how to handle agro player to my right who might be trying to run me over

At a 5NL full ring cash game, I'm seated directly to the left of a fairly aggressive player (~22/15/3 over 20 hands) for about two orbits and watch him steal a blind and make a couple of large bets on flop, but nothing completely crazy. I play three hands against him in total.

Hand #1: The first hand he's seen me play, I raise in EP w/ a decent hand, it's folded to him in the BB, he 3bets big, and I fold.

Hand #2: Next orbit I'm in the BB w/ AKs, it's folded to him in the SB, he opens 5xbb, I 3bet, he shoves, I call, he flips over AA which holds up.

Hand #3: The very next hand, I auto reload in the SB w/ AJo. He's got +250bb, it's folded to him, and open shoves....

Is he trying to run over me? Do I call? There's a super nit (9/6/2) to my left in the BB who folds every steal. I don't have a lot of hands on the villain, hardly any steal stats, and no other reads. Do I call w/ AJo?

Just fold. Get better reads and if you find him too tricky then just move to another table. I've learned the hard way that someone isn't playing back at you after 2 hands.

sample size too small to start calling preflop shoves with weak holdings.. surprisingly enough, you can just get a lot of decent hands in close proximity to each other. if your fairly sure he's aggro, nit the hell up for a couple of rounds and confirm your read before making marginal calls like that.

What kind of a range do you put him on open shoving pre? How does that range hold up to AJo? Personally it's an easy fold. I think that you are at best a coinflip against something like 1010.

I haven't put in nearly as many hands as most of the people on this forum... but I have found sometimes there is just a player at the table that always has me dominated. If I have KK they have AA, AQ they have AK.. no since in going broke because I can't accept that they have me beat. As someone above suggested- you can always move tables

i think you need a far stronger read before you start sticking 100bb in preflop with AJo. like kmind, i've lost too much money in the past acting on what i thought were "reads" over a largely irrelevant sample. although i'd definitely stick around at the table. there is still a decent chance this guy will be spastic or far too aggressive (plus he's to your right so he can only really give you trouble 1 or 2 hands per orbit, because position is the nuts) and that sitting to his left will be profitable for you. but for the moment just pay attention to him, gathering reads for when/if you do eventually clash, and don't make any non-standard plays.

3 hands/2 orbits is not enough of a sample to make big assumptions on how he plays, just because he 3bet you once then got AA vs AK does not mean he's running you over.

Just take notes on stuff he's done (5x open/shove with AA, open shove 250BB on BTN) and gather some other reads. Above all realize if you're tilting and leave the table.

One session at 10NL FR I got AA the first three hands. First hand in BB I 3bet and got flatted then hit set on flop. Second hand I 3bet CO and he shoved TT. Third hand EP opened , MP min 3bet and I 2x'ed his 3bet hoping for a shove and he complied. Up >3BIs in 3 hands. Remember I'm a 12/8 nit. The regs were getting out of the hands cause they knew I wasn't playing back.

I stopped reading at "over 20 hands".

If you start assuming that everyone that looks a little laggy over <100 hand samples is insane you're going to lose a lot of money.

Yeah, my hesitance was the mere 20 hands, which I know isn't enough. You're all correct here, but wasn't sure how much to assume he thought I would fold after getting stung the previous hand. (Perhaps this multi-leveling play is too sophisticated at the mircos.)

And in hindsight, I wish I could have remembered that when I decided to call. He had JJ. I was crushed. And he totally knew I'd call. Tilt-o-rama. :mad: