OK, I found a guy I cant beat heads up

[iceman5]

Well, at least I was having a really tough time figuring out what to do.

He raised on the button to $6 EVERY time. He bet $10 on the flop EVERY time. if I called the flop, he bet $30 on the turn about 3/4 of the time.

I reraised him preflop several times and he folded every time but once when he 4 bet me.

I raised his $10 flop bet several ties with nothing and he folded every time except once which was this hand

He raised $6 and I call with [4s].
Flop came [6c][4c]. He bet $10 as always. I CR to $30 and he reraised to $90. I pushed and he called with [7c]. Pretty horrible if you ask me but it held up.

I started calling his raises with weaker hands than I wouldve liked because otherwise I couldnt play a hand. I missed just about every single so that may be a big part of my trouble in these 150 hands, but I really felt liek he just ran over me. As I said, when I check raised the flop with nothing he folded every time because obviosuly he had nothing most every time, but if thats my strategy and I do it too often, im sure he will start re-raising me with nothing.

Ideas?

I didnt have trouble with him when I had the button because he didnt call a single raise. he folded almost every time but reraised me twice.

The only other big hand I raised with 99, he reraised to $25 and I pushed $206 all in.. He called with AK and I held up.

The rest was just him raising and running over me because I just kept missing everything.

[black_knight6]

don't play him?

[redhouse]

Reraise with weakish (calling) hands and sponge with legit 3-betting hands instead of 3-betting them.

Of course i dont play HU NL, but that makes sense to me.

[redhouse]

Should mention my logic i guess:

1) Sponging with big hands, especially big hands that hit bigger are going to make him rethink relentless agression. Especially postflop. Its hard not to get greedy, but its important to do this and save value raising for the river (future hands and so on...) just often enough for him to fear it.
2) Calling down with A high and the like on friendly boards (probably more applicable to limit) is going to show him that you're willing to make those calls and make him likely to stop trying to push you around at least on his truly hopeless hands.

I guess that sounds like 1, but its a little different cause its a different kind of doubt that it creates in him. 1 is about him being cautious and fearing the monster. 2 is about making him fear that you read him for the rubbish he has. Basically both are about creating situations where his aggression backfires and making him play passively when he really is weak. Since you know he's so aggressive otherwise, you know there's no trickiness and can take down pots when he does show this weakness.

And finally,

3) He is still raising preflop with crap, so he does fear the 3-bet. Raising with calling hands is (a) still likely to be ahead of his range and (b) not excessive because you've reduced your 3 bets with the 'real' 3-betting hands. So you shouldnt be as scared of overdoing it.

All of the above is derived from limit games. Adjust and apply as makes sense in NL.

[T-Rod]

1) Flop top two pair against his bottom two. Duh! (inside joke)

2) I say don't play him unless you want to go to variance city. I think the only viable strategy is to start 4 betting light, etc. Yuck.

3) Copy his style and play at a differnet table?

[iceman5]

Well, I most likely will just avoid him since this isnt about pride, but I would like to figure out how to combat that strategy since thats how most of the guys play as you move higher.

I could just fold to all of his raises unless I have a real hand in which case I reraise(which is what he did to me), but talk about boring. He raises , I fold....I raise he folds....on and on and on. BORING!

I think I should call some raises and then slow play him when I hit TP or better, since he bets every flop and about 3/4 of the turns, but in 150 hands I only hit TP one time after calling his raise so I never had a chance to do anything like that.

Up to this point, Ive only found 3 guys who gave me trouble. This guy, one guy who semi bluff raised alot to put pressure on me but he kept hitting gutshots and things like that so I lost 3 buy ins to him. The last guy was raisng every hand so I just left.

Other than that, most of the 1/2 heads up players have pretty much let me play my game. I raise a moderate amount from the button but Im not overly crazy about it. I like to keep the pots smallish and outplay them post flop over and over again.

[Aisthesis]

I've had a lot of trouble with this kind of opponent, too. I guess it goes to show how aggression can make things difficult. Bad runs of cards are particularly frustrating against this type, of course, but I think you just have to go ahead and fold.

First, to the button raises: He's raising every hand, but you're OOP. I still think it's correct to call with top 50% of HU starting hands. You're usually ahead. I'd also re-raise big ($24 or so) on top 20% OOP.

