Beating weak games

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 30 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

Although weak games can occasionally be found at nearly every limit, mostly they are exclusive to the low stakes. Beating these particular games requires a very different strategy to beating games with thinking players - and requires anyone sitting in them to understand exactly what they are up and against and how to deal with the players around them.

The first key point is that any form of advanced strategy - except perhaps raising every hand - will be lost on players in these games. Advertising weak hands, attempting any form of clever bluff, or even just trying to make plays like check raises will simply be lost on weak players.

The simple way to think about is just to realise that many of these concepts these players simply do not understand. You can't write a letter to someone who can't read (well you can, its just a waste of time); and you can't expect a player who has not been observing you to make their decisions based on how tight or loose you have been playing.

The optimal strategy in these games is to simply let the cards do the talking. If players are not good enough to observe that you don't usually make big bets without hands, then there is no need to ever make a big bluff without a big hand - just get a big hand and make as much money as possible from it through betting and raising.

It is surprising how often I see good mid stakes players drop down limits and yet continue to play a dynamic game full of deception and advanced play making that is just losing them money. In weak games just take advantage of weakness in the best way possible - by making your opponents simply pay large amounts to see your good hands over and over again - it is really that simple.

You only need to start adding layers of deception to your game once players start to become wary of your big bets (which unless they are really bad will be soon enough if they keep throwing buy in after buy in down you). Until this happens you might as well leave all your fancy tricks at the door - they are not only unnecessary, but also actually detrimental to your game, and by just sticking to the optimum strategy, you will quickly bust any player that can't see what is going on.