Fanatics

I found not one, but two true believers at the table. This is quite a rare occurrence, but somehow I discovered them. Even better, I got seats directly to their left -- at the same time. They both saw the flop 100 percent of the time.

Now, this doesn't predetermine that I will win money. But it certainly does tilt the scales heavily in my favor.

It's an interesting poker experiment in a way because you simply don't see players like that too often at $5/$10 6-max limit -- or any game in general. Don't get me wrong; there are tons of enormous fish out there at all hours of the day. But most of them realize that you shouldn't play every single hand.

How much should I loosen up my starting hand requirements? How high should I raise the pot with second pair on the flop? How often should I call down with King high?

I think I have the answers: not as much as you would think, three bets and the majority of the time. Maybe.

The first of the two whales was the more interesting -- though slightly less profitable -- of the two. After seeing nearly every flop, he went all out with the aggression postflop most of the time. This strategy worked well for him at first. He went up $400 in about a half hour before dropping about $700 over the next 45 minutes. There were two players at the table who kept folding to him. I couldn't understand why. I was calling him down with just about anything and raising pretty liberally. Maybe too liberally. It's hard to know where to draw the line.

The second whale was more typically passive postflop. Against him it was just bet, bet, bet until I met any resistance, than call, call, call. It wasn't so simple against the first fish because I felt I had to raise more to get maximum value out of marginal holdings. That kind of extreme value betting didn't work too effectively (although I still made money), but that's just results-oriented thinking.

I guess the tough part for me is calling down with Ace high and King high all the time. I'm pretty sure that it's profitable in the long run against players who are that loose. But what about when they start check-raising? What about on a coordinated board?

My line has been to never ever fold. I don't know if it's the right line to take. I know I would have made more money tonight if I had folded occasionally against these players. That doesn't mean I should have folded.