Reads screwing me up

[Shady]

Last night at a $10+$1 single table SNG I had a strange experiance with one player. In the first 2 hands he had doubled up on someone who got a bad beat and then tilted and he took advantage of it. I obviously took note of it and continued to watch him. He had this strange style, he would see just about 90% of the flops. Raised or unraised unless the raise was reallly large 10XBB or more. Flop would come and if he was first to act he would check it and other then that he was a calling station. Call on the flop, call on the turn, but on the river if he was first to act he would bet big and try to steal the pot. Even with nothing.

His chip stack kept going up and down. I took the opportunity to take 1/2 his stack about midway through cause I took advantage of my read. However this lead to me never respecting his hand ever. It was down to 4 people and he was chip leader and I was slightly behind him. I get TT UTG and give it a 3XBB raise. Folds all around except you know who, and he calls. Flop comes A J Q no flush draw. I was first to act so I throw out a pot sized bet, and of course he calls. Turn comes J at which point I still have no respect for his hand so I throw out another pot sized bet which put in a good portion of my stack. Of course he calls, river comes 3, this is where I had a melt down and checked. Probably one of the worst moves I've made, but I just didn't want to go out 1 spot away from the money. Lucky for me he checked too, and he had Q4o which was not so lucky for me.

I became the short stack and got busted out not to long afterwards in 4th. My question is, if I didn't have the read on him that I did I would have never gone past that flop, but because I didn't respect him or his hand I kept it going. Is there a good rule of thumb to play against these type of call stations? I guess I should have ignored my read and played my game, but I was a little egocentric since I had placed ITM on my last 9 games and wasn't about to let this guys stop me. I feel I was a better player then him, but I think I am not aware of how to play against someone like this. I was looking to punish him, and got punished myself.

[dalecooper]

I have a player in my home game who is just like this. He plays way too many hands, you can't raise him out pre-flop if he's limped in, and you can't get him out of a pot unless you start betting 1/2 his stack right off the bat. You never know what the hell he's going to have when it gets to showdown.

I understand your read on this guy, but with three overcards you have to seriously consider letting this go. You had a nice starting hand but it didn't pan out. Odds are too good that he connected with one of those cards to make this a worthwhile venture. For this type of player, I look for top pair as my cash cow. Any top pair, with or without a kicker, I will bet large and hope he keeps calling. Of course if you hit a better hand, you're happy; but most of the time top pair is good against this yahoo.

[Aces]

With 3overs I think you have to check/fold the flop. Look for a better spot. Even w/your read, doesn't take much to beat your hand w/AQJ flop

[Radashack]

regardless of the read you have to respect the board. Even maniac fish and calling stations hit. Should have waited for a better spot when you can play with the best hand not 4th pair.

[aokrongly]

amen to the choir on this one... nice going btw, ITM 9 out of 10!! Exceptional!!

[Shady]

Thanks aokrongly

I'm having a nice run at the single table SNG's, my strategy works pretty well for getting in the money. I can't say I have any luck in the 2 table SNG's tho. I'm 1 out 4 ITM on those. I try the same strategy I use at singles but it just doesn't seem to work as well, so for now I'm sticking to the single tables until I can pad my BR a bit.

55 SNG's

ITM 45%
Win 25%
ROI 35%

Not great, but I'm getting there

[FlyingSaucy]

Flop comes A J Q no flush draw. I was first to act so I throw out a pot sized bet

So that's about the worst flop you can see, aside from the gutshot... even if a T hits you have to worry about opp making his straight. I know you know this from your post.

.... So you are first to act and bet it pot sized, knowing that he's going to call? That would mean you know that you are committing yourself to rep the A or 2 pair, otherwise you are throwing money at him. But against calling stations, there's no such thing as repping. So I would check on that flop and see what he does. If he bets be probably hit something and you know you are safe to fold. Being the aggressor with questionable holdings doesn't usually work against calling stations. And calling stations tend not to be the aggressor unless they've got something.

This is a common question that comes up and I think I'll make a post on it soon. I play against a ton of people like this. It gets like a breath of fresh air when I can play against people where reads matter (ie, in SnG's online as opposed to the micro ring games.)