3/6 plo vs weird fish strategy?

[treysfull]

So I've been playing this crazy fish at hu 3/6 PLO a couple sessions the last couple days. Somehow he is up like 10 BI's on me and I just don't understand how it's possible. Somebody help my self-esteem or strategy here to let me know what you would do against this guy. He has gotten sick setup after setup on me but I feel like I should basically be up on him anyway somehow. Here are my reads on him:



He is incredibally predictable. He varies his strategy almost never from what I can tell. He calls pretty light in the SB and then the flop comes. If you bet he'll call a medium draw or medium hand and ck/pot a strong hand and maybe a strong draw or strong draw+hand but he hasn't shown up with anything light and not even sure how many draws are in his ck/pot range. but he did ck/pot 1010 on 1094ccc and then ck/cl 9x ck/cl xx (i had 94+ clubs obv). Ok so far not too crazy.

But if you ck back the flop he will ck 90%+ of turns and when he does he's ck/folding 95%+. It doesn't matter how many times you do this or what board the ratio doesn't change. It's remarkable. When he leads it's a draw, a strong hand, or a weak hand. Never total air. When he ck cls he has some piece that's stronger than necessary to ck/cl. other than cr the flop he has raised maybe 1 or 2 hands in any situation. He doesn't pay off rivers much either but he will hero cl very occasionally and he isn't going to fold something very good.

He does 3b quite a bit it seems like a lot of double suited hands to strong aces or kings or whatever. This is the only normalish part of his game and he mixes up his flop play between betting and ck'ing (he cks more than he bets but he's not always ck/folding and he ck/cls a variety of hands. When he bets flop here he can be bet folding too but i'm not too sure exactly what his betting range is. he hasn't cr'd after 3b'ing)

He raises a lot of buttons. He never cbets air on the flop. Seems like he always bets a good draw or good hand, barrels the good hands, barrels the draw if it picks up outs or improves otherwise cks and usually cks the weak hands out....I did catch him pot/pot/pot a missed ignorant OESD on a flush draw board once. Usually he just has it though it seems when he's barreling. He's cking back probably 80% of flops. When he cks back he's folding 85% of turns.

That's basically it he just crushes me in 3b pots with crazy setups or bluff catching or whatever it seems like. What would you do against somebody like this in 3b pots....and maybe more importantly: would you just be cking back most flops with most hands and bet turn 100% once when he cks or whatever and just play river mostly honest? How light would you defend him/3b him? I tried donking him but he seems to play closer to normal when you donk although still folding too much but putting me in more tough spots than just letting it go ckck/ bet turn.

[grizy123]

Sounds like someone who likes to pot control and you're letting him.

You really have to ID his calling/betting range on the flop.

[Sc000t]

I'd start checking behind some weaker hands on the flop. And probably wouldn't cbet air too often unless the board dictates it (22Kr or ccc or AQKr...flops where he is unlikely to call you lighter).

How much are you cbetting? Try lowering to 4bb. If he isn't altering his ranges much then try risking less in those spots where he's calling a lot. And maybe back off on barreling the blank turn cards with air or light. Just try and focus on getting value from good hands and getting to the the river with any sort of weak made hands.

I could be wrong about this but I'd play a tighter game from the BB. I'm not sure if you are already but if you're using his passive posftflop play as a reason to loosen up in the BB, maybe think about tightening up. Reason being that he plays loose passive in his BB so just create a situation where the ratio of pots being played is mostly with you in position in raised pots.

The times you do play hands in the BB...try mixing in leading a strongish range. I wouldn't lead much air or weak hands but if he isn't going to be cbetting much then don't let him check behind with hands you're happy to check/call with. Not sure how this will effect the game but it could help manage the hand when your OOP.

In 3bet pots, I'd be tempted to bet at damn near all flops he checks to us. When he leads I think you should tighten up on and play semi straight forward with the understanding that he is probably leading a stronger range than a normal player in the same 3bet situaiton. This is all dependant on stack sizes obv. How does he play when stacks get deeper?...go over your hands and see if he seems to change as stacks get 200bb +. You could see him tighten up which will help give you a better read on his hand range/strength. When you flop decent hands in 3bet pots and get lead into, think about just calling rather than raising and pushing...reason being that his leading range is probably skewed to stronger hands that he isn't going to be bet/folding much...thus reducing the percieved equity you might have in semi bluff situations. Instead try using his passiveness by calling...I could be wrong but I doubt he will double barrel in 3bet pots when stacks are 150BB or higher unless he has a strong hand and you might see him freezing up a lot on turns and give you free cheap rivers if you want them or allow you to valuebet hands you hit.

For river play in 3bet pots I think you can still be bluffing a healthly "normal" frequency if the board changes. I'd still be a little gunshy about bluffing boards where the turn and river are semi blankish and it goes bet/call on the flop and check/check on the turn and he checks to you on the river...in that case I think he might be a little more skeptical and hero cally. But in spots where the board has a reasonable draw on it that hits on the turn/river....then I think you can find value in putting out bluffs on those rivers. I also think bluff sizing won't need to be high. Take a look at how you're structuring your valuebetting and bluffing sizes. If they are larger in these spots try lowering them a tad. Try 1/2 - 3/4 pot size bets for both...this should allow you to keep a bluffing frequency higher because I doubt he'll change much with his calling frequencies despite getting slightly better odds. This should help keep your bluffing range higher as you'll lose less when called.