As the game of poker evolves and educational resources (such as Pokerology) are at everyone’s fingertips, more and more players are learning to adopt an aggressive style at the poker tables. Indeed, throughout the lessons on Pokerology we’ve taught the value of playing an aggressive style of poker – which is important if you want to be a winning poker player.

Jouer Aggro Poker En
Jouer Aggro Poker Gratuit
Jouer Aggro Poker Pc
Jouer Aggro Poker Gratis

While being aggressive is more profitable, many players do not understand how to change gears and their aggressive poker play becomes predictable. If you are using your observational skills, this predictability will help you identify patterns and make smart decisions.

The Classic TAG and LAG Definitions

The object of Joker Poker is to start with five cards, and through discarding some of the cards and drawing others build a hand which contains one of a number of different winning combinations similar to those in the traditional table game of Five Card Draw Poker. We’re in this together. In an ongoing effort to help during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jouer has donated 25,000 supplies to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles to the doctors, nurses and healthcare warriors on the frontlines.

While every player is different, there are three main types of aggressive poker players you will encounter.

The Tight-Aggressive (TAG)
The Loose-Aggressive (LAG)
The Loose Aggressive/Passive

You should already be familiar with the classic tight-aggressive and loose-aggressive definitions, which we detailed in our beginner lesson about poker playing styles. But the loose aggressive/passive type of player is a rare breed. They will raise a lot of hands pre-flop, but will often give up on the flop or turn. Typically these are former TAGs or tight passives trying to experiment with looser play but are not comfortable committing to their aggression.

These definitions are a good place to start, but you can’t just put poker players into neatly defined categories. Using your observational skills you need to understand the spectrum of hands that somebody might be playing and also the degree of aggression they exhibit in their play. This will help you to formulate effective strategies to use against them, which is the goal of this lesson.

Define Their Hand Range

The first step you need to take when playing against an aggressive player is to define their likely hand range. If your opponent is considered a tight-aggressive, just how tight is his range? Is your opponent a ‘nit’? This is the type of player that always has a big hand because they play such a narrow range of hands. Perhaps your opponent is what we might call a ‘standard tight-aggressive’ – someone who plays the top 10 to 15% of hands.

What if they are loose-aggressive? – the type that’s going to be playing a wide variety of hands and is capable of doing so from any position. A typical loose-aggressive player will often bet on most flops and bluff a high percentage of the time. However, there’s a wide spectrum of loose-aggressive players. It’s not just about the hand ranges a player plays, but how aggressive they play their hands. How far will your opponent be prepared to go to move you off your hand?

The Degree of Aggression

It’s important that you know the difference between someone playing aggressively with value hands and someone playing aggressively with bluffing hands. There’s a big difference between someone who raises pre-flop from late position and continuation bets 100% of the time, but then gives up on the turn and someone who’s capable of triple barrelling as a bluff all the way down to the river with complete air.

As far as pre-flop action is concerned, poker players are 3-betting far more frequently these days. Yet there’s a big difference between someone who is capable of 3-betting light than with someone who will 4-bet light or even 5-bet light. You really need to observe the tendencies of your opponents and understand just how far they will go to take you off a hand.

Here are some basic types of aggression you might see from different players.

Pot Stabbers

They are aggressive, but they are also somewhat passive – in that they’ll take one stab at the pot, then they’re going to give up. They might continuation bet 100% of the time, but only bet the turn when they actually have a hand. These are definitely people you want to get into pots with and play position against them. It’s highly profitable and you should be able to take pots away from them.

Solid Players

Solid players know when to apply pressure and they know when to put on the brakes. They are generally winning poker players and they are the type you don’t want to play against. It doesn’t mean you have to avoid playing pots with them, but if you’re in a marginal spot then you don’t necessarily have to test yourself. Look for a spot that’s going to be more profitable.

Lagtard / Spewtard / Spew Monkey, etc

Jouer Aggro Poker En

There are a number of names for this type of poker player. They are the ones that take aggression to a completely different level. They’re not necessarily bad players, but they can get drunk with power. They will constantly try and put you to the test. They can build big stacks against people who play scared. However, if you can find a hand or have a really good read on them, you can make a lot of money too. There are many times when these players just don’t know when to put on the brakes and quit.

Strategies to Use Against Them

Now that we’ve mentioned some of the different types of aggressive players you’ll meet at the tables, it’s time to discuss some of the strategies that you can use against them.

Let Them Bet For You

If they are aggressive then let them take the lead in betting if you have a strong hand. Why try to blow them off their hand? Let them bluff and keep throwing chips in the pot.

Feign Weakness

Ask yourself ‘how would I play this hand if I didn’t have a good hand?’ This might include betting a small amount or checking in certain spots to induce a bluff. You might even check the river with a monster hand because you know that they can’t win without a big bet. It depends on the hand situation, but any time you can feign weakness against someone who is going to bet strongly, it’s generally going to be profitable.

Open Up Your Value Range

This is the opposite of the old advice to ‘just be patient and wait for a big hand and then you can trap them’. But when playing an against an aggressive player, you cannot wait for the nuts to play back at them. It simply won’t happen frequently enough and they will know you have a big hand since you’ve been waiting around all day. This is why opening up your value range against some aggressive players is the way to go, depending on the situation. It really depends who you’re playing against. Hands like Ace-Jack offsuit, King-Queen, King-Jack, middle pocket pairs, have super high value against a loose-aggressive player, but are very weak when against a tight-aggressive opponent.

Hand Example – Opening Up Your Range

No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
Blinds: 25/50
You and your opponent both have 2,500 in chips.

Reads

The player directly on your right has been very aggressive from the start of the tournament. Any time it folds to him in late position, he has raised 3x the big blind. While no one has really played back at him, he did lose a pot earlier when the big blind called a raise pre-flop and check-raised him on an Ace high flop, resulting in a fold from the LAG. You have been moderately active at the table seeing some flops and raising a few, but nothing abnormal.

Pre-Flop

You are on the button and it folds to the LAG in the cut-off. As predicted, he raises to 150. The players in the blinds both have about 1,500 chips and have been playing conservatively. You have , which against a habitual late position raiser is a strong hand. You are definitely ahead of the range he is likely to be raising with. This could include anything from a low suited connector, any high cards like KT or QJ or any pocket pair including 22.

Figure 1

Now you have a lot of options here if you choose to play the pot. With the size of your stack in relation to the blinds, you can make a case for folding, re-raising or calling. Since you have a good read on the player, the blinds are conservative players and you have enough chips, I would call about 50% of the time, raise 30% and fold about 20%.

With your stack size and the low blinds, calling is probably the best option because you can control the size