Post by Randy C on Jul 20, 2007 10:45:55 GMT -4
My style of play is VERY aggressive. It sometimes leads to my undoing, but recently I have maintained a form of "controlled aggression", and by this, I mean I put thought into my bets rather than make them impulsively.
Have you ever been on a table where a player is such a maniac that you have no idea what, or how much it will cost you to play against them? That kind of manic play is definitely a double-edged sword. While you can easily steal blinds with such an attack, you also leave yourself wide-open to a counter attack and if you are NOT a very experienced player, you'll have NO idea how to handle the counter attack. It's been my experience that manics either make a butt-load of money on occasion or they lose a butt-load right back. So, at best, they break even.
I have learned to tighten up my game more, and I TRY NOT to act impulsively....That's a discipline issue. I'll give you a clear example of "controlled aggression" so that you can identify with it:
Playing in a $50 + $5 buy-in tourney, I was at a table with some extremely tight players. I knew this would be a golden opportunity to trap players into succumbing moderate and sometimes substantial pots to me by raising heavily with decent hands that had potential to improve. (Such as Flush draws with some type of piaring for my hand.) When the flush hit, I was golden, but if it did not, I played it like I had caught either a set, or was holding high pp of some type. It often worked and I watched my stack grow exponentially.
Later in the game, I was faced with another bomb like myself who was even more ruthless than I. So, I steered clear of this guy. But on one particular hand I caught a set from mid position, and the other bomb was behind me. I knew that if I let him take control of the hand, he would TRY to price me out of the hand...I was right. He fell for the trick hook, line and sinker! What's worse is that the board paired giving me the boat and HIM a set...so he really thought he had me over a barrel. If he had been using his head, there's NO WAY he should have NOT put me on that boat because I was calling his HUGE raises all the way down and then re-raised him all in on post river. It was classic...
The point here is to control the urge to over bet, or over play your hand. Identify who you are playing against and use their aggression against them; hence controlled aggression.
Another form of controlled aggression is taking precise stabs at a pot and being willing to let them go if you are aware that you may not get paid off. In some instances it is proper to throw a bet out there when other players are just limping in to see the next cards. Don't let them catch. If you get reraised, chances are you are being set up for a trap play...so let it go.
Aggression is an incredible tool that will pay off for you if you play it correctly and use it with a modicum of control. Try opening up you game at some smaller level tables to see how it works, you'll be amazed at how much control you can get from such aggression.
All In,
Randy C~
Have you ever been on a table where a player is such a maniac that you have no idea what, or how much it will cost you to play against them? That kind of manic play is definitely a double-edged sword. While you can easily steal blinds with such an attack, you also leave yourself wide-open to a counter attack and if you are NOT a very experienced player, you'll have NO idea how to handle the counter attack. It's been my experience that manics either make a butt-load of money on occasion or they lose a butt-load right back. So, at best, they break even.
I have learned to tighten up my game more, and I TRY NOT to act impulsively....That's a discipline issue. I'll give you a clear example of "controlled aggression" so that you can identify with it:
Playing in a $50 + $5 buy-in tourney, I was at a table with some extremely tight players. I knew this would be a golden opportunity to trap players into succumbing moderate and sometimes substantial pots to me by raising heavily with decent hands that had potential to improve. (Such as Flush draws with some type of piaring for my hand.) When the flush hit, I was golden, but if it did not, I played it like I had caught either a set, or was holding high pp of some type. It often worked and I watched my stack grow exponentially.
Later in the game, I was faced with another bomb like myself who was even more ruthless than I. So, I steered clear of this guy. But on one particular hand I caught a set from mid position, and the other bomb was behind me. I knew that if I let him take control of the hand, he would TRY to price me out of the hand...I was right. He fell for the trick hook, line and sinker! What's worse is that the board paired giving me the boat and HIM a set...so he really thought he had me over a barrel. If he had been using his head, there's NO WAY he should have NOT put me on that boat because I was calling his HUGE raises all the way down and then re-raised him all in on post river. It was classic...
The point here is to control the urge to over bet, or over play your hand. Identify who you are playing against and use their aggression against them; hence controlled aggression.
Another form of controlled aggression is taking precise stabs at a pot and being willing to let them go if you are aware that you may not get paid off. In some instances it is proper to throw a bet out there when other players are just limping in to see the next cards. Don't let them catch. If you get reraised, chances are you are being set up for a trap play...so let it go.
Aggression is an incredible tool that will pay off for you if you play it correctly and use it with a modicum of control. Try opening up you game at some smaller level tables to see how it works, you'll be amazed at how much control you can get from such aggression.
All In,
Randy C~
