this weaker player if you are smarter. So be smarter.

Finally, don't forget about the good, tight players at the table. Sometimes we focus on the fish so much, we forget about the guy behind us.

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Makes sense!

Thank you for that reply - it's so annoying when you see a fish stack up chip after chip, haha!

What you want to do is play good poker. Its never fun having someone play like that but they are there to gamble and there is not much you can do. Just dont fall into there trap.

Hey there!

Well to answer your question, early in a tourney everyone is very deep and quite loose, so I think active players should not be considered as maniacs but maybe as the most agressive at the table.

I adjust to the active player, I play more agressive, 4 bet (mostly fold to 5bets),cbet flop, bet turn, consider agression on more rivers than usual!

Anyway, I promise, agression is the key

gl gl gl

my strategy is to play tigth and aggressive and always get involved in a hand with value and you can’t take it this time against these types of players you show your hand to everyone to see that you are a regular player and the next every time you take a valuable hand you go into aggression whenever a fish came cleaning always increases 3x bbs of the value of the fish if he calls and beats his card bet 50% of the value of the pot causing the fish to respect you in the hand and whenever you are involved in a hand the same fold.

Luvepoker said:

What you want to do is play good poker. Its never fun having someone play like that but they are there to gamble and there is not much you can do. Just dont fall into there trap.

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as I mentioned playing always aggressive against these types of players that they run, most of these players clean with marginal hands to see the flop and hit a pair, set, straight, etc.
then in a clean of this and 3 to 4x of the clean of the fish making it run from the hand.

thehangdude said:

First off don't bluff when blinds are 20/40 and you have 5000 chips. Also don't go all in unless you have AA and expect someone to call you. There is no reason to risk your stack for 60 or 90 chips with an AQo or JJ.

Don't be afraid to limp or be passive with small-mid pairs and suited connectors. When they hit be aggressive, when they miss just fold. Know the odds if you choose to chase a flush or straight.

Most of all, have patience. Each time crazy, loose villain doubles up, that is more chips you can win from this weaker player if you are smarter. So be smarter.

Finally, don't forget about the good, tight players at the table. Sometimes we focus on the fish so much, we forget about the guy behind us.

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I definitely have to listen to this. A lot of the times I get too tilted seeing how crazy villains get away with murder with garbage hands, and more often than I should I've paid with AQo thinking I'll make em pay, while actually I only get yet another bad beat.

I avoid playing against players who behave strangely especially at the start of the game. unless I have the chance to touch a max hand and take advantage of their lack of experience. at the start of the game I play wide but I don't hesitate to fold or check when necessary. a beginner will be more likely to make bad decisions and be more exposed to variance. luck intervenes in this game but only in the short term. In the long run, the player who relies heavily on his luck will lose a large part of his chips and his bankroll.

Just play tight and trap them. I love those players. They are really good at doubling you up.

Depends on if the crazy player or players are to your right or to your left. If they are to your right you should feel extremely happy as all you have to wait for is a hand that is very strong and get it in vs their range which will be at least top 50% of hands if they are truly crazy. If they are to your left than that is another matter and its not so fun. In these cases I would play very tight and when you do have a very strong hand don't give away anything, just limp in and let the crazy raise or jam over you and then call or jam yourself. In both situations whether to your right or left they will add variance to your results but they will benefit you in the long run.

In general in case you have more than one at your table and they are on both sides of you just play much tighter than normal pre flop and if you get to post flop just play ABC. When you have a strong hand you will want to bet large and make the pot big. If you missed, don't bluff as you will just be hemorrhaging chips. Instead when you miss just let the hand go and fold and wait for the next spot for the spewy players to give their chips to you.

I usually try to avoid getting into it with them, without a monster. I think a lot of time players like that are just trying to double up fast right away, not really caring if they have to rebuy or start a new one.

Definitely taking this advice on board - been playing in a few MTT's lately & I can see where you are all coming from with this.
Thanks for the helpful replies!

Usually it takes a little patience and just one trap to get the entire stack of such a "professional" to go to you.

Worst of all, when there are too many of these fish at the same table, the all-ins become endless until they have finished eating each other.

thehangdude said:

First off don't bluff when blinds are 20/40 and you have 5000 chips. Also don't go all in unless you have AA and expect someone to call you. There is no reason to risk your stack for 60 or 90 chips with an AQo or JJ.

Don't be afraid to limp or be passive with small-mid pairs and suited connectors. When they hit be aggressive, when they miss just fold. Know the odds if you choose to chase a flush or straight.

Most of all, have patience. Each time crazy, loose villain doubles up, that is more chips you can win from this weaker player if you are smarter. So be smarter.

Finally, don't forget about the good, tight players at the table. Sometimes we focus on the fish so much, we forget about the guy behind us.

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I’d like to answer something on the topic, but there’s nothing to add, my opinion is one-on-one, it’s a pity, I’m sorry I myself can’t always stick to such a plan, while experience is not enough ...

I normally fold and let them knock themselves out ..

johnoman said:

I'm wondering how you guys deal with the maniac fish players at the beginning of an MTT.
I find in tourneys, bigger than 50 players, often have people who are ridiculous in the early hands.
Going all in and placing silly high bets.

How do you deal with play at the early stages? Are these players actually fish or do they have some sort of weird strategy in the early hands?

Click to expand...

Waiting only for very strong hands to play against them. That is the best tip. Never tempt to play with medium or not so strong hands against them. They will be not so long in the tournament, but can eliminate some people with their weird decisions. So wait and beat them, when you have strong hand - do not tempt to fall in their trap, because I have seen a lot of people, who are knowing that they do not have anything and they will call with every normal hand and suppose to win in 100% of times, because the other guy is a fish, but it is not. Be patient and feel the moment to beat them.

gichka97 said:

Waiting only for very strong hands to play against them. That is the best tip. Never tempt to play with medium or not so strong hands against them. They will be not so long in the tournament, but can eliminate some people with their weird decisions. So wait and beat them, when you have strong hand - do not tempt to fall in their trap, because I have seen a lot of people, who are knowing that they do not have anything and they will call with every normal hand and suppose to win in 100% of times, because the other guy is a fish, but it is not. Be patient and feel the moment to beat them.

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Nice one! Thanks

The best advice I can offer is don't them suc you into that style of play just wait them out. I find those players are unskilled players playing in low stakes games and will not last long. Don't get me wrong there are players who are very skilled who will play this way early in the game especially when rebuys are offered in hopes to intimidate and determine the tight and loose players at the table. Now if you have a monster hand play it and hope it holds up. You never what to go away from a hand telling yourself that you should of played it.