#491 - How Do You Play Aggressive Poker?

There are some changes coming for the Blog. I know I’ve said that before - because Full Tilt has assured me of that before - but now I/they really mean it. I think. One format change will give you the opportunity to submit comments. I figured we’d experiment with this and see how it worked out. I maintain an active correspondence with many readers of the Blog and this seems like a way to encourage interaction (and allow me to profit from it by giving me material toward future entries.) Excuse any hiccups as I try out this new feature.

I received an e-mail recently from Tony, from Australia. His question, about how to play aggressive poker, is one I’m frequently asked, so I thought I’d post it, along with my response, and invite your comments. Of course, Tony also won me over with his hard-hitting analysis of the Blog in his opening paragraph:

Firstly - excellent blog, your talent as a wordsmith and story-teller is superb and entertains me no end.  If only we could have multiple entries every day.
 
Anyway, I have a question for you:  I’m a good poker player with sound skills - however, I rarely win tournaments, but often place in the top quarter, if not in the early money.  My belief is that I’m not aggressive enough, do you think that might be correct (albeit with the limited information available) - and if so, how do I become more aggressive (besides practice, my work commitments and family life knows I’m doing plenty of that)?
 
Maybe you can give me some advice, maybe you can’t or don’t have time; but if you can find time and think you can help, I’d very much appreciate it.

Here is my response to Tony, in its entirety:

Thanks for the information and the compliments, Tony. I can’t give you a really good answer without knowing everything about how you play (and maybe not even then), but I get the question a lot so I’ll mention a few things that come to mind, in no particular order.
 
1. Do your hand statistics show any of the following: (a) playing an escalating number of hands by position; and (b) playing more hands - but still more by position - after the antes kick in? Look at the percentages in the Andy Bloch chapter on preflop hold ‘em in The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide. Maybe you’re following a generally sound strategy based on the quality of your hands - that will keep you sticking around in tournaments - but it may make you risk-averse and keep you from accumulating chips later in the tournament.
 
2. How big are your initial raises? Some players raise so big that it becomes very risky for them to steal-raise, with the threat of having to fold if “caught”. The goal should be to raise enough to steal the blinds and antes but not so much as to stick you with bad hands to play. There are different schools on raising amounts, but I start online tournaments by raising 3x BB. When we get to the 80-160, instead of making it 480, I start making it 420. My personal belief is that people play too tight as tournaments progress. 420 should be able to do the work of 480. Then at the 100-200 level, I’ll make it 500. This really pays off (if you can steal-raise) at the 120-240/25 level because I’m making it only 600. So one level before, I was betting 500 to steal 300 (where most people would bet 600 to steal 300), and now I’m betting 600 to steal 565. It usually seems 2.5x BB gets the job done. Once you do that, if you succeed with 50% of your raises in getting the blinds and antes, you’re freerolling the other half of the time.
 
3. Are you defending your blinds enough as the tournament progresses? This is especially important against late-position raisers, aggressive players, and those who (like me) raise small. Calling a lot of raises from the blind accomplishes several things. First, it sends a message that your opponent is going to have to put more into the hand than 2.5-3.5x BB to steal. Second, because you could have almost anything, it’s hard for an opponent without a real hand to keep up the steal. This discourages further attempts and allows you the option of taking the pot on the next street. Third, you’re getting good odds to call pretty often and you could hit something and pick up a pot - out of position with a bad hand - that you’d never get otherwise. Keeping track of your opponents is important though. I do a lot of calling but I’ll reraise those late-position raisers with a few superpremium hands, and some garbage hands. (I don’t want to respond in a way that gives away my hand.)
 
4. Are you occasionally flat-calling raises in position with medium quality hands? If I’m in late position and a player in middle position (or later) raises, I sometimes think, “This guy is taking value from me. His raise is keeping me from stealing the blinds and antes.” I deal with that by flat-calling. Against pretty tight players, you may be able to pick up the pot with nothing on the flop if they check (uh, assuming, uh, they aren’t trapping). Against looser/more aggressive players, you could actually have the better hand - though you’re reraising these guys some, too, but you don’t always have the luxury of doing that. (I think an important and overlooked aspect of aggressive poker is the need to play small. Make relatively small raises and relatively small bets. It’s hard for a player with nothing to call, just because your bet isn’t huge. If you make him commit to the pot first, he’s either giving it up or playing for all his chips. But you have the option of playing for all his chips or just giving up with the small loss - paid for by the times you get everyone to fold.) And, of course, you sometimes hit the flop and take the guy down that way.
 