Then on the flop: Ok, he predictably bets $10 into the pot of $12. I guess the solution is to CR to maybe $30 on any hit (good draws and as low as bottom pair). That puts you at somewhere a little over 1/3 on your CR. If you always take it down with the CR, you're losing $4 2/3 of the time but winning $16 1/3 of the time. That's profitable, and I think he has to adjust his strategy. But he's also not going to fold every time either if he continues along those lines--sometimes he is going to hit something and/or have a good starting hand. So, if he calls or re-raises, you just have to play it from there.

When you have position, it sounds like he's too inclined to fold to your raises. As long as he's doing that, I switch over to raising BOTTOM 1/4 of starting hands. Oh, and by the way, I have had really good luck with Harrington's idea of mini-raising with position but raising fairly big OOP. If he still folds more than 80% of the time, I go to raising my worst hands so that I'm actually playing with position hands that are on average superior to his. Of course, if he starts calling, I switch to raising the good hands.

Anyhow, I think this kind of player is just tough (tried doing it myself, though, but couldn't really make it work), but those are my ideas for counter-strategies.

[Aisthesis]

Another addition after reading your subsequent remarks: With TP or better, I wouldn't CR his CB but flat call and CR most turns.

I think these are decent counters as long as he doesn't change his strategy. When he does that, you have to adapt, too--but he's no longer playing "his" game.

[iceman5]

"Then on the flop: Ok, he predictably bets $10 into the pot of $12. I guess the solution is to CR to maybe $30 on any hit (good draws and as low as bottom pair). That puts you at somewhere a little over 1/3 on your CR. If you always take it down with the CR, you're losing $4 2/3 of the time but winning $16 1/3 of the time. That's profitable, and I think he has to adjust his strategy. "

How do I lose $4 2/3 of the time and win $16 1/3 of the time if I always take it down with a CR?

I did CR to $30 about 6 times. One time I had bottom pair and straight draw which was the hand I posted. We got all after he reraised me with TPWK which i couldnt believe. The other 5 or so times I CR to $30, I had absolutley nothing but he folded.

I didnt try CR with bottim pair. I tried to just call and float him so to speak but that didnt work because he would bet $30 on the turn and I would be in a tough spot not knowing if he had anything or not.

I also never tried leading into him which I probably should have just to see what he would do. I really NEVER hit a good hand which made it pretty tough to figure out what to do.

[Aisthesis]

You still miss 2/3 of the time, so you lose the amount you put in to call the raise. He's put in $6 on the raise and then $10 on the CB for a total of $16.

At least if it's me, I normally don't CR with air here, but with a wide range of decent hands.

[Aisthesis]

Bottom pair might also be a good hand to lead as experiment, but I'm not sure about leading at all as long as he's 100% on the CB.

[iceman5]

OK, but if Im on run of cards like I had this time where I miss almost every time, Im going to either lose $4 a bunch of times or Im going to have to CR with nothing sometimes which throws the 2/3...1/3 equation way off. UNless of course I CR 1/3 of the total hands even if I dont have anything.

[Ojingo]

[iceman5]

I lost about $150. I left right after doubling up with 99 all in preflop vs AK. I probably shouldnt have because at that point I had $420 or so and he had $375ish and I think his stratgey would be alot tougher to pull off with deep stacks, but since I still had no idea how to beat him, I decided to leave.

I dont think hes particulary good. He basically playing like a robot preflop and on the flop. His turn play was a little confusing because he didnt bet every time but most of the time and he couldnt have a hand that often. Based on the one hand where he had 97, I think I could stack him repeatedly if I hit some hands. I just dont think you can play for a whole stack with 97 on a 764 flop after you get check raised by a guy who keeps folding.

He also paid me on this hand.

I limped from the button with [3h] (Accidently). He checked with [6h]

Flop [9h][2h]. Check / check
Turn . I bet $5 and he called.
River . I bet $25 into a $14 pot and he called.

So again, I dont think hes good. He just plays like a robot and hopes you fold too much which is what I was doing.

[m9man]

we are only talking about the hands where villain has button right? dumb question i know...

I think you have to check call all the way down with medium strngth holdings to counter him.

obv CR (bluff and legit) to mix it up. but i think the most imp thing is to call down with stuff you would normally muck. curious if u called flop callled turn, how much would he bet on the river? if hes really tricky he'll pot it...be tough to call down with A high then...

FWIW trying to out-aggro an aggro usually doesn't work very well...