An Article About Playing Aggressively

#1 11-10-2005, 3:58 PM

Here's an article about playing aggressively. I figured some people might find it helpful.

Being a pit bull is great, but hold on to the leashI'd like to set the record straight right here and now; if you want to win big money playing tournament poker you are going to have to play aggressively. It's simply not a coincidence that all of the players you see on TV winning millions of dollars have one thing in common: aggressiveness.

So what exactly does it mean to be aggressive at the poker table? Well, the idea behind it is to push the limits, fight for lots of pots, and get active in the game.

The opposing strategy would be to sit back, wait for premium hands, and hope that someone plays with you when you do. There are several key problems with the conservative strategy.

1) You won't be dealt enough premium hands to stay afloat. In No Limit Hold'em tournaments the blinds and antes continue to escalate, which force you to gamble. If you just sit there and wait for AA or KK you'll end up anteing yourself to death!

2) You'll become too predictable. If everyone sees that you aren't playing very many hands they'll know when you do enter a pot that you have a monster. Thus, if they have marginal hands they won't give you the action you desire.

3) No one will fear you. If your opponents pick up on the fact that you're playing very conservatively, they will repeatedly attack your blinds knowing that you won't call unless you happen to have a strong hand. That's not the image you want. You'd be much better off known as a pest who won't let the others breathe.

Here's how it's done
The key to being a successful aggressive player is to do so in a selective manner. Going overboard with a hard-hitting approach can easily turn into just being reckless. In fact, let me introduce a new term: cautious aggression. While those two words would seem to contradict each other, they really don't at all.

A cautiously aggressive player will raise more than his fair share of pots. He's looking to pick up the blinds, first, or the pot on the flop, second, while hoping to make a strong hand, third. If he finds any resistance from his opponents, he'll duck and cover by throwing his cards away unless he has a very strong hand himself.

If you think of it in boxing terms, a cautiously aggressive player will throw lots of jabs but will always guard his chin. He's constantly jabbing while dodging his foe's punches. When his adversary gets sloppy and leaves his own chin open, the cautiously aggressive player will send him to the canvas.

On the surface it seems like a brute, chaotic approach, but realistically it's all rooted in basic mathematical rules. Let me show you what I mean.

Numbers game
At a nine-handed table, the blinds are 400-800 with a 100 ante.

Already there is 2,100 in the pot (400 small blind, 800 big blind, and 900 in antes). An aggressive player may decide to raise the bet to 2,000, risking 2,000 to win 2,100 if everyone folds. One thing we know about Hold'em is that it's very difficult to pick up a premium two-card combination. If the aggressive player is up against a table full of conservative opponents, he'll grab the blinds well over 50 percent of the time.

But what about those times when it doesn't work?

If an opponent does call, the aggressive player must now proceed with caution. Moreover, if the conservative opponent re-raises, the cautiously aggressive player must make a key adjustment by cutting his losses, throwing away the hand, and trying to steal the next pot. That is, of course, unless the aggressive player himself has a premium hand. When that occurs, he gets a chance to throw that knockout punch. Since he's been playing so many hands, the aggressive player is more likely to get action even when he has a hand that can't be beaten. So again, it's jab-jab-jab, duck and cover, then throw the knockout punch.

Everybody hates playing against an aggressive player, and for good reason. They are difficult to read and they're always putting the pressure back on you. Why not be that guy? Why not be the bully pushing everyone else around?

You are there to win after all.
By Daniel Negreanu


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