What's your plan when a LAG sits behind you?
1/3 home game 8~9 handed.
The LAG sits directly behind me. 3betting me light, I 4bet the first time, he folded.
Next hand, I was on btn iso'ing a limper, he still 3bet light against me in sb, a player behind coldcalled w/AA in bb, lag had TJo cbet/3bship on t83.
He was bluffing alot also, in or out of position. Can make some light call down depending on board/player. Mixing big and small bets with bluffs on river. Somewhat decent/competent.
Effective stacks were 700 .
I nitted it up the whole time. Feels I lose too much value from the table.
Eventually table turned into shorthanded I moved to sit behind him. Then another crazy lag marked me as target sat directly behind me again. She had mad leaks, bluff raise like a maniac so it was ok but preflop I was super nitty again. She only buys in for 300~400, rebought a few times. She is aggro preflop, postflop likes to random bluff raise or float ip.
So how to play vs these lags oop?
I turn into the nittiest player at the table yet I still get owned oop vs them.
6 Replies
By the way, I was direct left of a huge aggro donkfish that was my mark. Hard to get hands in with him, when my LAG buddy likes to squeeze/3b light. I've tried trapping, he just folds to a back4bet.
I love having a LAG directly behind me... when I'm sitting on my shortstack of $200 at 1/3 NL. It works perfectly with my limp/reraise strategy and he works great as my unwitting partner.
Deep, I simply don't sit to the close right of a LAG. I typically attempt to sit across the table from him. And if that ain't gonna happen then I simply table change.
Gstep1:setupagoodsituation;step2:therearenootherstepsG
A lag at a home game is almost guaranteed to be a terrible player. Yes you play less hands, mixing in timely strong bluffs since their ranges will often be too weak to defend
As much as I hate GG's "I limp pre, but that's my style" strat, it does work pretty well with a LAG to our direct left.
It sucks when we're card-dead, and sucks even more if our usual style is also somewhat LAG (like mine is), because playing back just becomes a shooting match, and we're almost always OOP.
To GG's point, it helps to have a limp-raise range, but it can't just be nutty hands, because LAGs over-fold when opponents play back at them. If I want the guy on my left to cut the $hlt, I'll limp-3B him huge with garbage, and show him the bluff. Just don't go to that well too often. I rarely go to it more than once a session.
The cool thing about having a limp-raise range is that it makes a strong impression, even if you only do it once. Thinking players seem to automatically discount that your opens are going to be strong, so they start 3B'ing you light, which, for a LAG, means REALLY light.
Obviously we're 4B'ing AA/KK, but we can have a lot more continues than they'd expect - PP's and SC's that can flop well, and make sneaky-strong hands, opening up opportunities for us to x/r post-flop, or just bluff catch a strong range vs their weak / wide 3B range.
You can also vary your open size. Like, if the standard RFI is $15, open for $10 or $12 when you'll be OOP and $18-$20 when you're IP. Don't vary the raise size based on the hand strength, unless you're betting small with a big PP, trying to induce a 3B, so you can 4B.
Generally, I'm going to try to rein in my aggro instincts with a LAG on my direct left, and play more like GG - limp, call, trap, bluff-catch, check-raise, donk with thick value multi-way, occasionally bluff, call down light, cause max pain, wash, rinse, repeat...
The LAG sits directly behind me. 3betting me light, I 4bet the first time, he folded.
Next hand, I was on btn iso'ing a limper, he still 3bet light against me in sb, a player behind coldcalled w/AA in bb, lag had TJo cbet/3bship on t83.
Not an expert on 4betting but seems like you should employ a 4bet polar range and do some work on your sizing (using a smaller RFI size might help too). I'd be playing deeper, if possible, which will help your 4bet strategy. Alternatively you could play shallower and expand your 4bet linear range.
I don't buy into the assumption that LAGs (such a retro term) are difficult to play against; generally those who are playing too many hands are easier to navigate because they're providing more data.
Also I would NOT seat move and instead learn how to play OOP against (i.e. exploit) an opponent with a relatively high RFI freq (i.e. LAGfish).
200bb deep, this position sucks, but I'll take it as an opportunity to iron out my game in OOP spots.
As I don't personally like a limping strategy, I would study OOP 4B ranges preflop and ramp up 4-bet bluff frequencies, hands like low suited connectors, low Ax, KJs/KTs.
Postflop, check range on most flops, and check raise aggressively with both valuebets and bluffs.
I would generally increase aggression significantly against this player, which would inevitably lead to higher variance, but it's good practice and allows us to work on our mental game as well.
