Rocky players are by far the most boring players you can find in an online poker site. They call very little preflops and when they do, they run from them very easily. It is easy for them to go unnoticed in a table and this is their most hazardous feature, if you don’t identify them you are risking a lot of money.
The preflop play against a rocky player is pretty easy, if he goes first and limps the pot, you can also limp it if you have a good hand. Also, you can call a 3x raise, but if you have an average hand like AKs or JJ it is much better for you to reraise to 9x or more. Usually this will scare a rocky player away, but if he calls you know he is ahead from you. Sometimes this info will cost you money.
If you are first to a rocky player, the most advisable strategy is to steal his blinds. Blind stealing is a very important part of your poker playing and rocky players are the easiest players to steal. If you are trying to steal his blinds and he replies with a reraise, go away immediately. A 3x bet will be enough to steal his blinds and if you get a reraise once in a while you are still making money out of this strategy, do not fall into his game and call the reraise, save your money to keep stealing him.
When it comes to the flop, if you are first you must bet. Rocky players are easy to scare away from a flop unless they got a monster hand or very good odds. If a rocky player calls your bet and you haven’t got nuts or something like that, check on the turn and let him play. You shall not run behind a rocky player, if he is calling he may be slow playing.
If you are second to act and a rocky player checks, you shall bet a fair amount. They are easy to bluff and scare away even if you got nothing. If they chase you, you’d better reconsider it and check or go away, rocky players like to slow play and if he called something like a ¾ pot bet, he will do the same on the turn and river.
On the overall, you can take profit of their slow playing habit and bet low amounts of money if you need to draw or call their small bets if you are drawing for a good combination. The best you can do with rocky players is to steal their blinds and do not call them if they are betting strong, because a rocky player doesn’t bluff.
Do not lose unnecessary amounts of money in stupid calls “just to check he really had it” a rocky player who is betting on the river is not bluffing at you and the best you can do is to identify them and play accordingly. If a table is full of them, go away to other table because boredom may lead you to bet like a maniac.
