%20(1).jpg "How to Beat Loose Poker Players")
This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
Playing against loose players can be a frustrating experience, especially if they also happen to play very aggressively.
However, these players can be wildly profitable to play against if you employ the right strategy.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some simple adjustments you can make to absolutely crush loose players in your games.
Let’s get right into it.
1. Play Tight Preflop Ranges to Get an Immediate Edge vs Loose Players
In poker, the most effective strategy is usually the opposite of the one your opponents are using.
So if you’re playing against loose opponents, your best bet is to play tight ranges preflop.
This may seem counterintuitive to some people.
After all, if your opponents are playing just about any random hand preflop, shouldn’t we play looser ranges as well?
This sort of adjustment only makes sense to an extent.
If your opponent is playing an insanely wide range preflop, it’s safe to assume they’re a recreational player who doesn’t really know what they’re doing.
If that’s the case, you should try to get involved in a pot with them as often as possible, especially if you’re also playing in position against them.
That’s because they’re likely to make a lot of post flop mistakes you can take advantage of, so you don’t necessarily need to wait around for the nuts to play against them.
However, this adjustment can only get you so far.
If someone is playing too many hands, you shouldn’t make the same mistake and start playing a bunch of junk hands.
Against loose players, your best bet is to play tight preflop ranges.
There’s a few reasons for this.
First of all, if you play stronger preflop ranges than your opponents, you will make stronger combinations than your opponents on average.
That’s because not all starting hands are created equal in no-limit hold’em.
Some starting hands simply have a better chance of connecting with the flop than others.
So if you only play strong starting hands, you have a much better chance of making strong combinations post flop.
Another reason to play tight ranges against loose opponents is the potential of dominating their hand.
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against a stronger hand due to a weaker kicker.
A kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can often determine the winner if both players end up having the same combination.
For example:
If you play a hand like Ace-King, you are dominating all the other Ax and Kx hands (the "x" can be anything).
So if both you and your opponent make a pair of Aces, you will win the hand because you have a stronger kicker.
Example: A♥K♠ vs A♠8♥ on a flop of A♦4♥2♠ has 85% odds to win!
You always want your hand to dominate your opponent, instead of the other way around.
And since one pair is the most common hand combination you’ll make in no-limit hold’em, kickers can often determine the winner of the hand.
If your opponent is playing too many hands preflop, chances are they’re going to be playing a lot of marginal hands with weak kickers.
For example, a lot of amateur poker players will play just about any Ace just for the prospect of making a top pair post flop.
But this “strategy” often ends up backfiring, as they often end up having only the second best hand due to a bad kicker.
So if you only play strong starting hands preflop, you gain an automatic edge over players who play just about any random hand.
If you loosen up your preflop ranges too much, you’re relinquishing your edge and you run the risk of your own hands getting dominated, instead of the other way around.
So which hands should you actually play against loose opponents?
This depends a lot on how loose your opponents are, and how badly they’re playing overall.
As a general rule, the looser your opponent, the worse they usually play.
So if your opponent is playing just about any hand, you can try to get involved with them if your hand is even remotely playable post flop.
This is especially the case if you’re playing in position, as the positional advantage is going to allow you to get involved in the pot with a wider range.
You should still avoid playing junk hands for the reasons mentioned above, of course.
If your opponent is playing too many hands but they’re not a complete whale, just play a reasonable range preflop and you should have an easy game.
Here’s a brief overview of starting hands you should play against loose players:
A) Pocket pairs (pocket Aces through pocket Twos)
B) Broadway hands (strong face cards that can make the strongest possible straight, like A♣Q♦ or K♥J♥)
C) Suited Aces (like A♥T♥ or A♣5♣)
D) Suited connectors (like 9♦8♦ or 7♠6♠)
These hands make up roughly the top 20% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em.
By playing a range like this, you will have no trouble winning against overly loose players.
Again, this is just a rough guideline.
You can play wider ranges if you’re playing in position post flop.
In fact, playing in position against overly loose players is one of the most profitable scenarios you can find yourself in.
If your loose friend is playing in position against you, on the other hand, then it’s a different story.
That’s because they can often make your life difficult by calling you down in position, which can lead to a lot of awkward spots where you’re not sure whether or not your hand is ahead.
