How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players

Playing from the blinds is hard enough at the best of times. This is because you have to act first on every single postflop street.

When you are up against strong regulars, playing from the blinds is even more difficult. In order to stay afloat in situations like this, you need to come up with some ways to take the pot away from them.

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. How to Play Poker. Poker is a popular game that's easy to learn but difficult to master. Although it's a card game, poker is also a game of strategy, and you'll need to constantly read the other players to decide when to fold, when to. If you liked my style of analysis on overbetting, check out my FREE 'Hand Range System' where you'll get access to the exact methodology I use to make each a. Slowplay against these players For the most part, I talk a lot about slowplaying being bad and that fast playing is the best way to capitalise on your opponents mistakes. However, its pretty much. Poker is a game played against other players, with the aim being to get the strongest hand at the table. Community cards are placed in the middle for all players to use, then players are dealt.

What this means in plain English is that you are going to need to run some pretty big bluffs against them at times. Which is fine. The key is simply picking your spots correctly.

This hand presents a perfect example of one of those situations. Take a look:

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 percent or even top 40 percent of all hands dealt to him. That means that he is going to have a very wide range that includes...

• almost any
• most hands
• all pocket pairs
• all Broadway hands (i.e., hands with two Broadway cards)
• almost any suited connector
• most suited one-gappers

I think you catch my drift. That's a lot of different hands! This means if we are in the blinds we should also be defending fairly widely, especially from the big blind.

In the 'good old days' of online poker, it made sense just to three-bet like crazy here. I still do suggest this against a lot of the weaker regs in lower-stakes games today. This is because so many of them will either fold to a three-bet preflop or give up to a simple continuation bet on the flop.

This hand presents a perfect example of one of those situations. Take a look:

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 percent or even top 40 percent of all hands dealt to him. That means that he is going to have a very wide range that includes...

• almost any
• most hands
• all pocket pairs
• all Broadway hands (i.e., hands with two Broadway cards)
• almost any suited connector
• most suited one-gappers

I think you catch my drift. That's a lot of different hands! This means if we are in the blinds we should also be defending fairly widely, especially from the big blind.

In the 'good old days' of online poker, it made sense just to three-bet like crazy here. I still do suggest this against a lot of the weaker regs in lower-stakes games today. This is because so many of them will either fold to a three-bet preflop or give up to a simple continuation bet on the flop.

But once you move up a level or two, most of the regs these days are a little bit more savvy. If you have a highly unbalanced three-betting range here, then they will adjust by either four-betting you wider or flatting you and then floating your flop c-bet.

So it is important that you flat-call preflop a lot more often these days in spots like this and look to outplay them after the flop. A hand like as the player in the big blind has here is a perfect one with which to do just that.

We catch a pretty good flop with a gutshot straight draw to the nuts and a backdoor flush draw. These are the kinds of hands that I personally love to take a bluff line with. This is because these hands have plenty of backdoor equity to make a big hand. However, if my opponent fights back in a big way, it is also an easy throwaway hand. We only have queen-high after all!

In this hand we go ahead and check-raise the flop, which I like a lot. Then when the turn is the giving us even more equity, it is mandatory that we keep applying the pressure, in my opinion.

The river also brings an excellent bluff card — the — because it fills the main flush draw from the flop. We can definitely represent plenty of big draws that would play this hand the exact same way.

The final reason I like bluffing the river is because (of course) we still only have queen-high. Therefore, if we check it down, we are almost certain to lose.

What I hope you learn from this hand is that you need to find ways to outplay the aggressive good regulars even when you are out of position in the blinds. Taking a hand like this with several nice backdoor draws and playing it aggressively is a great way to go about that.

But you also need to adjust your bluffing strategy depending on the board runout. The board runout in this particular hand was favorable for us and so I like the decision to just triple-barrel this guy and force him to make a big-time call against us.

As you can see from the results in this hand, the bluff got through. This is exactly the kind of stuff you need to be working into your game from time to time, especially as you move up the stakes and start facing better players.

Do you ever run sophisticated multi-street bluffs like this against the good aggressive regulars? Let me know in the comments below, as well as any other thoughts you might have about this hand.

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

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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

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.

How To Play Against Aggressive Poker Players Win

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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