Running into a luckbox...

The past two nights I ran into "JoeyLion." This guy is a LAG player who is solely responsible for me being a negative result player at these limits. A couple nights ago, he called my reraise with AsKh with 8s5s, only to get a board of 4h6s2s. This guy was loose and I felt like I was representing an overpair preflop, so when I bet him nearly all in on the flop, and he pushed, I felt I had to call, getting nearly 3:1 odds. He hit a 5 on the turn to take the pot. Goodie.

Last night I sit down at my typical 8, 1-2 NL tables and look who it is - JoeyLion. Within ten minutes of sitting there, I see him take down AA when he shoves preflop with QQ and hits his third queen on the river. He then went on to hit about 4-5 hands in a row and quickly was up to $600. Its at this point I pick up As8s on the button. There are many callers, including JoeyLion, and I call. The flop comes Ad9s8c. Everyone checks to JoeyLion who bets the pot. I figure he's got an ace, and I want to finally get this guy so I call. The turn is the 7c. JoeyLion bets about 2/3 the pot and I raise to 3.5x his raise. He calls. On the river, a 2h hits and he pushes all in. I feel sick, but decide he might be making a play at me with a flush draw or a straight draw - I call. He shows JcTc for the nuts.

On other tables I manage to recover my losses. I get up to even when I'm about to log off when Joey raises my button from the cutoff to $7. I have AdQc. I reraise to $26. The blinds fold and Joey calls. The flop comes Jc8d2d. Joey checks, I bet $50, and Joey calls. The turn is a 9s. Joey checks and figuring if I put any more chips in I'm moving in, I decide to check and slow down. The river is a Qd. Joey bets $35, again I'm sick, but I have to call with the Ad and finally having hit my hand. Joey shows Ts8s for a Q-high straight.

Now at first I was thinking - wow this guy is lucky. What can I do if he hits his hands every time I'm in the pot with him? After thinking about it a bit more, I've decided he's not lucky. He's just outplaying me.

Most of the time, Joey gets people - including me, to put their chips in AFTER he hits his hand. I have noticed that he's willing to take the worst of it preflop - and then is willing to call off a lot of chips if he "thinks you don't have it." So the key to beating a player like Joey is to make pots large preflop and then only bet/raise/call when you have a hand. Bluffing him isn't worth doing because Joey wants to think you missed the flop. In addition, when Joey puts in his chips, he's got it. He isn't bluffing. So, if he moves in, just lay it down, its not worth keeping Joey "honest."

So, I'm currently down ~$400. Just two buyins - so its really not a HUGE swing, but still not a positive thing. But its all Joey. If I took the hands I played with him out of the equation, I'm up about $400. Pretty disgusting.

Now that I know what Joey is up to, I'm gonna make sure he stops getting lucky against me.