Poker Well: Dealing With An Aggro Player

Dealing With An Aggro

It's impossible for me to say enough about being patient. When you realize you're in a match against one of these people, have the mindset that you are going to win. Don't get frustrated! Be pleased they sat with you. Most importantly, let the match come to you!!

These players will be 3-betting you very wide. It is important to stop raising the button with marginal hands. I like to start limping. One of the keys to beating these people is to see as many flops as possible. When you hit a flop, you have a great chance of getting paid. If they raise your button limps, then only call with hands that flop well such as suited connectors or broadways. If they continue to raise your button limps, it is time to look for a situation to use the limp re-raise phenomenon to your advantage.

I discovered this phenomenon probably around my 8,000th heads up match. In other words, not really that long ago. However, it is a very solid concept. It holds true about 90% of the time. In a nutshell, it says that if you limp and your opponent raises and you re-raise... HE IS USUALLY NOT FOLDING! You can use this against these aggros with big hands. With big Aces, A9 and up, I will probably make it huge after he raises so I don't have to play post-flop without being committed. With hands like QQ+, I will limp and then re-raise a decent amount to build the pot. What you don't want to do is limp and smooth call his raise. You're not building the pot. REMEMBER, DO NOT be afraid of him folding. With TT and JJ, I will re-raise a huge percentage of my stack to commit myself to any flop. I just limp-shove the pocket pairs 55-99.

When you become aware that your opponent is going to raise almost all of your limps, it is important to limp for the purpose of taking their raise. I do this with pocket pairs 55-88 and also with A9+. I limp these hands and just shove over the top of their raise. This adds chips to your stack to allow you to see more hands.

This is what you have been waiting for. This hand is the reason you are happy you sat with an aggro. When it occurs, DON'T let the opportunity pass you by. If you flop a monster (trips, top two, straight, flush, or even better) don't scare your opponent away. The river is the time to get value out of him.

When you flop a combo draw against the aggro, it is a good idea to play it pretty fast. I like to be aggressive on the flop to see if I can get my opponent to go all the way right now. I don't like to slow play because if I brick the turn, my hand goes from being a big hand to being very mediocre.

This is more than just being patient. When I end up playing an aggro and I am getting run over, I have taught myself to look at my chip stack and think of it doubled. I tell myself it is only a matter of time before I double up. If your chip stack gets so low where a double up won't even get you back to even, it is time to get aggressive. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Basically, just remember not to panic unless you have under 700 chips.

Now that I mostly play turbos, the most disappointing thing about sitting with an aggro is that it is a turbo. I honestly think you can win 65-70% of the time against an aggro if it were a regular speed match. The reason for this is because you will be dealt more hands which means the probability of getting a monster pre-flop or flopping a monster is much greater. The probably is actually twice as great because you are dealt twice the number of hands. What I have learned to do against an aggro is to make it so I am dealt as many hands as possible. The way I do this is by playing as fast as I can without clouding my judgement. If I intend to fold, I will fold as fast as possible. If I plan to limp re-raise, I limp as fast as I can.

Poker Well