How to deal with really loose/big betting player?

[thormx53]

Hey,

I play NL Hold Em once or twice a week with friends, and they consider me one of the better players we play with (consistent, don't win every week but in the money almost every night). I've played 4 or 5 times now with my friend Rick, and I can't get a read or betting pattern on him. He is a rather goofy kid I know he doesn't have good poker instincts but I can never tell if he is bluffing or not. We usually start with about 30$ in chips, and he will often raise it 4 or 5$ preflop (with blinds at 25 and 50 cents) regardless of his position to the button. He will raise even bigger on the flop/turn/river (sometimes up to 10 bucks) regardless of what kind of cards (face cards, straight/flush draws, pairs, etc) are showing. So far my strategy has been to just call with marginal/good hands and get out of the way with anything else. I never tried to bluff him because when people push him he comes over the top all in.

The problem is although he oftentimes holds complete crap (went all in with 6 7 off suit, community cards were J K 4 8 2 with no flushes, I called him with J 2) but other times he has good cards (a few weeks ago he went all in with 2 2, community was K A 2 5 J with no flushes, I called with A J). How would you guys play a kid like this? He plays with reckless abandon, and often times builds a huge chip lead then loses it all. In a 16 player tournament (2 tables of 8, top 4 from each go to final table) that I won on Saturday I had to act before him all night and probably lost about 15$ of blinds and raised raises (he'd come over the top of me) before he broke down and went from 150$ to nothing in a matter of 4 or 5 hands. Am I playing him correctly by calling when I have good stuff, or is there another way to deal with a player like this?

Thanks, Bill