If you find yourself in that spot, your best bet is to play tighter ranges, so you can avoid a lot of marginal post flop spots altogether.
For much more on this see my latest video.
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2. Make a Light C-bet on Dry Flops vs Loose Players
When you play against loose poker players, you should aim to get to the flop as the preflop aggressor.
This means open-raising or 3-betting your hands preflop instead of flat calling.
Being the preflop aggressor is statistically more profitable than being the preflop caller by a huge margin.
If you’re using a good hand tracking software, you can actually just go check these stats yourself.
That’s because the preflop aggressor has the opportunity to make a continuation bet (or c-bet for short) on the flop.
C-bets are usually profitable, so you should make a c-bet on most flops unless there’s a good reason not to do so.
So how does c-betting tie into playing against loose opponents?
As mentioned, if your opponent is playing a very loose range preflop, they will naturally miss the flop more often than not.
In no-limit hold’em, hands miss the flop completely 2 out of 3 times on average.
And if your opponent is playing a lot of junk hands preflop, they’ll miss the flop even more often than that.
Some players like to see a lot of flops, but they give up fairly easily if they don’t connect with the board (which is most of the time).
Against these fit-or-fold players, you can c-bet on just about any flop, regardless of how your own hand connected with the board.
If you connect with the flop, you can c-bet for value, and get called by a lot of weaker hands.
If not, you can make a bluff c-bet (aka a light c-bet) and try to get your opponent to fold.
The reason why light c-betting is usually profitable is twofold:
a) as mentioned, loose players will miss the flop completely more often than not
b) you have the range advantage as the preflop aggressor, meaning you can credibly represent a lot of strong hands.
For example, let’s say you open-raise preflop and see the following flop:
A♥8♠3♦
You have the range advantage, meaning you can credibly represent strong hands like pocket Aces, Ace-King, Ace-Queen and so on.
Your opponent is less likely to have these hands in their range, because they would 3-bet those hands instead of calling preflop.
This means their range is capped, while your range is uncapped.
A word of caution: light c-betting can be a very profitable strategy, but it’s less effective against players who like to call a lot (aka the calling stations).
The goal of a light c-bet is to get your opponent to fold, so it doesn’t really work if your opponent rarely folds as a default.
A lot of recreational players tend to overcall, meaning they usually refuse to fold if they catch any remote piece of the board.
This means they will often call you down with weak hands like second or third pair, or some drawing hands that have a slim chance of completing.
Against this player type, it’s best to keep things simple and just value bet your strong hands instead.
Save your bluffs for opponents who are actually capable of folding.
But if you look closely, you will often find players who call a lot preflop, then just give up when they miss the flop.
Against them, light c-betting will allow you to almost print money at will.
For example, if you light c-bet with a half pot bet, your opponent only needs to fold 33% of the time for you to break even.
And if you decrease your c-bet to 1/3 pot bet, your required fold equity drops to only 25%!
Granted, certain players may continue playing their hand slightly more often if you decrease your c-bet sizing.
But weaker players don’t really pay attention to the pot odds they’re getting, and they’re usually just concerned with their own hand strength (or lack thereof).
If you want to learn how to use pot odds to your advantage, check out my ultimate poker odds cheat sheet.
If they have a seemingly strong hand, they will call just about any bet size, and if they have a weak hand, they will let it go regardless of the odds they’re getting on a call.
You can take advantage of this leak by using exploitative bet sizing.
This means you use a smaller bet size when you’re bluffing, so you give yourself a better risk-to-reward ratio.
This strategy is less effective against observant players who actually pay attention to your betting patterns.
But in most low stakes games, players simply don’t pay attention to this stuff at all.
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3. Thin Value Bet With a Wider Range vs Loose Players
One of the best adjustments to make against loose poker players is to value bet against them with a wider range.
You don’t necessarily need to wait around for the stone cold nuts to bet for value.
In fact, waiting around for a monster hand can be a big mistake, because by the time you actually get a strong hand, another player could have already stacked your loose opponent.
This is why you should add thin value betting into your arsenal.
To bet for value means to bet when your hand is comfortably ahead of your opponents’ calling range.
To thin value bet means to bet when your hand is ahead of your opponent’s calling range, but not by a huge margin.
Put another way, you can thin value bet when you have slightly more than 50% equity against your opponent’s calling range.
