Patience & Aggression: ??? |
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Posted Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:26 am GMT by Casey ATB
The world-class hold'em players seem to have two common themes in their teachings, discussions, and writings: 1) be patient; 2) be aggressive. This seems be a dichotomy. How can one consistently attack the blinds and be the active bettor, yet be patient and wait for the proper moment to strike? How does one resolve this conflict? 
I feel that I somewhat understand the points they are trying to make, but I am also very interested in hearing what some of you THP forum members have to say about this subject. Moreover, how do you adapt your play to accomodate these methodologies?
Thanks. Will be looking for your sage advice :D and infinite wisdom :D to assist me in my shot at the WSOP Main Event in Vegas in July. :D :D
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Posted Fri Apr 07, 2006 4:41 am GMT by AHBrownell
Okay so - two points:
1) "selective aggression."
When "pros" say play aggressively and steal blinds they are often referring to doing so when you can. Lets say action folds to you in the cutoff or button, and you pick up a decent hand - say T  8 . Most players trying to follow the "pros" advice look at their hand selection - AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ (maybe TT, 99, 88, 77, AJ, AT, KQ, KJ) - and say okay I'm not going to play. An aggressive player raises here. In this situation you have very little risk. If your opponent reraises you can call and maybe flop a draw or two pair and smash a big hand (or fold if you miss and are raised); otherwise if you get called you can fire a continuation bet on the flop and pick it up the majority of the time.
This is just one way to be aggressive - another is reraising often with big draws, middle/top pair.
The key in most of these plays is position - you really can steal pots most of the time because the majority of hands that are played (two big cards ala AK) only hit flops about 1/3 of the time.
In terms of patience - you basically want to be the agressor, not the agressee. This is why you often have to wait for good hands - even folding good hands based on the situation.
In other words - try to be raising when your money goes in; avoid calling (unless you are trapping). If your opponent makes a large bet preflop you just cannot play hands like AJ or KQ the majority of the time - if you do think you have the best hand then you need to raise.
Other situations that demonstrate the power of position would be when you have a hand like JJ and call a small raise preflop. The board comes 8 high, three suits. Your opponent bets - you should either raise or fold here. Never call. You need to be aggressive - I believe the main reason for this isn't why you would think so; raising actually saves you money (if your opponent comes back over the top you can generally know you are beat and can lay it down), but if your opponent is just bluffing/trapping you gain NO information from calling - you can very easily see your whole stack evaporate when holding these types of hands if you aren't aggressive!
This is the main reason why there is the conception of "raise or fold" poker. The good players understand why raising is so powerful - it gives you two ways to win. However, checking/calling after the flop is powerful in certain situations. There are various topics on these boards that discuss the value in checking/calling some of the time.
2) table conditions
One thing about playing aggressively deals greatly with the table conditions. If you have lots of calling stations (players who like to call flops down to the river) - you don't need simple aggression, you need to bet your strong hands OVERLY aggressively and play marginal hands much more passively. Players who like to play loose/agressively you can often play similarly. Wait for a good situation to build a big pot - don't loosen up and get more aggressive yourself. These are examples - but basically, your table dictates how you approach your style.
Lastly, read Phil Gordon's Little Green Book and Harrington's books on tournament play. I found both of these taught me how to play tournaments.
I tend to play very tight for the intial stages of a tournament looking for a double up situation (sets, flushes, straights, etc) and will often risk about up to 1/10 of my stack in a given hand to find one. In most tournaments you only really need to find 5-6 hands that hold up for you to make it into the money. AND you have to win a situation (usually many) where you are an underdog when the money goes in to make it to a final table. If you are lucky enough to double up early on you get a lot more flexibility (allowing you to steal more blinds, or playing more pps) for the rest of the tournament. When this has happened for me - these are often the tournaments that take me all the way.
GLHF.   
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