Joined: Jan '08
Location: Denmark
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 481
A poker bully is by definition too aggressive. In order to be a bully, he must make a fundamental mistake - he must bet and raise too often. When an opponent makes a mistake, there's always a way to take advantage. Here's how to take advantage of a poker bully:
(1) Dont be TOO tight. Because a bully is betting more hands, it's obvious that he must be betting more than just the ones you would normally bet. This means you can relax your calling standards and still make a profit.
(2) Bet less often. A key to defeating a poker bully is to let him hang himself. Since his major mistake is betting too liberally, you should give him every opportunity to defeat himself by repeating that mistake. You should check and call frequently. You should also bet less often when a poker bully checks into you, because a bully likes to check-raise a lot. Therefore when he foregoes the opportunity to be a betting bully, you should be wary of a check-raising bully. Just check along.
When you do these two simple things, the bully has a losing expectation against you. And, in the long run, he cannot win. Sometimes it's tempting to "out bull" the bully by being even more aggressive than he is. That's the wrong answer. You can't win at poker by exaggerating the same mistake an opponent is making.
Am just sharing a article, many of you might have read it already. But its a good tac imo
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
It´s great.
But..if you´re talking about the massive bullies ob the FT freerolls...it just doesn´t wotk because there are too many of them (so 1 of them always gets lucky). and because they are WAY behond any normal bully.
Raising 6 to 10x EVERY hand is difficult to play. Especially because there are so many of them. In a Tournament, you want to make the end. And even though you might be playing favourite, the fact that you have to do it so many times, strangely enough makes it kind of -EV, if that makes sense.
But the article is good for regular bullies in regular games IMO.
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Denmark
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 481
Thats true jack, doesent apply for freerolls, to many people raise with anything and ofc you dont want to call 1/4 of your stack everytime he raise. But you know the usual bully who like to raise 3-4 times blinds
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Hmm, yer but when chip stacked its not a mistake to bully and you dont have to be aggresive.. Bullying is normally found at tounament tables, so Im adding a bit so people understand how a bully works, you must undersand why and how if you are to try and pick one apart.
If I am the BS in a tourn, then I will be that big bad bully, I want to shorten the field and get a bigger stack, simple objective, so how..simple steal the blinds and antes, and when someone plays back at me Im pretty sure they hav a strong hand and can afford to just let mine go, I will win more than I lose. SS are the ones I look out for when bullying, you dont want them to dubble up off you, but you cant let them smell a weakness, so Id be trying not to get involved with them with out a hand, in outher words I will only be playing these SSs if ready to to gamble with them, knowing they will shove with Ace rag etc, I can take chances on SCs and Ace rag etc.. Never under estimate the bully, a good one knows just how to abuse thier situation by playing smart poker.
(1)So defeating them..Just adding to what you said, "Dont be TOO tight" Yes loosen up, I will play you at your range, If you losen up I will be more than likely thinking you have stronger hand than you have and will give you more respect than you deserve.(also can hit hands im not expecting you to be playing) (2)Only for a bad poker bully does that work, and it will work quite offte as the bully (a bad bully) is over playing hands and thinks he can take every pot, but a good bully will know not to bet as he will spot the classic trap, for value you must bet and not let him catch you out on a river, poker is about getting the villian to fold and extracting maxamin from each hand. BTW im not picking holes, just trying to show the diffrent types of bulies and diffrent tactics to use for diffrent bullies.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Canada
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 1660
Good article with solid advice. Definitely agree that's it's more applicable to cash games as opposed to tourneys and especially freerolls.
Freerolls will always be insanely agressive. There's nothing to lose but time so by playing super aggro you'll either have a sizable chipstack (and thus shot at the money) or be put out quickly so as to not waste anymore time.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Good advice for me! Get frustrated a lot and end up hanging myself due to impatience. Will take that bit of information and try to abide by it. Good Thread and thanks BRM for all the support this site has provided to me.
