... He's got to be a Macho Man! I see
this way to often in online poker and in the B&M establishments. And I have
now dubbed it the Macho Man syndrome. You know what I am talking about, it's
the guy that is always pushing and forcing the issue when he makes a raise and
gets re-raised. The guy that goes all in when 5 people call the blind pre-flop
when he is the BB.
The guy that goes all in every time someone raises when there are a few people
left before the money in a tournament. He claims it’s to protect his hand or
his blinds when in reality he is a pusher...
HE IS THE MACHO MAN!
Now I will be honest I myself have been the Macho Man, and
not surprisingly it more often than not does not work out in the long run or
short run for that matter. What Causes this occurrence? For me more often
than not it was a reaction to a bad beat on another table if I am playing online,
or just general frustration at how things have gone that day and "I'm not
going to take it anymore!!! I AM NO ONES BITCH". The other reason for this
type of play is the feeling that some people get, including me, of "how
can this imbecile call/re-raise my raise? did they not see that I raised?!
". This type of reaction while I guess is natural, is often counter
productive. I know this first hand... form both sides of the situation.
What this does to your play if you are a macho man is it
sets you up for traps. Traps that I myself have fallen into time and time
again, but I have learned from this, how to avoid it and how to trick people
into trapping themselves. A common occurrence is that the Macho Man raises and
someone that knows he often raises with good or marginal hands and will not
back down re-raises the minimum him hoping that the macho man will push all in
over the top and that then they can call with their nut/great hand.
One place I constantly see this behavior is when a person is
on the big blind and its folded around to the small blind and the small blind
raises, maybe he is trying to steal says the macho man.. And the macho man
forces the issue and goes all in. If I am the small blind to that guy sure i
will fold this time.. But man does that give me the opportunity to set a huge
trap in the near future. So what do you do to set this trap every time it’s
folded around to you at the small blind or button raise 1 bet. See if he goes
all in to "protect his blinds".. .if he does you have a real live
Macho Man on your hands, if he does this a couple times and you fold he will
think that you are weak and he will continue this behavior. What you are
waiting for is that opportune time when you have a premium hand , you raise ,
he goes all in , and you call him. He flips over 9-3 off and you flip over your
pocket cowboys. Now if you knock him out then good one less person to compete
with. If he happens to have more chips than you then great! You can continue to
raise and like any school yard bully that has had his ass whipped he will fold.
Now keep in mind I am not say piss away your chips raising with nothing to set
him up. This is something that you can do if you are winning hands elsewhere.
The whole reason for this trap is to double up in one hand.
Now if you are that Macho Man you need to be looking for
someone trying to set you up. You need to be aware that because of your aggressive
play people have taken notice. And that everyone at the table has now thought
to themselves I just need to set that guy up. One way of countering this is go
from your ultra aggressive play to that of a super tight ass. Then when you
have the hands get aggressive and you are hoping that someone else has a hand
also and will think that they are the one setting the trap instead of you.
So be looking out for those Macho Men. Takes notes of the people you are playing
against and if you find one join his table every time.