5. Are you considering pot-odds and implied-odds in your playing decisions? Pot-odds is the more important concept in the latter stages of tournaments but here is the implied-odds deal: if you and your opponent have deep stacks, flat-calling (or calling in the blind) can be a good strategy because a hand like 5-5 can win an enormous pile off a guy with A-A or K-K. But that situation doesn’t come up very often late in online tournaments.
 
The pot-odds thing is vital and I’m amazed at how many players can’t seem to contemplate it. Say blinds are 400-800 with 100 antes. That means there’s 2,100 in the pot before action. I’m on the button with Ts-7s. It’s folded to me so I bet 2,000. The big blind moves all-in for 8,000. Do I call the 6,000?
 
Yes! In fact, if the guy turned over his hand and showed me A-K, I’d call. In almost every instance where you’re getting 2-to-1, you’re getting the right odds to call. With his 8,000, there is 12,000 in the pot so it costs me 6,000 to get a shot at winning 12,000, or 2-to-1. So I don’t need to have a very good hand to make the right call. I just need a hand that’s going to win more than 33% of the time.
 
A-K beats 5-4 only about 2/3 of the time, so you’re almost always getting the right odds to call when the price is 2-to-1. “But what if he has pocket aces? Or pocket tens?” Yeah, you’ll take your lumps when that happens, but you’re going to win 40% of the time if he has A-K. And even 30% of the time if he has A-T, which has you dominated. Preflop, you’re only a small dog - even with crappy and/or unsuitd cards - except for the rare hands where an opponent has an overpair or has you dominated (and even that’s often not too bad for the odds you’re getting). And what if he had 6-6? Then you gave up a shot to pay 1/3 of the total chips, which you’d win 1/2 the time. Unless your two unmatched cards are really low, It’s more likely his pair is an underpair than an overpair. And always much, much more likely that he has unmatched cards or an underpair vs. his having an overpair.
 
Wow, do opponents get pissed off when you draw out on their AK or AQ - which you will about 40% of the time, which isn’t all that much worse than a coin flip (plus you’re getting their chips all the times they don’t have a premium hand and fold, and all the chips when they give your monster hands some action).
 
6. Are you aware of the table dynamic? If you adopt some of these strategies, you have to keep a close watch on the table. With a table full of nits and a good-sized stack, I’ll occasionally steal with junk in early position. Tight players won’t play you without a big hand, plus they’re liable to expect you have a huge hand since you raised in early position. Conversely, who is playing this kind of game? You need to play back at them (sometimes with nothing), either coming over the top of them or flat-calling in the blind or with position.
 
Also be aware of stack sizes. If you’re in the big blind with 6-6 and you and the raiser have 50 BBs, you may just flat-call. But if one of you (it doesn’t matter which one) has, say, 25 BB, it’s all-in or fold. Unless you want to try to outplay the raiser after the flop (which I’ll sometimes attempt), you’re not getting good enough odds to hit a set. Odds of hitting a set are about 8-to-1, but you have to discount for not always getting paid off. (Still, sometimes I’ll just flat-call and see what develops.)
 
Here’s something I’m working on about stack-sizes, and I’ve never seen it expressed: there’s an argument that you’re better off with big stacks to your left, smaller stacks to your right. It’s mostly expressed as exactly the OPPOSITE, but here is my reasoning, though I’m still developing this. If you raise a bunch to steal - which I strongly recommend v. the average tight table - there are situations where you can lose more chips to a short stack than a big stack. For instance, if you’re in middle position with Qd-8d and bet, if the small stack to your left wants to play, he’s probably not flat-calling. He’s moving in. You may be getting the right odds to call. That’s okay in the long run but you have to worry about losing 10-15 BBs off your stack, or getting that amount in as the underdog. It makes me a little more circumspect about raising when there are several short stacks after me. On the other hand, if you make that raise and a big stack plays, (a) he could just call (which means you see the flop for no more and evaluate from there), or (b) he could reraise you and it might be less than the short-stack’s all-in, so you’re seeing the flop cheaper and can decide, or you can get away from the hand for just 2.5 BBs.
 
I hope some of these ideas are useful. I can’t say they always work. I can’t even say I’m right about all of them. But I can represent the following: (1) I’ve learned poker strategy from some of the best strategic poker minds alive. Maybe I didn’t learn it right and maybe I’m not explaining or applying it right, but I’m at least starting with some good ideas; (2) I play A LOT of online tournaments, so I think about these things a lot and have tried them out a lot; and (3) I’ve done pretty well in online tournaments over the last year. I’m not making any claims of expertise. You just have to evaluate my record and the strength of my ideas.
 
Michael Craig