Quote Originally Posted by TheProdigy87
How do you adjust your strategy against players who play bad without risking your chips? Waiting for the nuts will cost me money
What is your definition of bad players?

I'm playing a pub game in which I'm the only one who folds. My raises are never respected and I can even announce I have Aces and still get a couple of callers. One guy comes in for a 5-10xBB raise 70% of his hands then tends to push all in on the flop. This cascades so it's very common to have 4 or more players call him and it becomes a pissing contest. As the night progresses it gets ridiculously insane with nearly every pot being an all in situation.

I play fairly tight so the first change I made was opening up my starting requirements realizing that many of the pots are family pots and I was getting good odds to limp in with any connected and suited connected, higher near touching connected, pairs, and A(K)(Q)xs. The second thing I did was pay very close attention to the cards the maniac kept raising with. I began to notice a pattern of what would be a 5 or 10xBB raise to him so I had a good idea where I stood and if he might have any of my outs. The third thing I did was let them do the betting for me. I pay some attention to position but when the rest of the table thinks you're being the big blind has position on the table I don't think it matters. The last step I'm still working on is the courage to put all my chips in the center. Getting sucked out constantly has made me a little hesitant at times for even though I know I'm going in with the nuts, the inability to drive anyone out subjects me to some ridiculous beats. I can only laugh now when I put in a 5xBB raise pre-flop with AJs and get beat by a 73o.

I think the most important strategy is really just to play very simple straight forward poker. Learn to pick your spots where you're going to take a stand and do it forcefully. Additionally, leave a session knowing you made correct decisions. If you can't leave a session knowing that than maybe the other players aren't as bad as you think.