How to play against Poker Maniacs

Dealing With LAGs Who Defend Against Habitual Cbettors

The continuation bet in poker is such a common play in online poker nowadays. Most players even at the low stakes will cbet a dry flop which likely didn’t hit anyone else. The problem with mindless cbetting is that some LAGs know you are only betting because it’s a dry board and will defend against habitual cbettors who always try and take down the flop after raising preflop. If they are playing out of position in the hand, they will typically check-raise on the flop.

I’m sure you have been involved in sessions where you have experienced this table dynamic. You have a LAG playing to your left and because they are defending against your cbets you can’t play your usual game.

So how do you deal with the check-raise happy LAGs?

I like to fight fire with fire by turning up the aggression in certain spots. It’s case of being selective with your aggression when playing against LAGs. Here’s basically what I do:

If I’m in position and was the preflop aggressor, if I have a hand I will make a standard continuation bet. If I don’t have a hand and have no outs to improve my hand, I likely won’t cbet unless the LAG is the only other player involved in the pot. When playing against LAGs you should be less worried about winning the small pots and be more concerned with playing back at them in a few larger size pots.

For example, I was playing a 25nl 6-max cash game on FT and there was a LAG type player in the blinds. Although I had no history on this player I could tell from how they were playing in the session they were definitely playing an hyper aggressive LAG style of game. They were never folding to cbets and I had seen them check-raise the flop a few times in only a small session. It was pretty clear they were check-raising the flop when they knew the cbettor was betting just to steal the pot because it was a dry board.

I was dealt Kh Ts in the CO. UTG who was a fish limps into the pot and I make a raise to try and isolate the fish and play heads up with them. The LAG in the blinds cold calls the raise and so does UTG, so it was a 3-way pot.

The flop is 6r 9s 2c which is a raggy flop which likely didn’t hit anyone. It get’s checked around to me and I cbet about 2/3 pot. The LAG in the SB check-raises (it was basically a min check-raise). On this type of board villain would expect me to make a cbet. Considering its not a drawy board they are not check-raising with a draw and probably don’t even have a pair, so with this in mind I think this is a good spot to 3bet on the flop to play back at them.

This 3bet should take down the pot because they are more then likely only raising because they aren’t respecting my cbets. They can’t continue with air and would even have to fold low pocket pairs in this spot. Turning up the aggression based on the reads I had on this opponent worked, and the LAG did find the fold button.

You don’t always want to turn up the aggression by 3bet bluffing like this but you definitely want to be doing it occassionally. They are playing the opponent more then the cards, and you have to do likewise. The LAG will sometimes have a made hand like top pair or better, so if you balance your re-raising range with bluffs and made hands, they will think you are playing more aggressive then what you really are and will stack off much lighter.

If you are uncomfortable playing against LAGs (especially to your left) and shut down your aggression and start playing ABC poker, you will slowly bleed your stack to the LAG because they will take over the role of the table aggressor and start stealing pots all over the place.

When possible, try and get position on aggressive players it will make your decisions a lot easier. If you don’t want to play back at them when they are sitting on your left, it would be best finding a table with fewer aggressive players so you can be the aggressor and continuation bet more often.  Raise your monthly earning by getting rakeback. Sign up for a Rakeback Account today and take advantage of our amazing rakeback deals and monthly promotions worth $300.000+. Never heard about rakeback! Then go straight to what i rakeback to get started.