Simply put, a coward is somebody who folds their hand too often. Cowards are easy to bully and end up giving away more pots than they should. They are the types of players who put up a non-trivial opening bet only to fold to something less than half-pot on the next bet. While the strategy may limit stack shrinkage, it certainly won't help in its growth.

A Coward's Style

Initially cowards play in a way that's similar to Hellmuth's mouse. They won't play many hands and when they do it means they have something good. They tend to lead out rather than call, only raising with an excellent hand. When threatened, they fold.

The first note to pay attention to: they play good hands. Unless your own holdings are good don't get yourself into a showdown with one of them. However, unless you've played it wrong, you generally won't see the showdown with a coward.

Cowards will announce their good hands immediately by leading with the betting. They tend not to call for fear of already being beat, and they don't like raising since that would mean playing against other good hands. They will however call a raise to their own lead, so don't try to knock them out early.

The second round of betting, for example after the flop in hold'em, is where the cowards really come out to shine. Rather than evaluating the entire situation they tends to consider just their own hand. If it has lost in value, or not gained enough, it will already be on its way to the muck.

Knock them out

A coward to your left can be filtered on the first round with a leading bet, even a minimal one. Only do this if you have good holdings yourself, as you still have other players to consider, and if the coward is holding a premium hand they will call.

You can experiment with the bet size here to help determine how the coward works. A minimum lead may cap a coward's bet or simply turn them off. Should they raise you might wish to back down from all but premium hands.

After the next cards come is when you can do your best work. Here it is more important to think about what the coward has rather than what you have. In your opponent's mind their own cards have priority and your holdings are a distant second.

Since they only play good hands you're hoping for cards that don't mix with premium cards. In hold'em a flop of all little cards is a good situation against a coward. In stud you may need to wait for two cards before making a move as a single low-card may not be enough to scare them.

To make your move you have to decide what your opponent considers to be a non-trivial bet. For the most extreme coward the table minimum might be enough, and half-pot is more than enough for all of them. If your bet doesn't shake them then either they're not a coward or they've hit a good hand.

Be careful here, cowards aren't necessarily cheap players. A large bet on its own won't scare them away. If they have a good hand then they will call. The good thing is that even a small bet gets you some very good information, since a call always means a good hand.

The Persistent One

Occasionally a coward builds up enough courage to call you on your nonsense despite having a sub-premium hand. A true coward will nonetheless falter sometime before its over. That is, just attack them again and they will likely fold.

The trouble here is that should a coward call, it is very hard to determine whether they actually built up some courage or whether they actually hit something good. Just use a follow-up of equal value so as to not risk too much. And if they call, well, try again in a future hand since you've likely lost this one.