Yes, I have an opinion, I have played a ton of poor players utilizing his style and three good ones. The good ones still had holes, one of the really good ones even with the holes worked his way up to 25/50, and I never saw him out of line up there with the style that got him that high.

The good ones can still be picked apart, but you have to have some information on exactly what range of hands the 3x raise means. The good ones I played best against it meant KQ KJ QT mostly with AJ AT 99 88 some with Axs less. Since they were likely to hold a marginal hand, I would call with any hand that was likely to make a good hand.

This is a very complex situation, and much of your possible actions are going to be defined by stack ratio more than position, with position only dictating if you raise or check raise them most. Stack size gives you room to put pressure on them, or allow you to sneak your money in the pot from a smaller stack. Unfortantely the smaller your stack the less effective you can counter this type of loose aggression with marginal hands yourself. Your opponent makes most of his money on your weakness and his position, by either taking iniative and betting or betting when you check. You have no real weight behind you with an average stack, but with a decent stack your opponent will realize the pressure of the chips not yet in the pot.

You have to be able to exercise better post flop play than these guys who also auto-bet every flop, the more stack depth you have the easier this gets. With a smaller stack with out hitting the flop hard, I tend to probably give up too easily waiting for a better opportunity with a good hand. I don't like re-raising with uber-premiums as they are likely to give me more if I play passively and let them bet. In this case I like having position on them, so if they check the turn, it won't check thru but I can charge them something. If the pot is managable to my stack size I may attempt a raise on a favorable flop that isn't likely to have helped him.

With some chips in my stack, I very much enjoy being out of position, you have some weight to where if they are somewhat aware of stack sizes they know their bluff can quickly get out of hand. From out of position you may have to check-raise the flop and fire at the turn when you call with 99 on a 682 board. If he auto-bets your check raise will steal iniative, put more money in the pot and hopefully put the fear of jeebus in him if he has seen you check raise big hands before. He won't lay down JJ, but he will probably try to get to the showdown cheaper and most likely he has KQo anyways. If he reraises you can know you have your hand in the cookie jar and attempt to wait for a better opportunity as he will remember you folding to his re-raise.

The deeper my chips the more hands I re-raise preflop with position against these guys, and might check raise out of position. 88 when we are even money becomes a re-raise hand, it gives you more ways to win the pot and he is going to call you either way. You are trying to wrestle control of the pot from him. Out of position I might try to take a flop and see how it develops, but in position he has seriously think you have AA KK QQ JJ AK AQ, and that his QT just shriveled up with a miracle flop.

One of the interesting things I noted about my favorite guy when I was out of position and made a call preflop with a medium kicker suited A and hit my A on the flop, I could lead every street with top pair and he would call me down with middle pair or some screwy draw. If I checked the river he would bluff about the pot to 2/3 pot every time. After I got accustomed to checking with the intent of calling with no real kicker top pair I started taking down these about 4:1. It rapidly became a no pressure situation win or lose on the river with Axs type hands. I was ferreting out his better A if he raised the turn a majority of the time. I was winning more than I was losing by check calling the river with one pair hands. If his raise meant AQ AJ AT more it would be time for me to start folding the turn.

Playing these guys will let you trade your balls of steel in for platinum if you can figure out their hand selection and post flop betting. Tighter when you are smaller stacked, more aggressive with money that matters, is a good start with little risk, taking the risk when you are in better position money wise. Most of them are smart enough to realize if they have $1k and you have $600-$700 when you pop them on the flop for $100-$200 that they better hold something better than KJ that missed by the turn, because you are getting ready to start stacking. If you only have $300-$400 that most likely you are no real threat to their stack and that the pressure they can create will be greater than yours.

Unfortunately Aisthesis there is no easy answer, or one that everyone can come to a conclusion as the best way to handle this guy. I've tried to write this response four times, but keep having to re-write it because I don't want to give the wrong impression of fostering a very LAG approach against them. It is a fine line of hammering and let them pound your very good hands that is confusing for me to describe. A mixed approach of picking spots and boards that you feel is favorable to your hand to ethier raise or let them bluff off chips is best. It is kind of like playing someone that raises a lot preflop heads up, so much of it is by feel that attempting to write it becomes difficult. I'm going to sleep on it and if some clarifying hands against my favorite guy like this comes to mind I will post again.

I thought rdales comments were spot on. However, not being as advanced as he is, let me tell you what I do because I too hate this type of loose preflop raiser.

MOVE.

That is the easiest and cheapest solution I know. If I stay, can I possibly pick the right spots? Sure. However, if I stay it is also (should say probably) likely that I will pick some wrong spots, have good starting hands devalued which costs $, and also get a bit too loose and too tilty if I pick several wrong spots. Much safer and profitable for me just to move.

I'd love to hear what others do though.

Tim

I feel a little under qualified to comment here but in the interests of learning I am going to try to put my thoughts. Playing lower limits means this isn't as odd an occurance so I think it is something that is worth posting on.

I tend to start by looking at how the loose raiser is post flop. On the $50NL tables you can get quite often at least one player with a PFR over 15%. I want to know how glued to their hands they get and will they drop on the flop to a raise or always play to the turn.

I think these are the sort of situations where you really have to make the biggest adjustments. Playing weak and passive players is not to tough if you lose the complicated fancy stuff and figure you need to showdown the best hand nearly everytime (thats the condensed version). Against the looser more aggressive players I really think you have to pick you spot. This is the tough bit but then I know if I am going to sit with a loose raiser I am looking at some point to get all my chips in with them.

Personally my plan is this. I will tighten up on my marginal holdings (say low AXs) but be ready to punch harder with middle holdings (say QJs). Once I figure how sticky the player is to missed flops then I will try to punch with very direct play straight back. When out of position I try to lead into the raiser, in position I am raising on them. I figure my variance will go up but then the flip side being that my big hands should get paid off more than normal.

I have found in my experiance that if you pick the right moments you can sometimes tame these players. I know one table where I could fold the guy on the flop just by raising having tussled twice with him taking large chunks of his stack.

I agree with the sentiment about moving table if you don't like it. That is the easiest since playing against the loose raiser will often mean adjusting out of your comfort zone. Personally I like the challenge but then maybe I would make more if I wasn't such a bear wrestler. I do think though you can learn a lot in trying to find this guys weakness, and these are the people you can make "plays" on if you discover their soft spots.