Over Crediting Your Image

A mistake that I made a lot when I've been playing more LAG is that I make a lot of loose calls when I think people are playing back. The truth is that unless you are a maniac, people don't play back at you that much. Ya, if they have a pair, maybe they'll call you down really really light. But it's unlike they'll shove over you unless the board gets really scary and they need to protect their hand. The mistake is when you think your image justifies a really bad call, in some ways you are shooting yourself on the foot by playing with that type of image. Instead of profiting from it, your chips are going the other way.

The best way to take advantage of a LAG image or just a looser semi-crazy image is by playing more solid and playing good hands fast. For most part, you should be the one doing the shoving, and the fish doing the calling. You want them to call you light, if you are in a tough spot and you have a good hand but not as good as they are representing, a fold is in order. Like I mentioned, the key is still playing very solid and play almost as you were a TAG on the pots that count. A classic adjustment people make against a LAG is by playing even tighter, they are afraid that they might make a play and get played back at. So they think the best adjustment is to play tightly and hit. When they hit a hand, they think the loose player is going to pay them. If you pay them off in those spots, you are going to end up being neutral ev. Just think about it, you are calling him light, he's calling you light. What happens? Shipping money back and forth.

So it's kind of like what cts says, you have to adjust to them before they can properly adjust to you, and always be one level above them. There will be times when the adjustment that a player makes is by playing overly aggressive(tilt), you need to properly identify that and those are the times when you hold like any pair, it's the nuts against them. But for 99% of the time, the best play is definitely just play standard as you were playing a TAG even with a loose crazy image. If you do not do this, even a fish will have an edge on you.