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Aggressive players are in every poker table. And they will surely knock you out if you don’t know how to play right when you are up against them. Thus, it is very important that you know how you should play and what’s the best defense when up against aggressive players.

Typically, it is best to play reasonable poker. Although you will get tempted to be one of those aggressive players, raise and re-raise often, it is still a good thing that you act with the odds in mind, in short still be reasonable.

Nonetheless, if you are a tight player, playing with those aggressive players can be very frustrating because they are oftentimes unpredictable. You wouldn’t know if they are betting just for the sake of betting or else they do really have a strong hand. But of course, you don’t want to be holding trash at showdown or waste your money on bad cards so you better act right when up against aggressive players.

If up against aggressive players, you can play tight but still be reasonable. Aggressive players tend to play on and on and just don’t know when to exactly quit. Thus, if you only play tight but still reasonable, you can actually caught them up easily.

Try to have good starting hands and provoke an aggressive player with a raise and then go on with a re-raise. That aggressive player will more or less be on tilt and eventually will react unreasonably. As a result, you will get a good pot in the end.

Take note that aggressive players can be a good source of chips if you just know how to play with them right. If by chance you win against aggressive players you will be rest assured you’ll be collecting a lot later part.

Hello,

I want to know if do you play AA and KK differently in cash games, as opposed in tourneys. I know in cash games, particularly low limit, you can normally play aggressively without going very crazy and then bust several players out with a raise. Typically you win however you also lose sometimes but only a few bucks. In tourneys, things are very different particularly the blind structure that increase from time to time. Not to mention that winning a small hand later can be more profitable than winning a big hand early.

Now, say each player starts with $2000 in chips and blinds at 25-50. To make players fold when betting from early position it would take you at least $200 but it would take you more if you bet in early position with callers. You’re then up against a loose player and you’re not going to fold a re-raise with AA. Before the flop, you can easily be in for $800-$1000 chips. In case you lose, you’re out. And if you steal the blinds, $75, or even win $1000, then great! Later blinds will be that big.

Folding such hand sounds silly but have you ever think of folding such without even betting it early in a tournament to later (when the blinds are bigger and the advantage of stealing is higher) have a hand with a better risk reward ratio?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Many thanks,
Jullian
Jullian,

Regardless of whether it’s a cash game or tournament, you are going to play A-A and K-K very strong. Folding either hand preflop in a tournament is silly. If you are unfortunate to lose, it doesn’t matter if it is early in the tournament or later in the tournament, you are out. You don’t get either hand that often, so take advantage with them when you get them.

Hello,

I’m just 14 years old, actually almost 15 now and I’ve been playing Poker for some time now. Well, I know the game itself is very addictive so I decided to only play $1, $2, or $5 games. Normally, I play with 3-5 players. At times for a dollar I go one on one. I remember one time I only have 200 chips therefore all of us at the table agreed to divide stuff evenly depending on how many players were there, we typically play with 20 chips a piece, and to keep it simple, each chip worth a quarter. To have pot every time, we then just played with antes.

If I were to base it in a certain basic holdem strategy article I’ve read, two of my opponents then were loose aggressive, were actually raising pre-flop and checking every time.

In your opinion, should I re-raise them with a good pre-flop hand next time around? Most of the time when I feel they have something good I’d fold and they’d have my antes. At times when I have an okay preflop hand, I’d call them however on the flop I’d face the odds, fold and then lose majority of my chips. However sometimes they don’t have anything good to show. Any thoughts? I badly need your expertise now, please help me.

I’ll be glad to hear from you soon.

Thanks and more power!

Warm regards,
Brax
Brax,

Yes, reraise them and push your strong hands. Also, when you have speculative hands, take a look at the flop and when you do connect, push your advantages. Overall, I would probably play a little tighter in this game. Now if this is a limit game, open up your hand ranges a bit depending on position and see a few more flops.

Hello,

I’m 38 yrs. old and have been playing poker for months now. I was not that interested with the game but since I received an open invitation to join a weekly poker group I then became a bit interested. The guys were very willing to teach me then, they were so kind. Well with the patience and hard work of those guys, I was able to understand some of the basics of poker and then later joined real games. However I was a weak tight type then. Online, I was a bit okay but in real games, a disaster. Normally, I’d get pushed out of the pot, typically with a bluff; or 2-everyone would fold and then wouldn’t get any action on the hand.

Just recently, I saw your site and started reading some stuff. I then discovered I have lots of things to work out on but I just decided later to have one at a time.

I tried first to treat my raise-o-phobia. Luckily, in a certain game, I was able to re-raise a bluff to take down the pot and also flipped my cards over for others to see I had nothing. I also ended up being on the third spot.

Next I worked out on was my position play and my being the initiator. I entered a 27 person online tournament and fortunately had made it to heads up.

Well, I also wanted to drastically reduce my limp in’s and checks so I tried once if I could do it. I won a lot of pots without going to a showdown. And the hands I lost weren’t that significant as players then just called me instead of betting or raising.

