Yes, we had to do it again: aggressive play rocks, and if you master aggressive play in the right way, you will get to see your career in poker take off quite a bit. This is because it’s always a good time to start thinking about how to get deeper in the game. You will benefit well from changing up your playing style. We decided to write about aggressive play again because so many people ask about it. Being aggressive doesn’t mean reckless, even though a lot of newcomers just assume that. It’s not the case at all. You will do a lot better thinking about pushing for aggressive play in terms of strategy. The aggressive player thinks about when and where to be aggressive, but also what type of intensity to honestly expect. You want to make sure that you’re thinking about your folds and your bluffs. Some people fold at the drop of a hat, while others think about staying in too long.
The first thing that you need to think about is how many people are playing. If you have a lot of players, there’s much greater chance of someone having something that can honestly beat you. On the other hand, if you have just a few players, then you might have better chances of actually landing on something good and being able to move around better.
You also want to look at how many chips you have. If you have the most chips out of everyone, then it’s time to put those chips to good use. Don’t let them just see the flop for free all of the time. If you do that, then they’re going to get used to that fine treatment and walk all over you. It makes a lot more sense to dig down deeper and start looking at the type of players you’re working with. A lot of players, when they don’t have any chips to speak of, will hunker down and the blinds will start eating them alive. This isn’t a good way to spend one’s time at all.
You are a lot better off in the long run to start thinking about how you interact with the other players and who is actually playing from pot to pot. Is there someone who always tends to raise? If so, then you know that they are playing a bit aggressive and you will want to study how they react. Poker is definitely a matter of psychology as well as strategy, and thinking about these things will truly make a difference for you in the long run.
Don’t forget to look at position. You need to look and see about whether or not you’re really in a good betting position, or if you’re just kidding yourself. Simply put, a good betting position means that you get to see how everyone else is playing before you make your own bet. This usually means being the small or big blind since they go last.
If you have the shortest stack on the table, you might think that aggressive play is going to carry you home. This isn’t the case at all. You would be better served thinking about when to push and when not to. Since you look desperate, everyone is going to assume that you have nothing to lose and take your chips along the way.
There’s also nothing wrong with taking things slowly to begin with. This gives you a time where you can adjust your image as you need to rather than getting caught up in the details. That’s going to give you the power to stay in the game for a long time. This is even more the case when it comes to tournaments where staying alive really is the top problem that you’re going to face.
Seeing how people respond to a raise is one of the key points of becoming a more aggressive player — just remember that aggressive really doesn’t mean reckless. That’s something that seems to be going around a lot, but it’s not where you want to be. Break out and profit today!