[TheMightyJim2k]

Exploiting Loose Players Preflop in NL Cash Games
by Themightyjim2k

"This guy never folds, preflop! I just can’t beat him."

"I wish I could play with somebody that knew what they were doing. Then I would actually know where I am in a hand."

HAVE YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVED UTTERED THESE PHRASES OR SOMETHING SIMILAR? IF SO YOU MAY NEED TO SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP!

On a more serious note, loose players can be difficult to play with in no-limit hold’em cash games. It is very hard to put them on a range of hands. You often don’t know if your hand is worth value betting or is purely a bluff catcher. They will make strange and often erratic plays, some which will run counter to what you generally consider to be correct strategy.

Common wisdom is that we should play tighter when we are up against loose players. And while that is certainly true, if we are playing too tight we are giving up countless profitable opportunities. The key to playing against loose players isn’t playing tighter, its playing tighter THAN THEY ARE. At its most basic we understand that if I am always entering the pot with a slightly better hand than you, then I rate to win the money in the long run. So by that logic we should want to play as many hands as possible with loose players so that we can realize our long-term equity edge.

The first thing we can do is to make sure we are sitting to the left of the loose player. That way we will have position against them as much as possible. Having position will give us more information and let us control the betting to ensure that we are maximizing our strong hands, and minimizing our mistakes. Loose players are a lot easier to play against when you always get to act after them.

So far all of this may seem like common sense, but this is where I might throw you a curve ball. When I find a really loose player to my right and some med.-to-tight players on my left, I play as loose as I possibly can. Every time that player limps into the pot I raise with any reasonable playable hand. I am raising for two reasons. First I am raising for value because my hand rates to be a favorite over the loose players preflop range. Second I am raising to isolate the bad player. I have the greatest chance to exploit the bad player when I am heads up with him with position. When that loose player enters the pot I want to be the player who has a chance to win his money when he makes his big mistake. If I just limp behind, or fold then the other decent players are given the opportunity to take his money. So I want to isolate the fish from the other sharks. I’m protecting my prey so to speak.

This has long been a commonly used tactic in limit hold’em. Raise with your decent hands to isolate the weak limpers and then pound them with value bets postflop. But many no limit players fail to realize that the same principles apply in their cash games. In fact it may be an even more powerful tool in NL since if you play well postflop you induce your opponents into making much larger and costlier mistakes. Once you’ve isolated your fish you simply need to understand whether or not you can bluff them out of pots, or whether or not you need to make a hand and then value bet them. Obviously this takes practice, and the intricacies of postflop play certainly exceeds what I can cover in this article. But understanding the value of the above strategy is a huge step towards greatly increasing your expectation in any no-limit cash game.

To summarize the above points:

• Make every effort to play with loose players on your right
• Play reasonably higher quality starting hands than the loose player does
• Raise with your playable hands preflop to isolate the loose player from the other good players
• Exploit the loose player appropriately postflop (c-bet relentlessly if she folds too much, value bet relentlessly if she calls too much)

So the next time you are playing online or at your home game and you look down and see 89s after that loose player limps in with his god-knows-what, don’t just limp behind. Make the same raise you would with a pocket pair or AK. Push those other guys out of the pot and get heads-up with the loose player. Often times you’ll take down the pot with a continuation bet, and if not you have a great playable hand and position. Don’t turn into a nit when you have loose players on your right, figure out a way to exploit their mistakes. That way you have the best chance to make their chips flow into your stack and not your neighbors.

If you want to further discuss this or any other strategy concept, shoot me a PM and we can set up a coaching session or hand history review. I can help you implement this strategy into your game, or work on whatever problems you are having.

Feel free to discuss your thoughts on this article below, and I will do my best to respond to any comments. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Themightyjim2k

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