Aggressive Poker Plays

Timed agression is a key element to good poker, thats why people have to excel with their agressive poker plays. Sure you can play agressively all the time and lose. Its because the timing of your play is all wrong. Maybe other players are picking up on your over agressive play and waiting to catch you on a hand. However if you limp in all the time and never throw out some agressive moves, you are doomed to mediocrity.

Develop your Aggression in Poker

In poker, opens and raises are considered aggressive plays, whereas calls and checks are considered passive although a check-raise would is considered ultra aggressive and often frowned upon. It is said that aggression has its own major benefit, meaning that often aggressive players can make money with weak hands because of bluff value. Aggressive plays often lead to big errors if executed wrongly.

.I am a very selfish poker player. I don't like letting players see a cheap flop. Why should I let others fishing for a hand get a glimpse at the community cards? I learned a tough lesson with my pocket aces. If someone wants to call me with 8-10 suited hoping for a flush draw, I'll make them pay over the odds for the privilege.

I want people to fear me when I make a raise, so that in future hands I may be able to steal some pots when I decide to throw in a bluff. If I am sitting on a great hand there is no way I am going to let someone with 8-3 off-suit to call me, and beat me with two pair. I will play in such a way as to make these hopeful players fold by making it too expensive to call.

Be well aware, although you may be tactically right to bully other players into folding, take a careful note of the players who decide to stay in the pot. They either have good hands or hopefully think you area poor bluffer. Once you gain the other players respect you can use the bullying tactics to take control of the table.

While it is true that aggressive play is generally more advantageous to passive play, using any play exclusively will get you caught out by an experienced player. A player who is constantly aggressive and plays many inferior hands is called a maniac, and knowledgeable players will catch him eventually.

There will be several occasions when you find yourself playing against overly aggressive players. They can be very intimidating to play against, but you have to learn to turn the tables on them. You need to modify your tactics slightly or they will be stealing too many of the pots and you will soon find yourself short stacked. You must learn to take the bull by the horns and come out fighting. You must play more aggressively. If you re-raise their bet a few times take a look at their actions.

Do they meekly fold?
Do they call your raise?
Do they re-raise?

After the hand is played, take a good look at the cards they were playing with, both pre-flop and on the river. Now you have to decide what the best course of action is to deal with this opponent.

Can I afford to wait a catch them with a monster hand?
Can I reverse the tables and bully them into folding?
Are they genuinely just catching a good run of cards?
Am I playing a quality opponent or a chaser?

If a player is not aggressive with his weaker hands, the opponents can safely fold whenever the player does bet or raise. The right amount of aggression can be roughly calculated using game theory, and depends on the mood of the game, and the habits of the opponents.

When you have been studying peoples play long enough you will notice that they fall into a certain category :

Tight player
Aggressive player

You are learning how to use observation and strategy to weed out and beat these players but in the same tone don't allow yourself to be categorized unless it falls into your game plan.

You want to be a tight/aggressive player.

Sure you want to play tight and protect your chips but if you do it all the time you will miss out on the big wins when you hit the monster hands because everyone will fold. You will soon find the blinds eating away at your stack.

Now if you play aggressively, you risk the chance of someone waiting to trap you. You will steal your fair share of blinds, but when you lose, you are going to lose big so you will lose any advantage you may have had.

So learn to switch styles and keep others guessing. It will frustrate others into taking more risks and playing the guessing game with you.