Now, I’m more on being the aggressor and I believe it’s far better. My bluffs, traps, big pairs and even my losing hands are all much better. All points to my advantage. But I’m now bothered, I might return to my old ways, my old approach. Any tips?

Many thanks,
Lexis
Lexis,

Continue to work on your game and use the tools that you have developed to your advantage. Also, continue to work on new tricks and skills to help you get further in tournaments and to take them down. Work more on blind stealing and also on things such as playing small pot poker, table image, and pot odds. The more you learn, the better player you will become.

Hello,

Oftentimes I get dealt KK on the button when I’m at $25 NL online tables with already as much as $50.00 from my original $25 buy in. Few players would then limp in and one guy would raise something as $3.00. I would then re-raise something like $6.00 and everyone else would fold. He would then go to somewhere $20.00. I then would go all in and he’d call. Some low cards would then appear and he’d turn AA over.

Any thoughts? Do you think the kind of approach I have is just right?

Please I need your help.

Many thanks,
Jason
Jason,

Unless this player is one that is a super tight rock, then I think your approach is fine. Kings are only beat preflop by one hand. Even then, they can still out draw Aces nearly 20% of the time. This sort of situation happens, don’t worry about it.

Hi there,

Once you’ve mentioned that a good portion of the hands is win over with only a high card. Well, I dealt over 100 hands and plotted the results. I found out that only 2 out of the 100 hands were won with a high card. Some of the hands were won with medium to high pairs while some with 2 pairs.

To make sure, I purchased a Poker simulator on the web and ran it a lot of times. I also tried the simulator against 2, and 3 other opponents and still got same results. In the event played to the river, high cards at times.

I guess the only way I can make sense of the proportion you’ve mentioned is through ascertaining if winner emerges from pre-flop betting. High card dealt face down almost always will be the best hand pre-flop. However, I guess this is not what you’re trying to imply. Personally, I believe players need to play high cards pre-flop aggressively, however to win against a call or re-raise, such cards should improve.

By the way, in a small local tournament last night, I met very conservative, tight players. At some point, I noticed they typically never open a pot without an Ace or medium pair, however I never saw a high card Ace or King holding up to win unless it paired or helped make part of either a straight or flush. I believe if they were more aggressive in terms of their betting, they could have won more pots.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Regards,
Anthony
Anthony,

The typical winning hand in Texas Holdem is two pair. A high card only wins the hand a small portion of the time.

Hands such as A-K really need to improve in order to have a solid chance of winning. A-K is really just a glorified drawing hand.

Hello,

Other players see me as a tight player but I feel differently as I oftentimes loosen up a bit by playing most connectors and most hands with two face cards, etc. I figure out maybe they see me as tight one when I have two aces.

On better side, I do usually end up winning money and I believe it’s because I oftentimes take some nice pots at the turn or river with a sizable re-raise and little bluffs. Lately, I’ve been trying to be more loose and aggressive however my attempts were not that successful. Some players force other players out of pots on a regular basis with relentless heavy betting which later on leads to lots of missing hands.

I tried Super System and I discovered almost the same stuff. There was just one idea that caught me, it was about pros and amateurs. Well, the difference between most of the pros and amateurs on TV is that the amateurs wait for good hands and the pros force the action and put the hard decisions on the amateurs. That’s why maybe pros are typically on top.

Now I want to know if you have any piece of advice for me? I want to be on the right track but I don’t know how will I do it when most of the good starting hands don’t seem to come along very often.

Your help will be much appreciated!

Thank you.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel,

You need to work on loosening up your requirements for late position. Also, you need to work on identifying which players at the table you can steal blinds from when you are playing tournaments. What you are seeing on TV many times are players that are taking advantage of the inexperience or the tightness of other players. Pushing the action as they do can be beneficial in tournaments but in cash games, it can cause problems because the blinds never go up and people can just sit back and wait for hands to punish you with. You don’t have that luxury in tournaments.

Hello,

Honestly, I’m having problems about reading other players and being dealt high ace like AQ or AK.

At times, when I’m dealt high ace like AQ or AK, somebody will either place a big bet on me or re-raise me and then I’ll place him on a big ace. One time there was one guy who possibly had any kind of straight draw and so I placed a huge bet. I then thought that oftentimes if in case I see a re-raise, I’ll lay down as he might have some kind of pocket pair however if he calls, it could possibly be flush draw. Turn and river then came followed by some betting rounds. Later, he showed set of 7′s or 10′s, while I either had a pair or something else.

Any thoughts? Do you think I’m just being completely blindsided or there’s actually something I need to look for?

Thanks in advance!

Dennis
Dennis,

You are being overly aggressive with Ace high. When you are bet into or reraised, you need to do better than put them on ace high. It is time to let that hand go. Yes, some maniac players may make a bet or a raise into you with nothing, but you need to be able to identify your players better and put your players on hands properly. If you have A-K and face major resistance, in most cases it is time to fold.