This may feel uncomfortable at first, but it’s by far the most effective strategy to employ against overly loose players.
This is especially the case if they also happen to call down a lot, as is often the case with recreational players.
Some players may be apprehensive about thin value betting because they’re afraid of running into the top of their opponent’s range.
This is a fair objection, and if you do decide to thin value bet, you should be prepared for the fact that it’s not going to work 100% of the time.
When you make a “thick” value bet, you have plenty of equity, and you can expect to win the hand a vast majority of the time.
This is why players rarely have problems with playing their very strong hands, as they basically play themselves.
But it’s an entirely different story when your hand is in somewhat murkier waters.
But this is precisely what makes thin value betting so profitable in the first place; the fact that most players miss those thin value betting opportunities because they’re playing it too safe.
If you have trouble finding good thin value betting spots, you should always consider your opponent’s entire range, not just the hands that beat you.
As mentioned, a lot of players at the lower stakes tend to overcall, so you may be surprised by how often you can actually get action by weaker hands.
Overcalling at the lower stakes is a common leak for recreational and regular players alike, but recreational players are especially guilty of this.
This means that you can often get 2 or even 3 streets of value with what seems to be a pretty marginal hand.
This is especially the case on board textures with a lot of potential draws.
For example, on a board like:
J♦7♠2♦4♣
There’s a number of potential straight draws, as well as a flush draw.
So even if you have a marginal hand like top pair, weak kicker, or even a second pair, you can get paid off by a number of drawing hands.
In no-limit hold’em, a made hand on the flop is almost always a favourite to win against a drawing hand.
So on draw-heavy board, you should often bet to
a) get paid off while your hand is likely ahead and
b) charge your opponents a premium if they want to chase their draws.
Chasing weak draws regardless of the odds is another common leak at the lower stakes, so you should punish this by betting big on draw-heavy boards.
If your opponent raises you, you can confidently lay down your hand and cut your losses.
At the lower stakes, players will often call with a very wide range, but will only raise with a very tight and strong range.
So if they ever raise you at some point in the hand, especially on big money streets (turn or river), you can be quite sure they have something to show for it.
Most players will rarely turn their medium hand strength into a bluff, so if they raise you, it’s a good indicator they probably have you beat.
For this reason, bet-folding is the best line to take when you’re thin value betting.
The bet-folding line applies when you’re playing the hand out of position.
If your opponent check-raises you on the river, you should usually fold unless you happen to have a very strong yourself.
Check-raising as a bluff on the river is not something you’re going to see often, unless you happen to play against a maniacal player.
By the way, you can check my full guide on how to beat crazy poker players if you have a hard time dealing with incessant aggression.
If you’re playing in position, on the other hand, you will usually have more opportunities to go for a thin value bet.
This is especially true if your opponent checks to you on the river.
Checking the river is a range-capping action, which means your opponent is less likely to have a monster hand, which makes thin value betting better.
Some players will have a hard time checking their strong hand on the river, out of fear that you’ll check behind, and they’ll end up leaving money at the table.
For this reason, most weaker players will usually politely let you know when they have a monster hand.
They will either check-raise you on one of the previous streets, or they will donk bet on the river out of fear of you checking behind.
To donk bet means to bet into the previous street’s aggressor, and it’s usually a sign of a weaker player.
See my other articles on the 5 telltale signs of recreational poker players, so you can spot weaker players at your table right away.
Example Hand #1
You are dealt K♦Q♦ in the MP (middle position). You open-raise to 2.5 BB. A loose and passive player calls from the SB (small blind).
Pot: 6 BB
Flop: Q♠8♥2♠
Villain checks. You bet 3 BB. Villain calls.
Pot: 12 BB
Turn: A♣
Villain checks.
You: ???
You should bet 6 BB.
In a spot like this, a lot of players simply default to checking behind, but this is a big mistake.
An Ace on the turn is obviously not the best card for you, but there’s still room to extract value with another bet.
Sometimes your opponent will indeed have an Ace, but that’s only a small part of their overall range.
Your opponent can still call you down with weaker Qx hands, as well as a number of straight draws or flush draws, just to name a few.
Against that particular range, your hand is in quite a decent shape, and you likely have way more than 50% equity you need to justify a thin value bet.
You’re also playing the hand in position, which makes it easier for you to realize your equity by getting to a cheap showdown if need be.
