Playing Against Poor Players

Tonight I will be playing in a weekly pub tournament. It's free to enter and is set up as a poker league and takes place in pubs all around the UK. An added incentive is the winner of each week is awarded a gallon of beer :cheers: The pub where I will be playing attracts approximately 30 players each week.

Thus far I have been relatively unsuccessful in these tournaments, even though I know I am a better player than most there, my highest finish being a lowly 6th.

There are many players who seem to not have a clue what they are doing, which I would expect as it is free to enter. Some examples include calling UTG with AK, calling PF with aces, failing to bet after the river with a close to nuts hand. There has been worse.

I have struggled for a number of reasons. bluffing does not seem to be a profitable move, there are just too many calling stations. Also when I raise early position 3 or 4 times BB, I consistently get 3-4 callers and ultimately end up getting out-flopped.

Anyway my question is what approach should I take tonight in the hope of making it all the way? Some of you might say don't bother playing it, but I do enjoy this tournament. Decent atmosphere, cheap drinks and my housemates come along for the ride too.

Advice?

This sounds like a standard game of no foldem holdem.

I would recommend:
1. Do not bluff.
2. With AA or KK, raise 8 or 10BB. This is the only way to get people to fold.
3. With such passive play, tend to limp broadway cards, small PP and suited connectors when you can get in cheap. You generally don't have to worry about getting raised off your hand pre-flop so you can afford to limp and wait to hit big.

Tighten up, and don't bluff. When you're dealt a good hand, raise it PF, and if it still good once the flop it dealt, value bet it relentlessly! Make people pay to chase crazy long shot draws that a lot of beginners do.

It is tough to put people on a hand though. I constantly am rasing PF with big hands, and the blinds will call with Q3 and junk like that.

Ezpect problems

LennyPigeon said:

Tonight I will be playing in a weekly pub tournament. It's free to enter and is set up as a poker league and takes place in pubs all around the UK. An added incentive is the winner of each week is awarded a gallon of beer :cheers: The pub where I will be playing attracts approximately 30 players each week.

Thus far I have been relatively unsuccessful in these tournaments, even though I know I am a better player than most there, my highest finish being a lowly 6th.

There are many players who seem to not have a clue what they are doing, which I would expect as it is free to enter. Some examples include calling UTG with AK, calling PF with aces, failing to bet after the river with a close to nuts hand. There has been worse.

I have struggled for a number of reasons. Bluffing does not seem to be a profitable move, there are just too many calling stations. Also when I raise early position 3 or 4 times BB, I consistently get 3-4 callers and ultimately end up getting out-flopped.

Anyway my question is what approach should I take tonight in the hope of making it all the way? Some of you might say don't bother playing it, but I do enjoy this tournament. Decent atmosphere, cheap drinks and my housemates come along for the ride too.

Advice?

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As it is a "bar league" REMEMBER that drunks in live games will call with any two cards as (1) it is a freeroll,(2) they don`t care how they play as its entertainment. Not a serious cash game where they have to make an investment into the tournement. I would stay "tag" and the donkeys will still be donkeys. Your can lead a horse to water but a donkey will chase you all the way to the river. If your raising only 3x preflop consider this . Try a 10x raise instead and then maybe it will get thru their drinken skulls you mean business. I wish you better luck. I too have played in a "bar League" setting and that was one of the tools that I had to do to get the dumb bunnys to fold/or limit the number of opponents in a hand. Show them the nuts and nothing but the nuts untill you start to gain their respect as a player. This will probably take a few outings to establish your "reputation " as a tough opponent,but even drunks have some memory left and after you bust them out a few times, they will be more cautious when playing against you. That`s the up side. The downside is they will sometimes play a monster against you as now you have scared the bejesus out of them. And they will be slow playing it because of their previous experiance with you. Again I wish you good luck on and off the felts.

dont bluff,people who are new to the game and dont know about odds tend to call pretty much anything if they think the next card can improve their hand.use patience and wait until you have a made hand and chances are theyll call with pretty much anything

I would like to say thankyou to all who posted. I took your advice into consideration, played it very well all night and took down second place. Would have won too if I wasn't so unlucky with the HU AIs. Bring on next week!

Nicely done, congrats.

I would agree with wobble and add to this: keep the pot small with a medium hand. When you have less than 10BB, it's time to get lucky and double up. Any king or ace is good since you'll probably double against a weak call like J3os. Sometime, you'll lose on those move but anyway, you won't get far in the money with less than 10BB.

Hope you take it down next time Good Luck

So what kind of beer u get if ya win? Hope its the expensive type lol.

Play tight if the structure allows and play your good starting hands strongly.

When poker is free there will be everyone calling with anything. I would play tight. Play your good hands aggressively, and muck the other hands.

My goal would be to try and win one blind or two every round. So, patience is the key. I have been winning over 60% of the tournaments I've entered. So, I am way ahead in the money.

If the table is tight, you need to loosen up. Try to go after the pots no one seems to want. Most tables in low stakes are loose, so you need to play a tight game against the donks. I always look at aggression as an increasing value in these games. Save it for the mid and higher levels. It is more effective then. My strategy is to slowly build a stack so that your stack is a betting tool to induce a lot of folding when you reach those levels.

make TPTK+ and go for 3 streets of value.

yea more importantly what brand of beer?