Strategies for Bullying Weak Opponents in Holdem

1. Bet bet bet. Weak players are where you stand to make the most money at the table, but understanding how to milk them for every dollar they have is an interesting art. The popular approach to beating the weak player is to simply muscle them around, and that actually is the best approach to crushing them; pound them relentlessly with bets at every avenue they show weakness. I play at PKR Poker, and most weak players there are either calling stations or rocks, and the non calling station players will always play with their hands face up. Taking their money and getting rakeback at PKR is a profitable combination for sure. When they have a hand worth playing, they'll bet, and when they don't, they'll check. Every time they check, you have a profitable bet, as most of their hands that they check are hands that they've given up on. By constantly applying pressure when they check, you force them to fold away chunks of their stack left and right; small ball poker is super effective against them.

2. The all-in. The biggest weapon that you have in your arsenal is putting your weak opponent all-in. Most weak players fear busting out of the game, whether it be a tournament or cash game, and tend to avoid situations where their life in the game is at risk, unless they have a monster hand. This is especially true in the bigger tournaments at PKR, where players panic near any significant bubble and open themselves up to abuse by constantly giving themselves room to fold. Check it out for yourself with this PKR bonus code. If you have any suspicion that your opponent may fold a hand, whether it be by making a light bet on the turn, checking to you on the river, or any verbal or physical tells, put the weak player to the ultimate decision and put him all-in. If you've seen the player make agonizingly difficult laydowns with monster hands, the more reason to do it. Sometimes, they'll show you their hands when they do that; encourage them to show you as much as possible when they're weak, and you'll learn the types of hands they're willing to go all the way with. The bigger the laydown, the more likely it is you can get them to commit a large percentage of their stack before the river, then fold the river. A super profitable method of playing against them is to bet 10% of their stack on the flop, 30% on the turn, and the rest on the river when checked to; if they check the river, you have a profitable shove with any two cards if they've shown they can fold a reasonable hand, and chipping away 40% of their stack is usually a big chunk of change to steal away.

3. Encouraging bad play. This can be the trickiest one to stick to, especially when they suck out on you for a massive pot, but part of bullying is making the bad player believe that the way they play is the "correct" way. When they call an all-in with a gutshot and hit on the river to suck out on your set, simply say, "Man, that was a tough call; nice hit, though!" as politely and encouragingly as possible. When they show you making the super tight laydowns, encourage that as well; "That's a seriously tough laydown, man. Impressive stuff." and muck your nine high without showing them the poor decision they made. You want them folding often, and you want them calling incorrectly, so encouraging the bad decisions will earn you big dividends in the long run by their continued bad play.