fundoopoker.com

28/09/2011

The importance of aggression cannot be stated strongly enough. Aggression is one of the basic traits that separate the winners from the losers at the poker tables. By being aggressive, you get more money from your good hands, lose less money with your bad hands and maintain a more unpredictable style.

Being an aggressive poker player does not mean beating your opponents to death with bet after bet and raise after raise. Smart aggression in poker means that you tend to play hands hard or not at all. The aggressive poker players mantra is that if it's not strong enough to raise with, it's not strong enough to play.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. There are still good times to check and call, but weak players check and call way too often. Aggressive poker players prefer to make it simpler by only playing hands that are worthy of betting and raising.

Several benefits that demonstrate the importance of aggression include:

• Gets value for your strong hands
• Charges your opponents to draw
• Makes your opponents play more straightforward
• Keeps you unpredictable

Aggression and Value

Aggression makes money because it gets money in the middle when you have strong hands. Winning poker strategy really doesn't get any simpler than that. Get a good hand; put money in the middle. Any time you think you have the best hand, whether it be a single pair or a straight flush, you should be betting and raising for value.

Some poker players like to play their hands tricky by using a lot of checks and calls on the early streets. Slow playing can be a good strategy at times but new players overuse the tactic. At some point, you're going to have to bet to get some money in the middle. The earlier you start betting, the easier it is to build a big pot by the river.

Aggression and Drawing

Aggression makes your opponents pay to draw, which leads to greater profits for you in the long run. Every time one of your opponents chases a draw when he shouldn't, you gain. Sure, sometimes your opponents will get lucky and hit their draws, but you will make a lot of money off chasers over the long run.

At the same time, it is important to be aggressive because you do not want to give your opponents free cards. Besides the fact that it raises the risk of your hand getting beaten, it also misses out on value that could have been gotten by betting. If you fail to bet early in the hand, your opponent will either miss his draw and stop putting money in the pot or he will hit his draw and win the pot.

Aggression Makes Your Job Easier

An aggressive poker game forces your opponents to play in a more straightforward manner. It is difficult and expensive to mess with aggressive players who are always betting and raising. It also makes your opponents play a defensive game rather than an offensive game.

For example, think about a time you checked on the river when out of position and then had to face a big bet from your opponent. It is likely that you wondered whether the bet was legitimate or if it was simply because your check looked weak and scared. Well, when you're the one betting, it becomes much riskier for your opponents to try to pull funny moves like that. It causes them to play a more face-up game.

Aggression Keeps You Unpredictable

Being an aggressive poker player means you make more bets and raises than the average poker player you'll find on many Indian poker rooms for example. As a result, it is difficult for your opponents to gauge the strength of your hand. Rocks and passive players are much more predictable because they only bet when they have a very strong hand.

The more unpredictable you are, the more likely it is that your opponents will make mistakes. Every mistake your opponents make is money in your pocket. You don't have to be a complete maniac to become unpredictable, by the way. All you have to do is place a few well-timed bets here and there and you will be a difficult player to read.