Making Adjustments

As readers of this magazine know by now, there is rarely a clear cut answer to any problem you face at the poker table. In the vast proportion of cases, the simple answer is ‘it depends’. Games are rarely identical, every game has slightly different variables, be they table makeup, image, dynamic or history. The right play in one hand may be completely different in another. In this two part series, I want to talk about a concept that is sometimes overlooked by the majority of grinders and part-time players; adjusting your game to the table.

In the first part of this series, I will be talking about adjusting in the short-term, seeing how you should change your game within a session depending on certain variables. This piece is therefore mainly concerned with maximising your return against non-regular players, be they fish or otherwise. In the second part next month, I will talk about longer-term strategies for adapting against regular opponents in the longer term.

Obviously in terms of table selection, we are generally concerned with exploiting our opponents’ tendencies and punishing mistakes. While we may sometimes find regulars with huge leaks, generally fish will be more exploitable. Adapting quickly to their specific leaks can make and save you money.

On numerous occasions you will be presented with opportunities to make more money and all you have to do is be proactive about making it. A good example is when a fish gets deep and you are out of position. Lets imagine you are playing in a four-handed game and are very deep but out of position against a terrible player who is also deep.

In this situation you should move seats, preferably to his direct left as soon as possible. By sitting in the Jesus seat you can isolate him wider and play more bloated pots in position against a bad player, which is half of the battle.

Adjusting to a loose passive table

Firstly, congratulations, at least you have used some form of table selection. Secondly, you need to realise some of the age-old truisms of poker, some people will just not fold marginal holdings to heat, so don’t bluff a mug. A calling station that check calls you pre-flop, then check calls an Ac-Kd-3s board, is not a good opponent to start double and triple barrelling.

Occasionally, you can set up good triple barrel spots, for example when they snap call the flop. This can never be a huge hand, as they would at least pause for thought. You can set-up multi-street bluffs, but you need specific reads to be capable of this and your default game plan should be to get the goods then bet the goods.

Your mind-set in a good loose passive game with numerous fish should be to play a simple TAG game, at least until you get 200 big blinds deep in position against a mark. People often struggle to adjust to ridiculously soft games, not recognising that you can nip problems in the bud simply by altering your starting hand selection. Compound errors are prevented when you understand that these guys computers were not equipped with fold buttons and that a check-raise on the turn means top pair is no good. A loose table can be tougher to adjust to than a tight table if you don’t think at a lower level.

Don’t be afraid to narrow the field by making substantial raises, making it four times the big blind for every limper is fine in these monkey-fests. Your range should be significantly tighter too. Positional requirements should alter, your cut-off range should be a tight early position range and your button range should ideally be a tight mid-position range. Upgrade your starting hand requirements. Against these sort of players, you are simply looking to make a top pair type hand with which to extract value through multiple streets. Deception is wasted.

These players will make mistakes themselves, and your mantra should be value bet, value bet, value bet. In terms of three-betting and squeezing, you generally want to be doing both of these 100% of the time for value. They will regularly call large re-raises without any regard for your hand. Their hand-reading skills are non-existent and it is your duty to punish this mistake, and not feed their legitimate hands with bluffs.

At a loose passive table, adjust fast once you get deep in position against a fish. You want to be isolating him with a wide playable range that has a lot of nut potential. All suited connectors and A-x suited hands go up in value because of your position and your opponent. In this situation, the fish’s money won’t last long and it becomes a race to see who can get it first. When deep implied odds are activated, you are compelled to make targeting them your number one priority.

Adjusting to a loose aggressive table

In terms of adjusting to a loose aggressive table, for the purposes of this article we are concerned with adjusting to bad LAGs. Players who play too many marginal hands too aggressively in and out of position with no purpose are very exploitable. If you are at a table where people are constantly raising big pre-flop, three-betting liberally and being ridiculously out of line, you need to adjust.

Firstly, you need to tighten your range generally. If you are constantly getting three-bet, find a hand that you are reasonably comfortable gambling with. If you are sufficiently bankrolled, you can swallow a marginal situation every so often but your game plan should generally be, to ‘stop doing the pushing and let the donkey do the pulling’. If these guys want to gamble and continually put the pressure on pre-flop, get yourself into situations where they can make large raises or re-raises against you when you have a big hand. You should look to flat call an initial raise with a big pocket pair or A-K and then make a small four-bet over a squeeze.

If the table is ridiculously out of line, which sometimes happens at the mid-stakes after a drunk muppet with a low IQ watches a CardRunners video, you have a few options. If the same guy keeps pounding you, you are allowed to get it all-in pre-flop with 9-9 or A-J suited. Realise how hand ranges interact and recognise spots that are thin but are definitely +EV. If you have no history and a clean image, you can go after a player post-flop in position, floating and check-raising certain boards. If you take this approach, bear in mind how important it is to stay under the radar. If you have been splashing about for an hour and then take a weird line against a maniac, you will be punished.

One final option, which is rarely as valuable against a non-regular as a regular, is to just out-crazy them. If a guy normally plays $ 1/$ 2 and then you see him splashing around on a $2/$4 table, you can sometimes justify getting seriously out of line against him, especially if he is doing something dumb like squeezing out fish pre-flop denying you profitable situations. As he is out of his comfort zone, let him know who’s boss and stick it up him.

Adjust in the right way, recognise your image (which should be tight aggressive at a crazy table) and allow the villain to make mistakes. Getting involved in pissing contests with mentally unstable individuals is not big and not clever. You must adjust to these types of games. A bad adjustment would be to start to four-bet hands with immense value, such as 8-8  or A-J (which have huge showdown value) and then folding to shoves from maniacs.

Conclusion

Fish are easily exploitable, whether they be of the weak passive type or the maniacal day-release animals that abound at the low and mid-stakes. The trick is to know how to adjust to them. Realise where their weaknesses lie and make the correct adjustments. If you have just been forced to bluff then don’t try it again for at least another hour, as you will be called down quicker than you can imagine.