Crazy Game Strategies?
So, guy I don’t know goes $40 blind pre-flop, and a whale I do know calls blind and they take the flop without looking at their cards. Then they’re both trying to peak without the other one seeing them. Kinda a romper room.
Mix that in with more pros finding our room (not just playing against the locals anymore), and it looks tougher to profit in the future.
I had a bad (fold all day) run of cards and could barely get out of there with a few dollars more.
Does anyone else run into these crazy games and have any advice? Can’t just focus on exploiting the whales, because a couple of pros in the game can exploit us.
In general, it’s looking like more strong regs flooding our room and trading coolers with each other. I feel like I’m losing my edge and there’s no table to switch to.
Any advice or comments welcome and appreciated
4 Replies
Maybe it’s hard questions that I ask, maybe no good answers. I just look around the table some days and know it will be tough to profit.
No financial pressure on me, but if I was a pro this would be a tough situation. I expect the pros to flame out. In a large room, you can find the poor players & join them. In a small room, you have to play against the players that show up.
There’s one or two players that outclass the others and force me to alter my play. But most of the wannabes will never make a living in this room.
Since I’m mostly talking to myself, I will declare that I want to join those couple of players that can beat everyone else. I’m studying everything they do.
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I see the rich guys throwing money around, losing doesn’t bother them. I don’t envy them.
Winning means more to me, I have to find the ticket or take myself out of the game. The money pressure makes me a better player.
Still, I wish I could play soft games more often.
The blind pre-flop stuff is mostly just noise, but the reg-flooding problem is real and harder to fix. When a room shifts like that I start tracking which sessions still have the fish in the lineup and show up specifically for those. Five regs trading coolers at a 9-max table is basically just paying rake with extra steps.
Hey OP,
Your frustration - dare I say confusion - is understandable and relatable. My former four-day/week room runs at least three or four 1-2-2 tables 24-hours/day that sounds exactly like this kind of reckless play. It can be really hard for someone who actually cares about strategy and results to play against.
Here's where I have landed:
- If you can't win, don't play. I don't mean to not play because they can outplay. I mean, if there's no strategy to play against other than the blind confidence of a toddler and super deep pockets, there's nothing you can beat. There's nothing there. It's like trying to beat a hurricane in a boxing match. The hurricane doesn't even know what boxing is but it'll destroy Floyd Mayweather every time.
- Do not - for the love of everything good and pure in this silly card game and everything else - Do NOT try to beat them at their own game. Don't out-stupid them. Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
- Get really taggy and socialize. Get the reckless ones to forget you're playing. You're their buddy...who happens to be asking them about themselves and watching their behavior closely and maybe even buys them a drink. Help them have fun. Everyone at the table but them is better off...and your shot - flopped set of aces or something - will come.
- If the above point doesn't work, that only leaves the first point. Move up a level, switch to a different game (PLO can be really juicy sometimes,) or just go to a different room. Let those weasels push chips back and forth until it's all taken by rake. You're better off going home than incentivizing their nonsense.
I have a ton to learn and I haven't been at this as long as many so I don't pretend to know anything here. This is just where I am as I'm trying to work through a few adjacent issues.
My reg heavy player pool gets some crazy tables. Yesterday, at one point for more than 100+ hands, the pot average was 70% of the max buy-in or higher. Just 3 bet, shoving, bluffing, raising, reraising nonsense.
Personally, my advice for everyone is to only play in a way that is comfortable for you. For me, in these games particularly, I tighten up into a super nit. Only call raises with premium hands and pocket pairs, and only continue with nutted draws, sets, or marginal value if its a loose whale or fish.
I find that I slowly get chipped away not hitting anything, losing like 10-30% of my stack, then I finally get it in good. I just rinse and repeat until I leave. Sometimes its break even, sometimes I double up. Worse case is usually losing half a stack. I'm always topping up in case I get it all in with a strong hand.
Some people LOVE getting splashy in a spewy game like that, go for it. Again, just play in a way that you are comfortable. I'm decent post-flop but not the best. I can easily misplace my aggression and pick the wrong spots in these games so I just go nitty and usually print.
