Monday, June 13, 2011

The tight-aggressive strategy

Of the points mentioned above, 3 are especially important, as they form the building blocks of the so-called tight-aggressive play mode, which is the perfect response to the frequently occurring mistakes in the lower to middle limits:
You play tight.
You play aggressive.
You play in position.
YOU PLAY TIGHT POKER
Tight means that you don‘t play everything that falls into your hands. There are many cards that look weak and actually are weak. There are also some hands, however, that look strong, but aren't, such as King Jack for example.

After the flop you don’t need to see every showdown simply because you have a pair. Knowing when you are beat or when the price is too high can save you a lot of money.

YOU PLAY AGGRESSIVE POKER
There is one simple rule in Texas Hold’em: You don‘t want to be the one to just call, i.e. the one who just goes along with the bets, without betting or raising yourself.

You have already learned that your profit is a result of your opponents' mistakes. And when do people make mistakes? When they have to make an important decision under pressure.

You will earn considerably more money with Texas Hold’em when you constantly force your opponents to make decisions, put them under pressure, and so force them to make mistakes. You can achieve this by playing aggressive poker.

At the same time you will save a lot of money if you avoid situations in which someone forces you to make a decision. If someone pushes you into a defensive position, you ought to feel very uncomfortable.

Cold-calling, which means going along with an opponent‘s raise pre-flop, is practically a deadly sin. With very few exceptions, it will lead you into situations, which are hard to control. For most cases you are limited to hoping to hit a strong hand, which doesn’t actually happen as often as some people think.

YOU PLAY POSITION
Poker legend Doyle Brunson once wrote: Position is everything in Texas Hold’em. It is tedious and dangerous to want to win money when you don‘t have position on your opponent.

So what does that mean? If your opponents have to act before you in a given betting round, you have position on them. If they have the luxury of getting to act after you, they have position on you. Whenever an opponent has to act before you, you have the distinct advantage of being able to observe their move, before needing to act yourself. You are therefore in an advantageous position in terms of the information you have, and in this game, information is a valuable commodity. In addition to this it is also possible to make more profitable moves when playing in position.

Your life as a poker player becomes so much easier and more successful if you always pay attention to this. If you want to make money off of someone, then make sure you have position on them.

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