A loose passive poker player is one who plays too many hands. This type of player calls and checks too much and bets and raises too little. Loose passive players are the best opponents to have in poker because they are so bad. Having position on one of these players is like printing money.
Many players think that since loose players call with a very wide range of hands that the best strategy is to play only strong hands and only bet for value. This will certainly be profitable, but playing tight and fit or fold against very loose players is not the most profitable strategy.
Not all loose passive players are the same!
First of all, it is important to note that not all loose passive players are the same. A smart poker player will pay attention to how each one plays instead of lumping all loose passive players in the same group. Some are very loose preflop, but very tight after the flop. Some may limp a lot preflop, but fold to isolation raises. Others might minraise all their premium hands before the flop, creating an excellent opportunity to call with speculative hands looking to outflop them.
Playing against loose passive players preflop…
Regardless, playing against loose passive players preflop will be roughly the same. Players with position on a loose passive player need to be straight up abusing them. Raising when they limp and 3-betting if they raise (and their range isn’t just premium hands) is the bulk of the preflop strategy. Do this incessantly and with a very wide range. Don’t be afraid to include hands like 46s and K9o. You will be able to play more hands with a very bad player, to the detriment of other winning players at the table. Loose passive players will rarely play back, and when they do, it will usually be in a poorly thought out way that is easily exploitable. The only situation where backing off from the hyper-aggression might be necessary is if a thinking regular begins to 3 and 4 bet your isolation raises.
Playing against loose passive players postflop…
The postflop play is what makes or breaks this strategy. The reason that it is profitable to raise and reraise with a hand range that is very weak is because of your superior postflop skills. By default, most players will check to the raiser after the flop. A player with a very wide range of hands is going to be unable to continue on the flop more than half the time. This makes a 2/3 pot continuation bet very profitable. To show an immediate profit with a 2/3 pot sized bet, your opponent only needs to fold more than 40% of the time. This neglects the fact that your hand might improve on later streets and that you will have position for the rest of the hand, which raises your expected value.
If you run into a player who is extremely loose postflop and regularly floats hands like king high, some adjustments need to be made, but it is just as easy to take his money. First, you should make a slight preflop adjustment in favor of playing high card hands even if they are disconnected and unsuited. These hands will fare better against someone who goes to showdown with weak one pair hands than low suited and connected cards. Secondly, you should pretty much be only betting for value. Most people intuitively figure this out, but fail to understand how wide of a range value can include. A player who regularly calls with bottom pairs, gutshots and bare overcards makes hands like middle pair with no kicker an easy value bet.
Playing like this is going to have more variance than just playing your top 25% of hands against a loose passive player, but should greatly improve the speed at which you win their money. Seek out tables where you can have position on these players and be free from aggression behind you. Avoid very aggressive regulars and shortstacks to your left. If you can find a table with one or two loose passive fish to your immediate right and two nitty and robotic regulars to your left, you have hit the jackpot.
Mark David, the author of this article, is a professional online poker player of over three years. The cornerstone of his website is a poker guide for beginners. His website includes lots of other beginner oriented strategy content and can be visited at http://www.onlinepokerforbeginners.com
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