C-bet called... or how not to be a nit

[cheburashka]

Hi All,

I'm a rookie who is making good improvement over the past three or four months, but I'm still trying to find and plug leaks. I hope you can offer advice on what seems to be my biggest leak currently.

The following hand isn't real, but it illustrates a problem I very often have.

Middle of a small-stakes on-line tourney. Hero and villain both have stacks of about 50BB. Villain is very loose and aggressive, who has stolen a lot of small pots without showing down many cards.

Action:
Folds to hero in middle position with AhQh. Hero raises to 3BB.
Folds to villain on button, who calls. SB calls, BB folds. Pot totals 10BB.

Flop: Jc, 7d, 6d

SB checks, Hero c-bets 5BB, villain calls, SB folds. Pot totals 20BB.

Turn: 10s

OK, now what????

It seems as though I have no good choices in this situation. If I fire a second half-pot barrel, then I'm investing already 18BB into an Ace-high hand. If I check, there's a 100% chance that villain will bet. The I either call, again investing heavily in a marginal hand, or fold.

The end result is that I feel like a total chump if I let fold and let villain push me around like this, but I feel like a total donkey if I show down cards and lose to, for example, A7 (which has happened on numerous occasions).

So two questions:

What might you do in this situation in particular?
What might you do more generally against loose-aggressive types?

My current thinking is that I should tighten up, including giving up c-betting unless I have position on the villain. But I don't want to turn into a total nit who only plays AA from the button--that surely won't work in a tourney.

Thoughts?

[ChrisV]

Your hand is total junk on that flop. There's no law that says that you must cbet. I would not even consider cbetting given that SB is also in the hand, but even heads up, out of position against a total LAG I would usually check and fold. Villain will win some small pots off you in this manner, but will give it back with interest when you have AhJh on this flop instead. Rather than play in a robotic fashion, you have to think about how to exploit your opponent's mistakes. If a player is too loose, respond by simply always having a hand when you play against him.

[Teddie]

Once there isnt alot of people in the hand i always c-bet. Its an easy check on the turn now, take the free card and hope you hit.

chances are you have 10outs too win the hand, so call depending on on how much he bets on the turn.

[Jzo19]

also remember that the texture of the flop is very important when your thinking about cbetting ..

.this flop has bad texture because there alot of possible flushes and possible str8 draws on the board ...

[ChrisV]

[ QUOTE ]
Once there isnt alot of people in the hand i always c-bet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even if you're against people who call 100% of the time?

[ QUOTE ]
chances are you have 10outs too win the hand, so call depending on on how much he bets on the turn.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have no clue how many outs you have. If you hit an ace or queen, you'll have no idea if it's good or not. Against any decent size bet (say, 1/3 of the pot) this is a clear fold.

[jackaaron]

Sounds to me as if the villian you speak of will pay you off very nicely when you have a good hand, so why try to bluff/semi-bluff him? I don't think it's bad to c-bet him if he has a chance of folding on the flop, but if he is calling regardless, and you have air, then it's pointless. There are a lot of these players in lower limits, and what they do is allow you to hit home runs against them. They'll call your huge bets with middle pair at times. Since they pay you off so well, there really isn't much need to bluff them, especially early on. I still throw out c-bets, but in your example, I let go on the turn.

[cheburashka]

Thanks all, this is very helpful!