These days, it’s not enough to wait around for the nuts to be a profitable long term winner.
You also need to know how to extract max value less than ideal circumstances, like when you have a medium strength hand in a big pot on the river.
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4. Avoid Bluffing Loose Players on Wet Boards
Bluffing loose players can be a very effective strategy, but it only works against a certain type of loose players.
As mentioned, you should refrain from trying to bluff calling stations and other players who tend to overcall.
But if your opponent actually has a fold button, you can often push them out of the pot with a well-timed bluff.
The reason you can often bluff loose players is the fact that loose ranges are more likely to miss the board completely.
This intuitively makes sense.
If you play a bunch of random hands, you’re going to miss the flop completely more often than not.
This is why making a light c-bet on hard to hit flops is such an effective strategy.
If your opponent calls your light c-bet, you can keep applying the pressure on the turn with a turn c-bet (aka a double barrel).
By the way, you can check out full double barreling guide to learn how to crush weaker players.
But the effectiveness of double barrel bluffing is going to depend heavily on the board runout.
If the board is very dry, double barrel bluffing is likely to be more effective, as there’s not many ways your opponent could have connected with the flop.
But if the board is very wet and coordinated, you should refrain from trying to push your opponent out of the pot.
That’s because your opponent is way more likely to have connected with the board in some way, meaning they’re less likely to fold to your bet.
Example of a dry, uncoordinated board: K♠6♦2♣
Example of a wet, coordinated board: J♦8♣7♦
You can clearly see how bluffing on a dry board is likely to be more effective.
On the first flop, the only hands that can reasonably call you are Kx and some 6x hands, and maybe some pocket pairs.
There’s also some sets possible, but there are only a few combos of those.
There’s no two pair combinations that make sense here, since your opponent is not likely to play hands like K6, K2, or 62 preflop.
The second flop is an entirely different story, as there are multiple two pair hands that can call you, as well as a number of straight and flush draws.
There’s also T9 that makes the stone cold nuts on this flop.
So it’s easy to see how bluffing on the second board is not likely to be very effective.
This means you should mostly stick to (thin) value betting on wet boards, and bluff more on hard to hit boards.
Example Hand #2
You are dealt A♣3♣ in the CO (cutoff). You open-raise to 2.5 BB. Villain calls from the BB (big blind).
Pot: 5.5 BB
Flop: 9♦8♦5♠
Villain checks.
You: ???
You should check behind.
In this spot, it’s best to save your money and give up the hand altogether.
If you attempt a light c-bet here, you’re going to get called a vast majority of the time.
That’s because the board connects well with the villain’s calling range.
Their range is going to be skewed towards hands like suited connectors, medium pocket pairs and so on.
Another reason to skip a c-bet here is that your hand has very little chance of improvement.
If you hit an Ace on the turn, you have a weak kicker to worry about.
Also, one of your outs is “tainted”, as an Ace of hearts can potentially make a flush for your opponent.
If your opponent also happens to call a lot, c-betting here literally means throwing your money away.
How to Beat Loose Players - Summary
You don’t necessarily need to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to beat loose players.
Playing against loose players can be frustrating, as it’s often hard to hand read against them, and they often seem to hit their miracle river cards at the worst possible moment.
However, these players can be very profitable to play against if you make the right adjustments to your game.
To sum up, here’s how you can crush loose players in your games.
1. Play tight preflop ranges
If your opponents are playing too many hands preflop, don’t make the same mistake yourself.
By playing tight ranges preflop, your hand will often dominate your opponent’s, instead of the other way around.
2. Light c-bet on dry flops
A lot of amateur poker players will gladly pay to see the flop, but they will give up fairly easily if they miss the board (which will happen more often than not).
You can take advantage of that by light c-betting hard to hit flops, as they will usually give up their hand without too much of a fight.
3. Thin value bet with a wider range
You don’t necessarily need to wait around for the stone cold nuts to extract value from loose players.
If your opponents tend to overcall, you should expand your value betting range and try to get action with your medium strength hands, as well.
4. Avoid bluffing on wet boards
Bluffing loose players is less effective on well-coordinated boards, because it’s more likely they will have something to call you down with.
If you do decide to bluff them, make sure to do so on drier, hard to hit boards instead.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at fran.redline@gmail.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
