• How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players Game
• How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players
• How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players Against

Play Poker » How to play against Aggressive Players

The most basic thing to do in a poker game when playing against an aggressive player is to let them build the pot. This is something that is easier said than done, but it is the most effective way to increase the size of a pot. How you let them build the pot is either by checking to them and then calling or by just calling their bets in position. The only reason to raise them is if you think they are going to call a raise or re-raise you. At all costs against an aggressive player you should avoid calling and building a big pot with a weak to marginal hand or if you think they will call a big raise or re-shove over the top.

A more advanced way to look at an aggressive player or someone who will continuously play pots and commit a great deal of chips to certain pots is to trap them. Sometimes you can trap them by snagging a weird drawing hand like a gut shot straight draw or spiking a disguised set. With hands like these you don’t want to check them you want to lead right out with them. The reason for leading right out with a hand like a set is because to an aggressive player this looks very weak. If you lead out at the pot you can trap them into thinking you are weak and have them put in a big raise with a far worse hand. Most players will lead out a great portion of the time with marginal hands like middle pair or top pair with a weak kicker. This is the reason why you lead out with disguised hands because it plays exactly the same as a marginal hand. You can rake in a monster pot against an aggressive player taking a line like this in a pot.

1. The remaining players can bet against each other into a separate pot, saying 'okay I'll raise you maybe even putting you all in, unless you fold to limit your additioanl exposure'. At the showdown the main pot goes to the player with the best hand, and the side pot (or pots) go to best hand amongst the players who contributed to that, and one.
2. If you want to play poker and win, you need to play against weaker players than yourself. Think about it like this: If you are the 9th best poker player in the world, you will be the best player at almost any table. But if you join a table with those 8 players that are better than you, you become the sucker.
3. In this hand a good tight-aggressive regular raises from the cutoff in a $0.05/$0.10 six-handed online cash game. From a steal seat like this, I expect this player to be raising around the top 30.

How to play against Aggressive Players. Play Poker » How to play against Aggressive Players. The most basic thing to do in a poker game when playing against an aggressive player is to let them build the.

One thing not to do against an aggressive player is to try and bluff. If someone at your table is playing every single hand dealt they are far more prone to raise you in every single hand. However, there is one spot where a bluff is alright against an aggressive player. This spot is if you are out of position on the flop. What you will do almost every time is check to the pre-flop aggressor, so, if you are playing a hand defending your blinds you can make this play work. The play you are going to use is a check raise. Against almost every opponent in this spot you will check and they will bet the flop regardless of the board. The key is to make this raise on a dry board. This means you want to put in a check raise on a board of something like Q 5 3 with no flush draws out there. The reason for this is because your opponent can almost never just float a check raise with nothing. Even aggressive players slow down when a check raise comes at them on that type of board. Most of the time they will just fold their hand because what could they try to represent and a great deal of the time they cannot put you on a hand. It is one of those times in a game where you are putting an extreme amount of pressure on your opponent to make the correct decision. For them to win the pot they will have to jam their stack in over the top of you and have you fold. That is two things that they have to have go right as opposed to just betting and winning.

When playing poker online against aggressive players you will get value for a hand eventually if you wait them out long enough or you can outplay them in certain spots. The key to it all is picking the correct times to do so. If you can let them hang themselves this is the ideal strategy because eventually you can cooler them or get them to commit a bunch of chips to a pot with a marginal hand.

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How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players Game

When it comes to low stakes cash games, you have probably heard advice about how to play against passive opponents many times before. Value bet them frequently, steal their blinds a lot, and keep the bluffing to a minimum if they are recreational players. These tactics often work because the vast majority of your opponents in small stakes cash games, both live and online, will fit a similarly passive profile.

But how do you play against a loose-aggressive opponent (sometimes referred to as a “maniac”) who is in there with all sorts of hands and constantly trying to bluff you? These players can be much more difficult to play against, and there is much less information out there regarding how to approach them.

To that end, in this article I am going to discuss a few ways to counteract and exploit the tendencies of a loose-aggressive opponent profitably in low stakes cash games.

Position is Vital

How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players

The first thing about playing against loose-aggressive opponents that you need to know is that having position on them is absolutely vital. It is so important to me, in fact, that I will often just get up and leave the table if an opponent like this gets a seat on my direct left.

The reason why is because the person seated directly behind you will always have a huge advantage in every single hand except when you are on the button. When it is a loose-aggressive opponent who is going to three-bet you, float you with calls, and try to bluff you every other hand, this can be an especially difficult spot.

The types of players at the poker table and what seat you have relative to them affect your success in this game than anything else. Allowing a loose-aggressive opponent to sit on your direct left and make your life miserable is like handing your opponent a knife in a fistfight.

Don’t fight uphill battles. There are plenty of other tables with more inviting seats from which to choose.

Use Their Aggression Against Them

You have probably heard the phrase “give them enough rope to hang themselves” before. Well, it is not like you should never bet against these types of players or ever try to bluff them. However, you should definitely use their aggression against them on most occasions.

This means just flatting their bets more often, especially with top pair or better postflop. Often they are just bluffing or they have a weak draw or pair and raising will just force them to fold. It is better to allow them to keep firing at the pot on later streets and stick more dead money in the middle.

This approach is not always the best preflop, though. With a big hand — especially , , , , , and — you should be reraising their opens most of the time. The reason why is because they will call a lot more often and it is obviously beneficial for us to create a bigger pot with hands this strong.

Patience is Key

One of the most difficult things about playing against loose-aggressive opponents is staying patient when you aren’t making any good hands. It is imperative that you do not lose your cool and start playing into their game.

This is exactly what they want you to do. There is nothing that they love more than getting into ridiculously huge pots with meager holdings and making enormous bluffs. You don’t need to play this same kind of game with them in order to win. And if you are running poorly, this could cause you to tilt hard as well.

It is very important not to try and fight for every pot against these players. You need to accept the fact that you will get bluffed by them on some occasions. It is okay. Just let them have a bunch of smaller pots.

Sometimes it simply will not be your session either. That is fine, too. Just make sure you don’t make the big mistake of losing your patience against them and becoming the fish yourself.

Enjoy the Ride

You have probably had a session before where you have lost big to a loose-aggressive player because they got lucky in some key hands. You have probably had several other sessions where you won big against them by simply being patient and allowing them to bluff off their stack against you.

It is important always to remember that playing against these types of players is high variance. There is no way that I am ever making any “sick folds” against these opponents, so I will be losing my stack when they cooler me every single time.

Also, sometimes they will simply draw out on you such as by hitting some ridiculous draw or backing into two pair on the river. This kind of stuff just goes with the territory when playing against these types of players.

It is important to remember, though, that these players can be insanely profitable to play against in the long run. They will sometimes run hot for a session or two, but over time many of them will lose big.

Final Thoughts

There are no easy answers to playing against a loose-aggressive opponent. But if you make sure that you always have position on them, use their aggression against them when you can, and remain patient versus them, then these players will be a huge boost to your win rate in the long run.

It is important not to get wrapped up in your short-term results in general, but especially against these players. The reason why poker is so profitable is because players like this are able to get lucky sometimes — and we all have to pay that “tax” from time to time. Just stay focused on getting the money in good and the long term math will sort itself out in the end.

Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams is the author of the popular micro stakes strategy books, Crushing the Microstakes and Modern Small Stakes. He also blogs regularly about all things related to the micros over at www.blackrain79.com.

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How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players Against

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