Recently for me, it's not the bad beats. I can handle these as part of the game. The thing that frustrates me so much is players who continually min raise and min bet. It's so aggravating.

Here's a situation from last night....2-4 NL 6 Max

I'm in the SB with 9-9

Average player little on the loose side min raises to $8

I reraise to $25 and we're heads up. Flop comes down K-4-x (2 hearts).

I"m not a huge fan of the King since he could easily have KQ or AK or KJ so I check.

My opponent fires out a bet of, you got it $4 into a pot of $45.

I really have a hard time reading this sort of gay bet. It really ticks me off. I raise to about $35-40 to find out if he has a king and cause I hate that gay betting.

He calls me. Now what? I don't know if this guy is drawing, if he has a king, a set?

I can normally read people well, but when they play this style it's so hard to tell what they're thinking or doing.

Anyways the turn is a blank and I check and he checks.

River pairs the board with the . Excellent.

I check. He now fires $70.

I fold in disgust.

I have no problem playing most muppets online, but how do you guys play against constant min-raising with semi-marginal hands when you pick up 77-1010. I typically reraise pretty hard, but I'm not sure I'm playing it right. I think it's the best play because you're forcing them to hit their overs, which I think is what they have. Hands like Q10s, AQo, A5s but I'm starting to second guess myself.

How do you guys play against this "style"?

I can hardly call it a style because it ticks me off!

I think your opponent definitely had a K and his $4 into a $45 pot was a bet he was hoping would get raised.

Depending on how savvy my opponent is, I might just consider going into calling station mode. If the guy really has squat, and you just continue to call (instead of raising) his small bets, he will eventually try to build a pot and tell you what he has. If he never does, then you can squish him on the river.

TR

Well, I'm tempted to say that I don't tilt anymore. I will go get a breath of fresh air if I notice that I'm making some kind of weird play (which I definitely am capable of doing).

In this kind of situation, I think what causes tilt is not having a clear counter-strategy. If I see what someone is doing and have a clear concept of what I want to do against it, then I'm not tilting, I'm just waiting for the opportunities that I have clearly defined in my mind.

Raisers are probably THE problem in this case. What I've noticed is that the vast majority of raisers (at least at my game) definitely do NOT have reasonable raising criteria. Last night there was a guy who was seeing every flop and probably raising close to 30%.

Well, this is a spot where the conventional wisdom of calling raises with PP or AK only just doesn't apply. KQ is very good here, and there's no point in laying it down. 22 is actually significantly worse because it doesn't hit very often (I'll still call the raise if it's somewhat multi-way, despite the opinion of various pros that this is a bad call). I'm probably also calling this raiser with KJ, certainly with AJ.

Well, to continue the story, I've had several of these types and often am sitting there thinking, "Well, damn, I just called $25, but they have a K, too, and they just took the initiative. So, K probably isn't going to hit, and I'm throwing away my $25."

Well, that's in part true. But when you do both hit, which is admittedly somewhat rare, they get nailed big time.

Here was my last big hand from last night at the 5/10 game: EP raises (he sat down just before my smoke break, but I already figured him for muppet-ish--no detailed read, though) to $25 (at a 5/10 game!), and I look down on AK on the button.

Flop comes A rags. He checks in such a way that I already put him on AJ (I wouldn't have been surprized at AQ, but AJ just felt right and was exactly what he had). I bet out 2/3 pot. He calls. Turn another rag. He checks again. I bet $100, and he moves in for another $350. Easy call for me and he turns over AJ, so I stack him.

Well, on the AK it was particularly easy. But I really think you have to get a quick read on your raiser (and you can do it quickly if they're constantly raising) and taylor your calling criteria to what they're doing.

Honestly, I would have just folded your 99. I simply have no desire to go anywhere with a hand that has no real draw and is less than TP in a raised pot. Too many slowplayers, etc. I guess second pair can be a "buy the pot" attempt from LP, but I'm not a big fan in a raised pot, even if it is only a mini-raise.

But I wouldn't hesitate to call this mini-raise with a lot of big card hands--my selection is just going to be a hair tighter than my limp hand selection. And, with a loose raiser, that also means that I'm generally entering the pot with a better hand than they have. True, they took some initiative with the raise, but that's not necessarily a good thing if my hand is better than theirs.

I dont reraise 99 against a moron like this because hes going to call and then you have problems just like you did here. Just call his min raise and play some poker....but with a smaller pot.

Min raising does piss me off, but I dont tilt because of it. I sit and wait for the right time to pounce. Yesterday there were a few guys doing it and I was saying in chat that it was the worst play in poker. A little discussion preceeded.

Then a guy min raised from UTG. It got folded to me in the BB and I pushed in a full stack with AA. The guy called me with JJ. Gotta love it.

These morons will almost always have a small to middle pair or Axs (but somce do it with KQ, KJs and things like that). I play my normal game until I see what they are doing it with and then I play accordingly. If a guy always does it with a pair, then I call and raise any flop because chances are he missed his set and will fold. if a guy always does it with Axs, then I raise any flop that doesn have a flush draw or an ace....ect...