Strategy for playing loose aggressive fish

[StealTheButton]

I find these players the most difficult to play. They are losing, -EV players, but are the most challenging. These are the ones that bet almost every time you check to them. These are the ones that love to call raises on the button, float your C-bet and bet the turn. You just have to tighten up against these players. Check and fold bottom pair. Tighten up your range of starting hands. They LOVE to slow play big pairs and big hands. They don't usually stack me here and they only get a few bets.

What is most difficult is putting them on a hand. I have no idea what their bet or call means. Are they calling with an overcard, or a draw, or a pair? etc. What is even more difficult is the mental stress of playing. Playing regs is just easy for me. If I make a raise with A 10 and get jammed, I can most of the time I can comfortable lay it down if I get jammed. A fishy player is scared of flops so they get very aggressive preflop. I don't know if he has AQ, A7, a lower PP, or K4s, etc.

I actually find these players easier to play against when the blinds go up. That is until a few rotations when I get nothing but rags and they keep betting and jamming. I was just wondering what strategies people employ here.

 

[Jdawglet]

The waiting game

I’m with you… find these players the hardest to play. Unfortunately I also usually find them in the freerolls. I tighten up my play and try to get past the rebuy period. I find the take fewer risks when they can’t buy back in. The challenge is that most freerolls can blind you quickly so you almost have to pic a decent hand and go for it.

 

[Luvepoker]

I find these players the most difficult to play. They are losing, -EV players, but are the most challenging. These are the ones that bet almost every time you check to them. These are the ones that love to call raises on the button, float your C-bet and bet the turn. You just have to tighten up against these players. Check and fold bottom pair. Tighten up your range of starting hands. They LOVE to slow play big pairs and big hands. They don't usually stack me here and they only get a few bets.

What is most difficult is putting them on a hand. I have no idea what their bet or call means. Are they calling with an overcard, or a draw, or a pair? etc. What is even more difficult is the mental stress of playing. Playing regs is just easy for me. If I make a raise with A 10 and get jammed, I can most of the time I can comfortable lay it down if I get jammed. A fishy player is scared of flops so they get very aggressive preflop. I don't know if he has AQ, A7, a lower PP, or K4s, etc.

I actually find these players easier to play against when the blinds go up. That is until a few rotations when I get nothing but rags and they keep betting and jamming. I was just wondering what strategies people employ here.

There is no real or easy way to play these players. The only 2 things you can do. Get the nuts and stack them or fold" or " take a calculated risk. They are very profitable to play against too.

What do i mean by a calculated risk. Yes tens or jacks are vulnerable hands but if they are 3 betting you with a lot of garbage 4bet them. Yes you may lose but will also have a chance to win a lot of chips when they miss with there crappy hands.

So they call your pocket tens and the flop is J84. Yes they could have a jack they could have a 8 4 or king high. With just one over card you should not be afraid of them. There are just time you need to hold your breath and hope for the best. Against truly bad very loose and very aggressive players you may need to take that calculated rick like it or not.

 

[StealTheButton]

Yes they are a great way to double up, but they are also most often responsible for stacking me. I find myself folding what may be the best hand sometimes and just waiting for a better spot. This is where taking that calculated risk comes in.

 

[Baldy86]

what i do is playing very tight against them and also agressive

 

[Alex70793]

Such players are very common in cash games, there are even several such players at the same table, but they can be a problem if you don't know how to play against them.
And the strategy is actually very simple, play tight, it's useless to bluff against such players, they will call on any bet you make, and it is desirable that you are in a position on the opponent.

 

[skoldpadda]

Tighten up your range and if you can handle the variance you generally need to call down lighter. Wait until later in the hand to raise for value.

 

[fundiver199]

I find myself folding what may be the best hand sometimes and just waiting for a better spot. This is where taking that calculated risk comes in.

This is the real issue not only against maniacs but in general. A lot of people are overly focused on surviving and min-cashing in MTTs and not enough focused on accumulating chips. And this is a problem, because most of the profit in MTTs is made at the final table. Sure you want and need to get some min-cashes as well, but everyone gets those, and its not where, the big edges are found.

If you want proof of this, you can just look around the forum and see the enormous amount of threads about folding big hands on the bubble, and how many people actually say, that they do this. Like "would you fold AK on the bubble", "would you fold QQ on the bubble" and even "would you fold AA on the bubble". Or in the first hand of the main event, if someone moves all in.

Its completely fine to not cash in an MTT or in 20 MTTs, and once you have put yourself into that mindset, it wont bother you nearly as much to get busted by a maniac, that got lucky on you. You just laugh it off and register for the next one. Fully knowing that in the long run this player is like a private ATM machine for you, and that he needs to get lucky sometimes, because otherwise he would probably stop playing.

 

[IXIX]

Just hope you don’t get unlucky

I get in huge pots against players like this all the time where I’m a huge favorite and just get smoked on the River in cash games they usually take all my profit on the session sucks but it happens

 

[MAGICUZ]

Sometimes I play like that myself and it bears fruit.Poker does not stand still, so you need to change your style sometimes.

 

[Medina]

Indeed, I think the hardest part is playing against them effectively.
For sure, nothing is certain against them, absolutely sure, that we are going to lose against them on the River.
I'll do everything not to get there to that point.
I really consider what kind of cards I play against them, which are only the strongest cards, and do so very aggressively!
Unfortunately, many times this is not enough

 

[rabman50]

The primary way to beat them is to induce them to bluff you. When you have a good hand like TPGK.
If OOP then check as if you have a weak hand and are going to concede the pot. When IP c-bet the flop but check the turn. This will induce them to bluff the river and you can call and win an extra bet.

 

[Newzooozooo]

Hello.
My strategy is simple and is to wait patiently for good cards. It doesn't matter that the opponent plays all the hands in a row, this is his disadvantage and I always try to use it to my advantage. The main thing is not to play with junk and be patient. I am already convinced that this is the most effective approach.
Good luck.

 

[nuttea]

I find these players the most difficult to play. They are losing, -EV players, but are the most challenging. These are the ones that bet almost every time you check to them. These are the ones that love to call raises on the button, float your C-bet and bet the turn. You just have to tighten up against these players. Check and fold bottom pair. Tighten up your range of starting hands. They LOVE to slow play big pairs and big hands. They don't usually stack me here and they only get a few bets.

What is most difficult is putting them on a hand. I have no idea what their bet or call means. Are they calling with an overcard, or a draw, or a pair? etc. What is even more difficult is the mental stress of playing. Playing regs is just easy for me. If I make a raise with A 10 and get jammed, I can most of the time I can comfortable lay it down if I get jammed. A fishy player is scared of flops so they get very aggressive preflop. I don't know if he has AQ, A7, a lower PP, or K4s, etc.

I actually find these players easier to play against when the blinds go up. That is until a few rotations when I get nothing but rags and they keep betting and jamming. I was just wondering what strategies people employ here.

play tight preflop. When you play stronger hands than LAG, you are giving yourself a postflop advantage.monitor the size of the rates. When LAGs bluff on the early streets, they often make smaller bets, and then when they try to take advantage of their aggressive image, they increase their size.understand what LAS might be thinking about your hand. The typical LAG will think that you have a hand that you cannot withstand his aggression and will try to bluff you. For example, on a K-8-6 flop, you check-call. The 9 comes on the turn and you check-call again. The LAG knows that in addition to kings, you can have a pocket pair of eights or tens, and possibly a pair of nines, sevens or sixes.