Help Me Come up With a Good Strat for My Home Games
I play at a home game usually every weekend but, sometimes during the week. Everyone starts with $50 chips, and blinds start at $.5/1. There are usually 6-8 people in this game when it starts. They all have different styles so I will list them for you all.
1 "Pro" - Knows about pot odds, knows about outs and usually knows the percentages of certain hands figuring in the outs and such. Doesn't limp in with crap usually and raises good hands. Seems to beable to read people very well.
2 "Weaklings" - Limps into a pot wiht most hands, and usually folds, only reraises if they have the near/nuts, but will call bets when you are trying to bluff them off a hand.
1 "Noob" - Knows nothing about poker. He isn't really a probalem. Usually folds to most bets but limps and calls pre-flop raises with anything. Lets his stack dwindle down till he has nothing and gets blinded out.
1 "Fool" - Doesn't raise pre-flop with much, but will call most pre-flop bets with almost anything. He has a large ego and thinks he is good. Once the board was 9-6-8-5-J and he called my all in bet with J-9, when I had the straight. He thinks 2 pair in a 4 person pot is the nuts. Also called an all-in with pocket 9s after the flop came k-k-10. Also likes all suited hole cards.
2 "Maniac" - Usually goes all in with crap, but sometimes he gets lucky and has a big early stack when people suck out on him. Over values 2 pair and raises atleast 1/3 to 1/2 of all hands preflop. Seems to bluff alot, but you can't quite tell if they are bluffing or representing what they have, so it's hard to read them. One hand the flop came 7-10-2 rainbow and he bet I went all in with 8-10 and he called with 2 overs. Tonight he raised 5 chips with 7 people in the hand preflop. I went all in for like 40 chips and he called. He turned over A-9 while my pocket Js held up for the win.
Now hears the problem. Second place gets their money back and first gets the rest. Usually the "maniacs" call the "pro" with nothing and the pro ends up getting rivered. Although he made it heads up with me once. Usually its me and one of the "maniacs" or one of the "weaklings" heads up. Now the thing is once I get head up I usually have to leave very soon. So the blinds are at 1/2 and there are about 300 chips out on the table. I've tried to get them to raise the blinds more but they are all set in there ways. Now if I am playing againts one of the Maniacs usually they will call my all in bets and thats fine. Now tonight I get stuck heads up againts one of the weaklings. I go all in pretty much every hand, and they instafold. Now that is where the problem is. I spent over half an hour going all in with nothing before I finally got busted out (we had pretty even stacks when the heads up started.) He would just not call. What kind of strategy would you use against these players? How could you finish sooner when most of them are calling stations? When your heads up against a weakling and the blinds are small is there any good play? The weakling only bets if he has anything, and wont call raises preflop too much heads up. What is a good strategy against a maniac that could have J high as much as he has trips (I've tried reraising the bejesus out of him but he always calls with nothing, so I back down where he bets big on the river i usually fold? The noob and the fool aren't too much of a problem as they usually get busted out pretty early. Any thoughts on all this?
