Tournament Strategy: NLH

I read with great interest Russell's account of the final day. And by the way if you read this Russel, congratulations on a terrific showing.

Several things come to my mind. What is the proper strategy to thwart an aggressive opponent on your left who comes over the top of you seemingly hand after hand with relative impunity after you make a preflop raise? Obviously there are many variables which I haven't defined (chip stacks, steaming, table images, how far you are away from the money, etc.), but I am looking for general advice. Things which come to my mind are moving all-in from the back or making a bigger preflop raise rather than your standard preflop raise,which is exactly what Russell did except he ran into Aces. There eventually comes a point in

time where you have to take a stand against this type of player. If you wait until you have the

goods, firstly this may never happen and secondly

the aggressive player may for whatever reason not

play back at you. Do you reach a point in time

where you play back when you have a pocket pair

or a big Ace. I am curious to hear what everyone

else has to say about this. Thanks.


Bruce

Damn, I was planning to just lurk for a couple of weeks but this is too interesting ...


It depends on a lot of things as you say, but mainly what is he going to do if you re-re-raise. If he has enough chips to fold then you can consider putting the play back on him (a bit like when your opponent raises you on a semi-bluff and you semi-bluff reraise him back).


If he doesn't it really depends on the frequency with which he is reraising you. 25% you can probably play your normal stealing game and just fold if he reraises - you will steal enough blinds to make it worthwhile. 75% (or 100%) then you basically don't raise unless you can stand the reraise. How big a hand you need to do this depends on how much risk you are prepared to accept. But you can't wait for AA-QQ, AK. You might go with AA-88, AK-A9, KQ. Add a few more if you're up for it - but KJ, QJ type hands rather than smaller Aces. Remember that if your opponent reraises every time, he has random cards.


If you get reraised about 50% of the time I think that's the most difficult. You should set yourself a range of hands with which you will call a reraise (as above) and maybe raise with a few rubbish hands as well (to fold to a reraise). Every time you raise, you must know before he reraises what you will do in this eventuality. This should help you to pass the hands in the middle that can give you a dilemma. Finally if you have something you want to play but don't want to get raised off, you can just call (heresy !).


Let's always consider the other side - look how much of a problem your opponent is giving you. Make this play yourself in the big blind. Pick those raisers who are good enough to steal based on position but put down to a reraise, but not quite good enough to catch on (this is a lot of players). And it would seem that raising them with your best 50% of hands (or when you sense weakness) is about right. Works best in the BB of course but if you are in the SB and the BB is a rock or has a passing tell then that too (and this looks more powerful to the initial raiser).


Andy.

Well said. What do you think about just moving all in rather than your standard raise BTF? Your opponent can't resteal from you and the likely

of getting called goes way down unless you run

into a real hand. Unfortunately for Russell he

ran into pocket Aces. Or how about raising BTF

for let's say 50% of your chips. It becomes much

more difficult for your opponent to make a play

at you because he figures they're all going in.


Bruce

Depends how many chips you have compared to the blinds. With too many, I wouldn't be keen on committing with the first raise - don't forget that anyone behind you can wake up with a big hand.


I was thinking today that you really want to be the one who makes the raise that counts. If you have (or he has) 20-30 BB, it's the reraise that says to the opponent - I'm in, do you want to play for all the chips ? So another possibility is to flat call (or make a small raise) and then reraise if he raises out of the blinds. This way (compared to going all in straight away) you win more if he folds and you can see what everyone else does before you commit.


All possibilities to think about. The way I see it, if your opponent is being too aggressive then it often pays to use that aggression against him when the time is right rather than make him tone it down and play more correctly (whatever that is)


Andy.

It really depends on the frequency with which he is reraising you.


It depends on the amount of the re-raise, too. Plus the relative stack sizes. And the relationship between the stack size and the blinds.


To give a simplistic example, if his re-raises are all-in, and your stack size is huge compared to the blinds, and you have him covered, you could fold virtually every time just waiting for a great hand. If the blinds are eating you up, you have to make a stand with less of a hand. How much less depends on the above factors.


I don't see how this question can be answered without at least knowing the releative stack sizes, the size of the blinds in relation to the stacks and the size of the re-raise.