Adding an ante

I've recently seen 2-3 people at 200NL bet 2-3bb preflop almost every hand and every time they have at least a 1.5xbb stack usually 3+bb. I was contemplating this earlier today. They are basically adding an ante. You'll watch tight players fold every time and you'll loosen up the table. They usually follow it up with a full pot cbet and back down when they meet agression and miss. It seems easily exploitable but they just keep building their stack if they are smart about it because people are willing to really test them with just one pair. And that's when they actually do have a hand.

Worth trying out for fun?

How do you combat these guys? Just play normal or do you adjust?

Are you talking about LAG play or something else? Sit to their left.

Problem is that when people who have position on you start playing back at you, it goes downhill fast. You're basically gambling to see who has the best cards..

Originally Posted by r8ed

I've recently seen 2-3 people at 200NL bet 2-3bb preflop almost every hand and every time they have at least a 1.5xbb stack usually 3+bb. I was contemplating this earlier today. They are basically adding an ante. You'll watch tight players fold every time and you'll loosen up the table. They usually follow it up with a full pot cbet and back down when they meet agression and miss. It seems easily exploitable but they just keep building their stack if they are smart about it because people are willing to really test them with just one pair. And that's when they actually do have a hand.

Worth trying out for fun?

How do you combat these guys? Just play normal or do you adjust?

I read an article a few weeks back on the 2+2 forums called, "The Invisible Ante." It's pretty much what you are talking about here. I'll try to find it. I thought it was a good read and I tend to play like that sometimes on very very tight tables.

Basically just a way of getting money in the pot preflop if you are confident in your postflop skills and think you can outplay most people postflop.

How to play against a skill lagg. Hmmmm. I like to explode into a high variance firefight riddling him with check raise artillery, and an occassional landmine for punishment. I'm only half kidding.

You basically need to learn how to put people in line. What this amounts to is he's playing at a higher skill level than you, and unless you can stake your claim at the table (read get respect from him), you should avoid him all together and/or leave the table if he's hurting your profit.

I usually start slamming their face against the chips right after I sit down until they submit or bust. Some of them are very stubborn, so they get to bust like a pansy and scratch their head while licking their wounds.

i just played against a terrible on at PP 25NL. $2 to go EVERY SINGLE HAND. he went broke pretty quick after being up 3 buy-ins. 3 people at the table doubled up through him, myself included.

Originally Posted by Rondavu

I usually start slamming their face against the chips right after I sit down until they submit or bust. Some of them are very stubborn, so they get to bust like a pansy and scratch their head while licking their wounds.

My absolute favorite table is when I can sit to the left of a bigstack Lagg who has riled up the whole table with his crazy game. It's almost guaranteed money. Had the great fortune of such an event a couple days ago. 3.5 buy-ins up in the first 20 minutes.. after that I went carddead so I had to endure it for 2 hours afterwards, that kinda sucked, but the profit was already made.

I see players who do this at 200nl fairly often. That is something I simply do not tolerate at my table. If they do that a lot I start reraising with crap in position and/or leading into them after they raise PF. That strategy can be effective against a bunch of nits, but a good player can combat this style effectively.

Well, I didn't have too much trouble taking money from the one guy last night. I earned his respect quickly and was able to use that to my advantage. I read a post somewhere too about the ante and how some crafty/smart players used it effectively. Just wondering what people thought about it.

They just seem to disrupt the normal playing at a table - which can be good and bad. I stay if most of the other players are exploitable. They will enter more pots with junk, so you can take advantage.

i don't know if this site has rules about linking to other sites, so pardon me if this isn't allowed, but here's the article.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...Number=4706467