a table full of maniacs

[krakajak]

i get AJs in early position in .5/$1 NL. I raise the pot to a dollar. I get 3 callers, and the button goes all in. I know he's trying to steal, but at the same time, if he has pocket 2's and no A or J hits, my ass is kicked, so I fold. One guy calls him. It turns out the original bettor had 9Js, and he got high carded by the caller, who had K7o.
I encounter these type of players pretty often in these low stakes no limit games. I suppose the the best thing to do is just to find another table. But I keep thinking that it would be easy to take their money, so I stick around and wait for QQ or better. But then I never get it, or when I do, they seem to know somehow, and fold even if I just limp in. They're fish, but very slippery ones, and I haven't figured out how to catch them. So I usually end up just getting bullied out of all my good hands, limiping in from late position when I can, and barely making enough to pay fo my blinds. I keep telling myself to loosen up, but then when the situation arises I say, "just cause he's a maniac doesn't mean he didn't get good cards this time."
What kind of hand would you require to call an all-in in this type of game?

[Sh1rp]

Preflop, you might as well wait for A X suited or A T offsuit. Once the flop hits, I'd call with middle pair and a good kicker as long as there's no straight or flush draws out there.

[Jauron]

Sounds like your afraid to lose your money, or your afraid of being labeled a bad player.


Against bad or loose players you can't be afraid of either one. If I raise it preflop with AJ and a guy who plays loose goes all in, I call. This happened to me a few days ago, where I brought AJos in for $6 all day, the loose guy raises me another $6, I go all in for another $28. He calls, he has K,J os. I win so long as he doesn't hit a king, he doesn't.

Now could he of had Aces in the whole? Sure but I'm not going to give him aces everytime he goes all in or I won't play a hand.



Now if it's a tight player making that move, I'll consider folding AJos, but loose players are gonna get paid off if they happen to have a better hand.

[Jauron]

BTW, the worst thing you can do it crawl into your shell and not play, then suddenly play a hand and expect it to go unoticed.

Before you sit down at that table decide what hands your willing to get all your money in the pot with (3 is not enough) and then decide which hands are worth half your money, now play both as agressively as you can against those same loose players. If somebody raises you on one of those hands, go all in if your afraid of being outplayed on the flop.

Poker is always about getting all your money in the pot with the best hand possible. Instead of letting him put the screws to you, put them to him. Let him know he can't buy you out of YOUR pot. He'd better wait for those premium hands before messing with you when you come in for a raise.

[Ensano]

i had that same problem with my home game.. everyone was a really weak loose agressive player.. you have to simply take them to school.. lol.. again a tight image would be the way to go.. like the prev post said you raised with your A-J and he went all in.. if you've got more chips than him.. reraise all in.. make him think to himself ah @#$%... then you beat him.. do that enough times they'll start to tighten up.. at least against you.. just make sure you sit to the left of those maniacs... you'll lower the chance of getting reraised that way and they'll always have to bet before you.. so you know if you missed your flop and they go all in you can get out instead of betting to try and pick up the pot and getting pushed out.. also just playing straightforeward is another way.. if like you said they keep folding every time you're raising in the pot.. thats good.. you've accomplished your tight image.. you then start to loosen up your requirements to playing lower suited connectors and lower pairs.. again.. trash is still trash... and when you've got your image as a straightforeward tight player.. thats of course when you switch gears and start raising on the button with 2-3 suited.. betting out when the flop comes K-9-4.. you'll see you'll pick up enough pots to more than pay for the times someone actually does have a king.. if someone say reraises you in that spot you'd of course fold.. but you get the idea