Taming the Bully

“Don’t let them push you around,” I jokingly told my highly aggressive poker buddy as he sat in the $40-$80 limit hold’em game at Bellagio. Meek, mild, and geeky-looking, his mentality is exactly the opposite of his appearance.

His strategy is to play fast, push people around, rob every dollar that he can, eliminate players from the pot to increase his chances of winning it, confuse his opponents, and put them on tilt. His aggressive style changes the dynamics of any game he is in and requires adjustments, both psychologically and strategically, that many players can’t make. Of course, that is the advantage of being a poker bully. But if you adjust correctly, the bully will be tamed. If he doesn’t become tame, you will break him!

Bullies raise too much, bet too often, and bluff too much. In short, they are overly aggressive. Some of them read hands very capably. The good card-readers run over passive players who fold too liberally. All players should bully an opponent when given the advantageous opportunity to do so, but few bullies, particularly those who don’t read hands well, adjust to varied situations. They just stay in “charge” mode, an approach that an astute player can exploit.

So, how do we fight back against bullies? How do we change our strategy to avoid his domination? Many players take an aggressive line of attack against a bully, seeking to be more aggressive than him. But that strategy has you playing his game. He is in his comfort zone, and you will often find yourself in uncomfortable, difficult situations. The bully doesn’t back down, and will outplay you from many pots. Also, other solid opponents will pick you off with superior starting hands.

How to play against a bully depends heavily on your position in relationship to him. If you’ve got position on him, you can make isolation plays with hands that are likely to win without improving. Reraising with hands like big aces or 7-7 gains value when your opponent is likely to be raising with inferior aces or hands containing an undercard to your pair. With hands that likely need to improve to win, flat-calling the bully and attracting other opponents to call tends to devalue the bully’s “value of aggression.” With more opponents, the likelihood of a calling hand being made is higher, thus reducing the odds of a bluff succeeding. His loss of equity often increases yours.

Another play that you can make when you have position on a bully is slow-playing your hands until the turn or river, letting the bully fire multiple wagers before showing the strength of your holding. That said, be careful of letting other opponents into the pot who may be drawing correctly. You should be able to acquire greater equity from the bully when you make a solid hand, because he is playing weaker starting hands and betting far too often. Since you can correctly call with more hands, loosen your calling standards slightly.

When you are positioned to the right of a bully, it creates great check-raise opportunities. Since many bullies recognize this fact, they often use three-betting as a free-card acquisition play; therefore, you should four-bet all of your strong hands in these spots, to avoid giving away a free card. If you get five-bet, you should consider leading on the turn.

Generally speaking, you should rob the bully’s blinds much less frequently than you rob those of passive players. Too often, you will find yourself facing aggression with a questionable hand, which is not the situation that you wanted to create.

Since bullies are often out on a limb without a hand, they set themselves up to be bluffed. Since the bully raises frequently, the pots are large and offer high prices on bluffs and semibluffs. Some bullies recognize that they are being bluffed more frequently, and pay off with marginal hands. Even so, they still can’t call with much of their range, and those bullies who don’t adjust to the increased bluffing frequency facing them present great bluffing opportunities. This is one area in which you can out-bully the bully. It’s not only profitable, but a huge kick.

Because bullies bet far too often, you can induce many bluffs from them when you do have a hand. Check-calling goes up in value because the bully bets more hands than he will call with, and is easily trapped. And since he bets more situations, creating bigger pots, you must pay off more often.

Since bullies tend to overplay situations, when you hold a big hand and have other opponents trapped in the pot, play your hand fast, hoping that the bully holds a hand or will try to run over you and play in a fast manner against you. Oftentimes, other opponents will get caught up in the bully’s action and will overplay their hands, too.

Bullies are tricky to play against. They create lots of unconventional situations, which makes adjusting to them problematic. That said, they still have lines of play, and you can assign ranges of hands to them, albeit much wider ranges than for most players. Define the situation, think it through, and take the best action. Don’t let them intimidate you, don’t get caught up in their game, and don’t let them affect you emotionally. Play against them on your terms, not theirs. ♠

Roy Cooke played poker professionally for 16 years prior to becoming a successful Las Vegas real-estate broker/salesman in 1989. Should you wish to get any information about real-estate matters — including purchase, sale, or mortgage — his office number is (702) 396-6575, and his e-mail address is [email protected]. His website is www.roycooke.com. You also may find him on Facebook.