loose aggressive

[kid voodoo]

I have never watched Stu Ungar play, but I've heard that his play was extremely loose aggressive. Why as of late does it seem that loose aggressive style of play is the most respected(Philip Ivey, Layne Flack, etc). Is loose aggressive the best way to play no limit holdem? If so how do they get away with it so much? wouldnt someone eventually peg their style?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Success at no limit requires that you be able to shift gears more than once during a tournament. That being said, I think most would agree that the best NL tournament players are loose-aggressive with almost psychic hand-reading and people-reading skills.

[Copernicus]

I also dont think it is the style "of late", I think it has always been the style of the best high stakes players. A lot of the second generation of players learned the ropes from Super System and perpetuated that style.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

The problem with trying to peg their style is that a loose aggressive player might be in there with anything, thus it's hard to peg them for any particular hand. These players are very, very hard to read. The reason players like Ivy are so successful is that they are very good at reading people and situations, not because they play solid cards. I think their style is especially effective in ring games, and I tend to play pretty loose myself, especially in situations where I have high implied odds. In tourneys I play tighter tho, I find it hard to consistently cash in the SNGs if you play too loose and aggressive, because there are so many other loose players who will call with anything, so you need to be more selective to win. In large tournaments with many tight players, people like Ivy will have many of them biting nails by the end of it.

al