General techniques for exploiting fish/maniacs

[fooz]

Take 3 different players all with a VPIP of 60. Perhaps these players have an approx. range of the following:
- any pair, any Ace, K5o, Q7o, 97o, 32o, any suited
<font color="#666666">
Now the 3 players have the following stats:
1) 60/0/.5
2) 60/45/25
3) 60/12/4</font>

<font color="blue">My question is what is the general idea for exploiting each fish? I'll take a shot....</font>


These players will definitely be coming into the flop with weaker hands on average. I guess it's important to generally raise more preflop for value with your stronger hands, especially if they are then still calling your raises with trash. Individually:

1) This player is letting you play very cheaply. Play more drawing hands against this player? Increase your suited card range? A key distinction is still whether they're weak or calling stations? ...but remembering there's always a chance of a monster - since he's never raising preflop to give you any indication.

2) Reraise often preflop for value? I played a hand against a guy like this last night. He min-raised, I made it 5xBB w/AK, he made it 8xBB, I pushed (we both started with ~100BB), and he folded. Too aggressive? Try to milk more post-flop?

With big hands, you can easily string him up for lots of chips. But medium hands seem tricky, since he's forcing you to play big pots.

3) This guy's the trickiest for me. Seems to play moderately well postflop. Plays back often but will also lay down when obviously behind. What's the angle?


...guidance MUCH appreciated,
fooz

[thac]

Opponent 1 - Value bet like crazy, never bluff. They're hardly ever gonna fold, so value bet all the way down to tpgk on multiple streets. Don't try to limp and see flops cheap because you won't build a pot, if you wanna play, raise it up to isolate him.

Opponent 2 - I like to just call these guys preflop with my AK-AJ type hands that can make me top pair, no point in reraising, their range is so wide and you're playing a bloated pot with overcards. I reraise pairs huge (overbet) against these guys because they usually don't fold after they put chips in.

Opponent 3 - I like to continuation bet against these guys a couple times, and see what they do on the turn. If they call the c-bet both times and fire the turn when checked to, I'm gonna stack-a-donk with a wider range of hands. It's pretty obvious that they don't have a big hand (in their eyes tpgk may be) every time, I usually let these guys hang themselves.

[Ben K]

The most important thing for me when playing these types is position. Far more so than usual. I can then increase my range of hands against them and check behind when I miss too on the flop.

1) I agree with you.
2) Good plan with AK but with pairs I'd call and am more likely to call down unimproved. As you note in your example, these guys get their monster pfr stat from min-raising. It doesn't really mean all that much. He's just read some book that aggression is good but doesn't have the balls to raise properly.
3) I like these guys more for raising their limps rather than limping behing for 1) or calling for 2). He's letting you know he's not got a raising hand because he's limped and he has a raising range. So you raise and take down pf. If he calls expect some random hands to hit and enjoy the variance.

[AceLuby]

Personally I think these stats are a little misleading. I was mainly a tournament player and things like this mean more (PF wise) because there aren't many plays post flop because of the short stacks. Because this is cash and I'm 100BB's deep the most important stat to me is fold to a c-bet. If that's high for any of these players I like taking the lead and throwing out a c-bet and just milk the $$$ right out of them. If it's low I c-bet less &amp; try to make a hand, unless their fold to turn bet is high in which I'll double barrell more.

[Caelallaiach]

[ QUOTE ]
Personally I think these stats are a little misleading. I was mainly a tournament player and things like this mean more (PF wise) because there aren't many plays post flop because of the short stacks. Because this is cash and I'm 100BB's deep the most important stat to me is fold to a c-bet. If that's high for any of these players I like taking the lead and throwing out a c-bet and just milk the $$$ right out of them. If it's low I c-bet less &amp; try to make a hand, unless their fold to turn bet is high in which I'll double barrell more.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, I think the fold to c-bet stat is a good indicator of how loose a player is post flop, also Went to Showdown and Won $ at Showdown can help.

[Tiki]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree, I think the fold to c-bet stat is a good indicator of how loose a player is post flop, also Went to Showdown and Won $ at Showdown can help.


[/ QUOTE ]


Beware of placing too much emphasiss on AF numbers. Nits and maniacs share similarly high AF's. Frequent folders always have "artificially inflated" AF stats.