I'm playing $100NL Party 10-max. Villain has $130, and I have him covered. Villain's hand selection is about as picky as a drunk at the end of the night. VPIP 60+ and he loves to bet on every street. He's been pushing people off hands. I've been waiting like a lion in the bush.


I'm dealt A[h] K[d] in LP and raise it $4.

All folds and Villain calls in SB.

Flop K[c] 7[d] 4[h]. pot ($8.50)-- Villain leads for $10. I call

Turn- Very large brick. Pot ($28.5)--Villain leads for $10.

What's your plan for extracting money from him? Raise the turn? Wait to raise river? I have him on a weaker K.

Wait till the river and take your chances...against anyone else I'm pulling the trigger on the turn and going to at least $30. If you've seen him keep the gas on and made huge river - last ditch - bets, then wait till the river and raise if he hasn't put himself all in

Not gonna put him on two pair...he's unlikely to lead out. I'd put him on catching a piece of it, but with XL's you've just gotta bite it sometimes (like my KK getting snapped by a gut shot J8o in a very similar situation...buddy called my 8x pfr and then slightly higher than pot flop bet with a gut shot). I got stacked when I pushed the turn, and got called drawing dead to his straight.

Not sure the stats but TPTK is not a hand worth slow playing. I honestly would have gotten aggressive on the flop and taken control of the hand. If he is truly a calling station then nothing more would piss him off than to be pushed off a hand.

Allowing him to get away with a half pot sized bet on the flop and turn is criminal with just 1 pair. I like the raise right now based on where we are in the hand.

I am always again slow playing a TPTK. Take the pot and wait for a 2 pair or better to bust him.

in general, i will just call him down here. board has no obvious draws. his bet seems suspiciously small (is this bet size typical?), but in any case i don't want to open up the betting back to the LAG w/ just TP. just call for value this time and wait for a bigger hand before you hammer back against the LAG.

That's a very good point layne...I think I'm gonna start using the call strategy with good but vulnerable hannds against LAGs instead of putting the hammer down on the river when they could have some bull$(*^ two pair etc.

Why let it even get to the turn is my point. You have a great chance you are ahead on the flop. Take it right there.

I'm a lion in the bush and most of you are saying to just call? Isn't that like walking up and just sniffing the gazzelle you've been hunting?

Well that's what I did. I called the turn. The river was another blank he led out with $15 (pot is $50) and I min raised him (probably foolish). He called and showed K[h] T[s] and I won.

When he didn't increase his bet on the turn, I knew he was on a weak K. I'm still not sure if I shouldn't have raised either the turn, or really raised the river. I don't think this guy was tricky enough to be slowplaying a monster (he was used to pushing people off hands and didn't have to get THIS involved in a hand). Then again, playing TPTK to the river with lots of action and winning is okay too.

TR

I think the trick with LAG players is not to try to stack them in a single hand. In that sense I think raising in this situation is not the best play. That is unless you want to play TPTK for your whole stack. The problem with playing back at an aggressive player (more so even with a maniac) is that they are still gonna put the decision back on you. What if this guy pushed on an early street? You might call, but you also might have a tough decision on your hands.

I think the best bet with these guys is to call them down when you think you have the best hand. This way you continually take money from these guys, and you don't give them a chance to make the outrageously aggressive plays that are going to drive you nuts.

Nice going Tim - I had a similar hand today. Not saying it was the right play but it worked. I spotted a player 3 seats to my left (me CO and him BB). One hand he made me fold.

Well anyway. I labled him a LAG. I watched him for 3 orbits until I had the right hand and position.

I picked up AKh 3 off the BB and limped hoping that he would raise from the BTN which he did. UTG and I called. The flop was AT5o and I check raised him. He went all in and I called.

He had AQo and I won. He left the table.

The chance I was taking was that he did not have a set or 2 pair.

Tim, the advice here is good. You normally dont want to raise LAG unless the board gets drawy/scary. If its fairly straight forward like this one, just keep calling.

If hes a good LAG, he'll fold when you raise him but will keep betting otherwise.
You got a small raise in on the river which is ok, but what if he reraises you all in?

Wait for a monster to make a rasie and call him down with TPTK.

You want to do the opposite of what the player is doing.

Call down a LAG because he will bet too much
Raise a tight player because he will fold too much
Raise and / or keep betting into a calling station because he will call too much

Well, he didn't play this one terribly LAG-ish imo. I'd be expecting a big river bet when he's beat.

The thing is, I think you still made more on the hand by checking the turn. If you raise there, he just folds. A LAG doesn't want to be the caller, and the more weakness you can show while remaining in the hand, the better the chances that they'll make a big stab at it.

The $15 stab, however, is ridiculous. What on earth are you supposed to lay down at that point?

I have no idea whether this kind of play is typical of this guy, but I'd call this one more loose-passive than LAG (again, exclusively on the basis of this one hand, which may not be typical).

If we're not talking about the kind of player who's going to bet $50 or move in on the river with a loser a lot of the time, I think I'd probably just go ahead and raise his flop bet. He can fold if he so desires for less profit on your part, but I'd like more potential equity for letting him draw to the T. And, as "normal" play, I think raising the flop has a lot of intangible equity.