Fascinating Style of Play

[sjay2k]

I was playing at a small buy-in ($15) NL game with some friends tonight. One of my friends had not played much poker at all. In fact, he had to ask whether straights beat flushes and full houses.

The way he played though was incredibly interesting.

He would call pretty much everything pre-flop, and rarely raised. He raised before the flop only four times and bought the pot every time -- three times showing trash hands, and pocket queens the other.

Similarly, he would call bets on the flop and turn, yet rarely bet himself. And when he would bet, it would be on a dangerous flop (3 suited cards or an XXY type flop) and would rarely get called.

However, this player turned into an utter maniac on the river. After calling pre-flop, on the flop and the turn, he would lead out and bet one-to-two times the pot. He got lots of folds when he had nothing, and lots of calls when he had straights and flushes.

He finished nearly even, leaving with a little over $13.

I would estimate that he called raises pre-flop 75% of the time, and when he saw a flop, he would do the call-call-bet routine about 60% of time, otherwise just folding to any bet.

I think this worked because he was playing so loose before the flop so you simply could not put him on a hand. And you could not bluff him, so you could only raise with a made hand (thus divulging the strength of your hand). He put one of my friends on huge tilt, after calling a $2 raise (blinds were only 10/20c) with 7/9s against KK, flopping a flush, then check-calling twice and betting out $8 on the river.

What do you all think of this style of play?