Every online poker game has at least one player who are betting and raising machines. You know the type – the player who seemingly raises every hand, only to continue relentless pressure from the flop and beyond. While this hyper-aggressive player can frustrate an entire field, there are ways to hold the maniac at bay, taking his chips in the process.
A hyper-aggressive player’s main asset – and perhaps his only weapon is constant pressure. Every hand the player is involved with he is typically taking charge of the hand. The hyper-aggressive player relies on control, fear, and pressure to turn a profit. He frustrates you into calling when you should not, and folding when you clearly are ahead. He clouds our judgment. The hyper-aggressive player rarely has to make tough decisions, as he leaves the big choices to his opposition. However, when you turn the tables, not only can you cool off a hot hyper-aggressive poker player, but also you can extract chips from him in the process.
How to Deal with Hyper-aggressive Players
The best way to deal with a hyper-aggressive player is to turn the tables on him. Simply put, instead of playing his game his way, put the pressure back on him. You will notice, once the table has identified the maniac, they typically all want a piece of him, yet they go about it incorrectly. They allow him to continue betting and raising, only to dive out of the way last second – calling down the stretch and betting out when they have something. This is all wrong.
To combat a maniac correctly, you want to be willing to reraise him with a wide range of holdings. Take the pressure he is attempting to throw at you and redirect it to him. When the maniac raises preflop, be willing to raise him with mediocre holdings such as 8-7 suited, or your pocket sixes. Make him think twice about tangling with you. You will find that over time, he will either slow down or fold to your PokerStars pressure – just like the table folds to his constant pressure. The hyper-aggressive player hates the check-raise. Be willing to reraise and check-raise him non-stop to keep him off balance and show him that you know his game and are willing to beat him at it every time.
Next time you sit at the table with a maniac, start out by giving him a taste of his own medicine. Apply constant and relentless pressure on him, and see how he does wi
As the tournament progresses to the middle stages – the blinds begin increasing in relation to the average stack. Many online poker rooms, such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker begin the ante stages as well during these middle stages. While early on in a poker tournament, where you extract most of your money after the flop, focusing more on your preflop play is key to negotiating the middle stages of your poker tournament.
As the blinds increase and antes come into play, pots begin to be worthwhile to take down preflop. While not wise to raise often preflop early on in a poker tournament, you will begin to raise hands for value, as well as in looking to isolate players.
Additionally, your play will tighten up somewhat, as solid play, timing and hand selection becomes more important. You will begin raising preflop with “good hands” and when trying to gain isolation. Surely you will focus on winning money after the flop; however, the stealing of the blinds becomes a common art form here.
Mid-Tournament Bet Sizing
While we should always be aware of our bet sizes, as the blinds progress and the average stack shortens, relative to the blinds and antes – the size of our bets begin to matter more. Plan each bet with precision. Be aware as to whether or not you are raising to a point where you or your opposition is committed to the pot. Paying close attention to such things will make the decision making process easier for you when determining whether to continue in your stealing efforts, or simply give up. Additionally, if your opposition on FullTilt is committed to the pot, it makes a borderline call decision easier to digest, as the likelihood of your opponent trying to pull a reverse steal increases significantly.
Ideal Targets for Successfully Stealing Blinds
In the tournament’s middle stages, when in position, one should most often target tighter, weaker poker players. In addition, ideal steal candidates include players at or near average stack size. Deeper stacked opposing players are likely to try to bully and re-steal, while shorter stacked players will be more inclined to want to race for their tournament life. These players should be targeted with your better holdings, as a rule.
Keep Stealing, Play High Pressure Poker
Stealing the blinds in the middle stages of a poker tournament can really help create a mountain of poker chips for you. By taking calculated risk, targeting specific players, and sizing your raises accordingly, you stand to gain most profit during the middle stages of a poker tourney by stealing the blinds preflop, and on the flop.
Are there outside factors involved in how a casino chooses its shuffle point for blackjack? By outside factor, I mean something other than the immediate variables at the table itself. I think the answer to this is yes, and I’ll explain why because it can help you determine where to play if you count, another tool to maximize your statistical advantage when trying to make serious money at the game.
Every casino varies in terms of what shuffle point they use…meaning how far into the deck, or decks, they go before the cards are re-shuffled. This is an entirely different variable than the type of shuffle used. A 50% shuffle point is somewhat average, at least out on the West Coast of the United States. Where the dealer places the marker will tell you, most of the time, where the shuffle will be.
If you’re a card counter, having the ability to go deeper into the deck is favorable, since you see more of the cards pass through before they are shuffled, and thus can assume with a higher probability of accuracy the probability of certain cards showing up.
So why would a casino favor a deeper shuffle point? It would seem only to benefit the card-counting player? The one major reason why can be attributed to competition. Not between you and the house, but between different casinos, especially outside of a famous location where the game is the only draw. Players, especially knowledgeable ones, are more likely to frequent a casino where they feel the odds are closer to even than at other places. Casinos know this, and adjust little things to draw a larger crowd.
Regardless of which card-counting system you use (high-low, red 7, Ten Count), a deeper shuffle point increases your odds at the table. Why else would a casino do this regularly? Another answer is it’s not the casino, but it’s the work of an ignorant dealer. Don’t kid yourself, they exist in every casino across the world. In the top hotels, they are identified early and dismissed, but it lower-level casinos, you can easily happen upon one who just doesn’t care or doesn’t know enough to consistently pay close attention to the shuffle point. For a professional gambler, one playing blackjack solely to make money, finding yourself across the felt from one of these dealers is like having a rare chunk of meat plopped right in front of a caged tiger.