Aggressive Poker Play: How to Play Against the Aggressive Poker Player

Poker players all have a style of play that once picked up on can make playing against them easier and less costly to your poker stake. As you learn strategy against aggressive poker players you own aggressive poker playing will improve and be better defined.

Playing against an aggressive poker player is an important strategy to learn when playing any kind of poker. There are three main styles of aggressive poker players you must understand if you hope to have any success at the poker table - tight aggressive, loose aggressive and loose aggressive/passive. Each aggressive poker player style has its own pros and cons.

This article will cover three main aggressive styles and give you insight what to look for and how to play against them. First we'll cover the tight aggressive player who is the most dangerous at the poker table. Next we'll talk about the loose aggressive poker player and finally we'll cover the weakest aggressive style loose aggressive/passive.

Tight Aggressive Poker Player

Tight aggressive poker players generally won't play a lot of hands but will attack hands with repeated raises both pre and post flop. Avoid playing tight aggressive poker players with weak hands if you are out of table position.

Playing a tight aggressive poker player doesn't mean you will lose every time and does it mean you'll lose all of the time. Tight aggressive players will cost you a greater amount of chips to play against them and sometimes forcing you to risk all-in.

Being the tight aggressive poker player

When playing as a tight aggressive player it's important to change styles through the poker tournament. Changing between tight aggressive and loose aggressive play will help keep your opponents guessing how to play you. Moving from tight aggressive to loose aggressive will also allow you to see more hands and take great chip risk on weaker then par hands.

Understanding aggressive poker play and switching between styles will give you the edge over the long haul of a poker tournament. It will also make you more aware of how other players play their hands allowing you to play against their weaknesses.

Loose aggressive poker players

Raising and re-raising a large variety of hands pre and post flop is known as loose aggressive poker play. Loose aggressive poker players will bluff a higher percentage of times then other styles of poker players. By raising and playing almost every hand so frequently they are perceived to have a good hand every time. They also tend to be harder to beat since loose aggressive players will chase the better hand.

If you find yourself playing against a loose aggressive poker player there are ways to beat them at their own game. When you have good hands allow the loose aggressive player to take the lead in the betting. This is called slow playing a hand. You might also consider playing weaker bets to entice them into raising costing them more of their chips.

Keep in mind too that table position is important when deciding how to play a loose aggressive player. Sitting just left of a loose aggressive poker player allows you to play lesser quality cards and still see a higher degree of success. The reasoning here is because a loose aggressive poker player will give a raise pre-flop with most any kind of cards. Re-raising a loose aggressive poker player while you are on the button or in the blinds might force them out of the hand and giving you the win. Avoid frequent repeating of this since you don't want to become predictable yourself and costing the game. By re-raising a loose aggressive player you can slow them down and take control of the table and maybe the pot.

Loose aggressive/passive

Loose aggressive/passive poker players are considered the easiest to beat. Loose aggressive/passive poker players tend to raise pre-flop and fold when pressured with a re-raise or large bet. When you are short stack having a table full of loose aggressive/passive players can be a gold mine to increase your chip count. Beware the many times a loose aggressive/passive player is a former tight aggressive player who is trying to play a looser style of play.

To beat a loose aggressive/passive player you'll want to raise or re-raise pre-flop every time they show weakness with their hand. Re-raising loose aggressive/passive players may get them to fold giving you the post. Calling a raise from a loose aggressive/passive player will benefit you in two ways. First it forces them to commit to a pot with weak hands or to fold costing them valuable chips. Second it might expose their weakness in the hand allowing you to capitalize on it at the right moment.

Being aware of what each poker players aggressive style is can allow you to pick out the weakest players and increase you stack. Loose aggressive/passive players are your best bet when you need to increase your chip count. Loose aggressive poker players can cost you valuable chips and higher risk with their higher bluff percentage. Tight aggressive players won't bluff but will play strong hands and take down large pots against anyone willing to go head to head against them.

With practice at the poker tables you can pick up each style and learn the best way to beat each of them. By learning what to look for you'll also be learning how to play each style yourself making you a tougher player to beat.

http://www.pokerology.com/poker-school/texas-holdem/intermediate/playing-aggressive-players

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