I read a great article from BlackRain79 (Nathan Williams) on how to tilt your weak micro stakes opponents for maximum profit, and give additional insights into exploiting the weak.

In episode 77 I showed you how to work out your opponent’s 3bet calling and 4betting ranges using 3 specific HUD stats and 3 important questions.

‘How to Tilt Lesser-Skilled Players at the Lower Stakes’ by Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams

Click here to read the article ‘How to Tilt Lesser-Skilled Players at the Lower Stakes’ on pokernews.com

I was thoroughly impressed by this article and it occurred to me that this is perfect for my audience, and I figured the best way for me to share it with you is to actually read the entire thing on the podcast, then throw my comments in at the end.

The author, BlackRain79, has a website at www.blackrain79.com and he puts out tons of micro stakes strategies there.  He’s also got a YouTube channel as well as he’s written a couple really good micro stakes strategy books called ‘Crushing the Microstakes’ and ‘Modern Small Stakes.’  This guy totally knows his stuff and is a great one to learn from.

This article in particular stresses something super important; attacking the weak players to earn money from them.  Everyone knows that the weak players are where the money’s at, but we can often forget this and tackle anyone at the tables.  But, with a dedication to tilting the weaker players, if you put your mindset and focus on this, you’ll be putting yourself in a great spot to profit from every table and session you play.  Also, by thinking about what makes these weak players good, tiltable targets, it might wake some of you up to the fact that you have some of these same characteristics and that you should work on ditching these.

Learn more about Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams: Website | YouTube | Twitter

My Thoughts (9:10)

Playing IP

• Great point. You control the action IP, and this can set off the weaker players.
• Know the weak players; look for limpers pre-flop and passive callers post-flop.
• I like his take on the drawbacks of “speed” poker.

Raising

• I like the idea of raising anything playable.
• Great point about when raising more it’s best to have docile regs to your left. Agro regs will 3bet you off of your wide range, not allowing you to iso the weak player.

Cbet

• Love the idea of lots of cbetting, esp. early in the “relationship”
• Don’t bluff the stations – great
• Control the pace of the hand – great

Opponent is Tilting

• Play big pots w/good hands
• Doesn’t have to be the nuts; TPWK becomes great when they’re tilting b/c they’ll fight back with worse

Final

• “People forget that the $$$ in poker comes from the bad players.”  He’s so right about this and that’s why this article is so important.
• This article reawakens us to this fundamental idea of exploiting and profiting from the weak players.
• Follow this advice, and we’ll have positional advantage, skill advantage, and maybe card advantage in every hand we play. And even without card advantage (b/c we’re playing a wide range of hands) we have the post-flop skills to make up for this.

Look Deeper – Recreational/Weak Player Characteristics

• Plays OOP, doesn’t care about position
• Tilty
• Annoyed by aggressive players
• Limps a lot
• Plays too many weak hands
• Passively calls too much post-flop, or folds too much to cbets from agro players

My big takeaway

Don’t be a weak player with these characteristics.  If you see these in you, do your best to ditch them.

Podcast Challenge (14:55)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  In the next session you play, pick a weak player and purposefully try to tilt them.  Follow what BlackRain79 says here and do the following:

1. Play IP
2. Raise with anything playable without agro players to your left
3. Cbet a ton (especially in the beginning)
4. Don’t pay off with crap hands when they start committing chips to the pot with bets and raises
5. Go for lots of value with good hands when they appear to start tilting

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Up Next…

In podcast #79, I'll answer 3 insightful listener Q’s.

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet.