What do you guys do at crazy tables? My ITM% is way down at very loose aggressive games.

I've just played 3 $10 games on Stars. Each of them had 2 or 3 guys playing 60-70% of pots, raising every one preflop and betting pot first in every time, then calling each other or anyone else who was in.

Every pot it seemed that one of the maniacs would hit their flush, 2 pair, straight etc and the maniacs had big chip leads and got even more aggressive.

My approach is to sit tight and wait for cards, then play hard in the hope of catching them.

1st game - lost a few chips folding TPTK to a reraise - wish i hadn't seeing the other moves the guy made later. Then sat tight until AK comes along. Raise 4BB pre, called by 3, flop KT4 rainbow, push, called by 2 of them and lose to a 64 when the river gives him a third 4.

2nd game - another early raise from a guy who's raising 25% of the hands. I call his raise with AQ OTB assuming he's got junk. Flop A52, he bets pot, I push to get rid of him and he calls with AK, I'm out.

3rd game - blinded down and down without anything to call one of the early raisers with. Try an all in from the SB to steal a blind with KQ when I'm running low, LAG in BB calls with junk and puts me out.

How do you play these very loose games, i just find them so frustrating I want to smack my computer when maniac after maniac hits his gutshot or pairs his terrible kicker. Am I right to push and hope or is there a different way?

Please help your frustrated poster with some wise words, even if they are "your poker sucks, take up snap"

The Don

I've been running up against this same sort of thing for the past few days in the $20 and $30 SnGs at Poker Stars. I never used to see it that much there, all of a sudden they've come out of the woodwork the past few days, and they're making me insane.

I've been crippled or eliminated in about four tournaments over the past two nights by idiots playing crap cards and then nailing a back-door flush or gutshot straight or a lucky two pair or something.

It only seems to be happening at Stars, so I'm just going to play at Bodog and Ultimate Bet for now to avoid those people. Maybe it'll settle down over there.

Here's an example of what's been happening:

POKERSTARS GAME #1670293374: TOURNAMENT #7787210, HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL III (25/50) - 2005/05/10 - 02:14:36 (ET)
Table '7787210 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: PokerLion (4215 in chips)
Seat 2: drillrod (1280 in chips)
Seat 3: joedaddy6969 (1125 in chips)
Seat 4: Sammyd024466 (1795 in chips)
Seat 6: deltrain (990 in chips)
Seat 7: CSTACKS (1110 in chips)
Seat 8: flafishy (2150 in chips)
Seat 9: jja12181 (835 in chips)
joedaddy6969: posts small blind 25
Sammyd024466: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to flafishy [As 4s]
deltrain: calls 50
CSTACKS: calls 50
flafishy: calls 50
jja12181: folds
PokerLion: folds
drillrod: folds
joedaddy6969: folds
Sammyd024466: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ac 4c 3h]
Sammyd024466: checks
deltrain: checks
CSTACKS: bets 300
flafishy: raises 600 to 900
Sammyd024466: folds
deltrain: folds
CSTACKS: raises 160 to 1060 and is all-in
flafishy: calls 160
*** TURN *** [Ac 4c 3h]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 4c 3h 9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CSTACKS: shows [Tc 8c] (a flush, Ace high)
flafishy: shows [As 4s] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
CSTACKS collected 2345 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2345 | Rake 0
Board [Ac 4c 3h 9c 9s]
Seat 1: PokerLion folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: drillrod (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: joedaddy6969 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Sammyd024466 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: deltrain folded on the Flop
Seat 7: CSTACKS showed [Tc 8c] and won (2345) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: flafishy showed [As 4s] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines
Seat 9: jja12181 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Aaaahh. Just had another one.

I get KK, EP raises to 60, I reraise to 200, EP calls.
Flop AKJ. Dangerous. He checks so I don't mess about and bet 400. He calls.
Turn is a 2, He checks. I bet 800. He calls.
River is a 10. He checks. Oh dear, maybe he has a Q. I check and he had QQ all along.

He called those big bets and raises with two overcards on the board against his QQ, then won with a lucky straight.

I am going to take up snap.

Sorry for the dull bad beat story readers but I am genuinely looking for advice on how to play this kind of game.

Don't disagree with you at all, kdiddy. But if you get on a particularly bad run and are getting tilted, it's best to sit it out for awhile is what I'm saying.

Hey! Just noticed I hit the century mark in posts with this one.

Very nice, DQ. Glad I could help. It works for me. Preflop, I play the opponent, not the cards. On the flop, it's about 50-50. If we're both still in the pot after the flop, then I'll play the cards on the turn and river.

I think your first objective is to keep control of the betting. Essentially, only let him have a small pot when you want to give it to him to confuse him.

But if you keep at him like that, you'll eventually wear him down and force him to make a serious mistake. Your job is to keep your focus and not let it waver.

Obviously, the more of these heads-ups you play, the sharper your instincts will become. Stick with it. It's a strategy that has worked very well for me.