Hi,

I had a poker table last night where I just couldn't deal well, and was hoping somebody with more experience could give me some advice.

A cash game with me and my friends came down to 3 handed. Blinds were getting big, and I was smallest stacked with about 25 to 30 big blinds to bet. (The other two had about 60 to 80 big blinds).

The person to act after me was fairly loose pre-flop and very passive, but tight on what he would call on. He slow played a lot of sets (which he made quite frequently whenever I had top pair on the flop). The person to act before me was loose aggressive.

I found the main issue I had was that the person to act before me would basically bet aggressively on anything. I would know when I would have this person beat. The person who acts after me generally doesn't bet strong hands, and just calls until the river (on any draw or made hand, despite pot odds), and if his hand becomes strong, he'll re-raise on the river, otherwise he'd fold. The main difficulty came from the fact that since I couldn't get any idea on the strength of the hand of the person after me, on the river I had no idea if he was going to call or fold to the raise by the person before me.

Has anybody been in this particular situation before and have some advice on how to deal? The only thing I could think of would be to switch to a all-in-or-fold-pre flop strategy.