Identify the Loose Aggressive Player

The Loose Aggressive players or the LAG players in poker are the dominating types. They are the ones to call a raise on every round of betting and they would fold only on limited number of hands. Such dominating players would raise against the bluffs as well. You would be able to find these players on the pot limit or the no limit tables. At the same time as the Loose Aggressive style of play could be beneficial in poker, the bullies are pretty limiting too.

One of the initial ways to identify the bullies is that they play far too many hands. They are known to play at least 40% of hands, extending up to 605 in some occasions. They would bet and raise even at times when the table shows the cards. This makes it fairly difficult to identify the kind of cards they gave and such obscurity is their primitive advantage.

Without any knowledge of their cards, it becomes intricate to determine the kind of hand they possess and there are minimal chances of beating them. The expected value calculations are altered because of them and the opponents are forced to calculate the odds, since the bullies might have a completely random set of cards. The only possible way to deal with these bullies is to have a tighter game during all times.

Bullies usually have a larger chip stack and therefore they opt to play on the no limit tables as compared to the ones with the pot limit. By making larger bets and increasing the pot size on a constant basis, they would make the pot odds appear poor, unless for the rare monster flop in Omaha or Hold’em. The bullies would force these odds on the other players and make them fold the hand instantly. Such a strategy works really well on the tight, inattentive and the cowardly players. The tight players would fold out on the decent hands and would hardly get a chance to witness the showdown. On the other hand, the multi-tabling player would often be unaware of the actions of the bullies and they would solely interpret the higher raises incorrectly.

Take a stand

The only weakness of the bullies is that they play the weak hands as well. They also have a knack to play out of position, but since they play too much, such a situation might be incidental. Bullies do not fold easily; therefore beating them would lead to a table showdown. This would mean larger pots with their continued bets.

If you are facing a bully on the poker table, you must enter into the contest only if you have a hand of premium value. The game also has to be a heads-up match, although having a third player into the game is highly dangerous.