Tournament: How to play against tight-passive, check-happy opponents?

[Drakken]

I just finished 3rd in one of my first SnG with real money (1$+0.10$ on PokerStars), despite grabbing a comfortable advance as chip leader for quite long a time. I earned myself a mere 1.80$, when I could have won the whole bloody tournament if I had kept myself anally tight. However, being the aggressive, hard-ball player that I am I played aggressive when I thought I had the best hand... only to find by the backdoor that I hadn't the best hand after all.

I lost my nerve many times during that SnG, because my opponents were extremely, extremely tight passive almost to the point of being afraid of their own shadows. I wouldn't say I was going on tilt, but I was growing more and more impatient with them. Each time someone would bet, others would almost immediately fold. The slightest raise from someone would almost certainly end a hand, stealing the pot. They would also refuse to fight against one another. We stayed at four players around the table for two hours, fold after fold after fold. I was tempted to say that we were playing poker, not having an accountant meeting.

Needless to say, I found I was playing a bunch of total wussies. Sometimes I even played worse hands only to prevent the pot to be passed around the other players without at least a little fight. I have even seen a player check from flop to the river while having a made straight right from the flop!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So, what are your strategies when you are playing against a whole cast of cowards around the table? How do you exploit their weakness?

[luzipher]

Stealing the pot again and again and again.

[scrawnybob]

hi

I think luzipher's advice is spot on ... just keep taking advantage, it might mean slow progress but players like this give you alot of options

and also it should mean its pretty easy to spot when they have hit a no brain ABC strong poker hand ... because they will play and they will most probably make a classic 4xBB raise on premium hands

players like this give you the prefect opportunity to represent hands if the flop looks scary ... representing hands should be part of your game. But used sparingly against tricky players - and as often as possible against tight passive and tight rock ABC players

While playing classic tight aggressive will win you steadily in low / mid stakes cash / ring games - playing like this all the way through a tournament will often leave you short of the x factor ... ie. changing gears and playing the players and not just your cards.

constantly playing into tight passive players will do one of two things (and both could happen but with different players)

a) the table or a few or one of the players will get sick of you stealing and "fight back" loosening their hand requirements or more importantly calling raises with fairly solid hands but still having a less than committed game

this means that you can then delay the big steal (or big control of the hand) for the turn or the river having consistently stoked the pot preflop and on the flop

b) the table will remain scared and you just keep stealing and building your chip stack

dont play the same way as them - what they are doing is playing a NL game with a limit style - and that if your not careful lets too many player improve their hand

hope thats a help
cheers scrawnybob

[jctm1988]

Haha , 2 hours with tight players, that cant play ? straight on the flop not betting is like they are so scared somebody is going to make a flush or a full house on them , those people are way to tight in my eyes, like the privious post said , take advantage of this by just continuing stealing pots, pot over pot . Im not suggesting raising any position any hand , but just try to build a stack so they will be more afraid of being knocked out , if they do play a hand with you, either way it was a 1 dollar tour ? and then so tight ? those players should have gone to a 60 $ buy in , they would make more profit playing this style there , then on a 1 dollar tournament .


Tight is right .
But this was just imao .. ..


JCTM1988

[pothole]

To me the way there were playing is not tight, it's basically sitting out. In a situation like that (bubble time) I would raise with any ace or pair and show when they all fold. Stealing with junk then becomes easy if you are called and an ace flops. Position and patience are still paramount but I have seen a training video on this very subject and the "pro" is taking every pot he bets with nothing. The other side of the situation you were in is they could have been working as a team. If you ever suspect this, write down the tournament ID and ask support to check the play of the (in your case) final four.

[Drakken]

I admit my mistakes. I've just begun to play with real money, and I was used to the more loose and dynamic games in play money. I was warned, playing real money is a different deal altogether.

Then, I must work on my self-discipline and better keep my cool when players play over-tightly. After all they were obviously afraid of me, seeing the monster in every move I made, I was leading in chip, and every hand would steal both blinds and ante from them. If I had kept my cool I would have won the tournament.

Instead of losing patience on their constant folding and checking, and take a huge risk by trying to go for the kill at the expense of my own chips, I should have fleeced them from their money chip by chip and take every occasion to steal pots from them.

I have no proof of collusion. In fact, I was on the button with the huge chip lead I'd fold to entice them to fight one another, hopefully to death, and often they bet and play against one another. If they were colluding both would have folded each time I did so.