How to Prevail Over Different Kinds of Players
It’s happened to anyone who’s played a decent amount of poker games. You get stuck in a game that the fish are prevalent against all odds, the maniacs are just going nuts and even though you think you’re going to take advantage of them, by the end of it you’re stuck below what you started with. Besides being frustrated you wonder how these fish can beat you.
However, fear not, you’re not getting worse you just need a different set of skills to play against these types of players. The reason you can’t play against these types of players the way you normally would against good players is because the psychology is completely different, the mistakes they make are different, and therefore your strategy has to be different.
Let’s get the easy one out of the way and talk about how to play fish that are just calling stations. The term calling station is used when a player limps into every pot he can pre-flop and usually is a loose passive player who will call any draw. These used to be the “normal” kind of player before the poker explosion in which all the poker books teach you how to beat. This player is also the one you can expect to take the most money from. You play these kinds of people like all of the poker books tell you to very straightforward. In other words you stick to your big hands as well as drawing to your flushes and straights when the pot odds are in your favor. Also when you do have those big hands or you end up flopping the nuts bet aggressively, because they will continuously call bad hands and chase their draws with no success. These players are most likely to compound their mistakes up for you to profit from.
Also you want to play your premium hands aggressively until you meet big resistance. However be cautious when playing these kinds of players as well. Just because they are calling stations doesn’t mean they can’t get lucky and get a good hand so don’t think of their hand range unreasonably. Finally, when dealing with these kinds of players you shouldn’t bluff. The nickname should give away why you can’t bluff. Since they are calling stations they will just call you and it’s not to say that you can’t bluff them, it’s just not going to be profitable for you to do so.
Then there is the maniac who’s a little trickier to play than normal. Maniacs are players who always play aggressively no matter what the circumstances. This means he is willing to raise with any kind of hand or draw and isn’t afraid to bet three or four times or go all in even on a bluff. Maniacs are usually the first to start betting, however some of the better ones slow down when they face a lot of raises and re-raises.
When dealing with a maniac you’ll want to play extremely tight. Since Omaha is a situational game try to get into the flops for no extra cost. In some cases that you do carry a premium had bet it aggressively pre-flop. If the maniac slows down when people re-raise him then just call his bets when you have a good hand. If he doesn’t do this then re-raise him when you have a good hand, or if you have the perfect nuts that can’t be beat push him all in. Granted the maniac can be extremely frustrating to play however, if you can be patient you can profit pretty well from them. Also as a side not these players are good for loosening up the rest of the table.
Finally there are the amateurs who don’t know how to size up a bet. This means that they usually over bet when they are bluffing and they under bet with their good hands. They tend to also slow play all their hands. The key to getting the upper hand on these kinds of players is to figure out a pattern for their madness. The biggest thing is to stay on top of your game and watch if he has a pattern when he plays pre-flop and exactly how he bets. Also watch out for players that like to switch up their under and over betting. They do this to attempt to throw you off track. The problems that occur with under betting and over betting are simple. If you over bet your hand you’re risking too much money for what you might win in return. The problem with under betting is that if your opponents are chasing draws you are letting them see the cards for too cheap. For example if they are chasing a flush or straight draw and you make a pot sized bet, mathematically it’s incorrect for them to chase their draws. However, if they do you can take advantage of their mistakes.