I'm surprised he's getting away with that in league play. You should open up slightly. He's using his bets to steal and to feel out your hands. Position, # players, etc always applies but with a good pair, go over the top of him. With cards that you would ordinarily like but fold, instead, just call. If you hit the flop and he'll bet, check raise him. If you miss, check out the board and think about what he's probably playing. Odd's are, he missed it. Raise or check raise him. Sure you're gonna fold some of these too but here's where you start to earn some equity in your future cards. You're sending him a message that says "Hey, you can push on these other guys and you might try it a time or two more on me but I'm gonna make you stop. Our new relationship is that I still let you mess around with the rest of the table but when I come in, you respect me."
Of course, you are risking a few games to odds (which, if you played slightly better cards than he should be in your favor) but how many games are you gonna end playing against him in the long run? It's worth the risk. Usually in League play, some of the better players would already be doing this. But my limited League experiences all involved rooms full of overly loose and aggressive players. Sounds like he's got a pretty good read going on, you could probably steal some of that by focusing on how he plays different people. |