Can you learn aggression?
 

I can be a bit of a calling station at times. I raise draws and raise the hell outta my really strong hands, but with medium strength made hands I tend to call to much and fail to protect as well as I should. I want to get in the habit of either raising or folding a bet from my right. I played 2/4 (A lower limit for me)yesterday to try to increase my aggression factor regardless of the outcome at the end of the session. My plan was to not call any bet but either fold or raise. I did this for about 3 hands and then fell back into old ways.

Anyone try anything similar to this?

LLL

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

Make the best play every play reguardless of the result. Ask youself first, should I fold? Then, should I raise? If folding and raising are wrong, then calling must be correct.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

A persons personality shows up in their poker play. All players have this dilemma in one manner or another. The better players are able to rise above their instincts and play more consciencely. If you looked at a hand example in a book, like Small Stakes Hold-Em, you might agree with the author. Then it is time to actually play, and you have a time limit, you fall into your old habits. A great book that talks about this is The Psychology of Poker by Schoonmaker.

I would suggest you take a bit more time when you play to make each decision. I would not agree with your experiment to raise every time. Instead, try to take a few more seconds deciding what you want to do, and make sure you consider raising as an option.

Good luck.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

You can most definitely learn aggression by playing some 6-max.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

Not that I am most aggressive player but I think it is an interesting experiment to try playing with no call button and see how hands play out. Mike Caro talks about this one day either raise or fold(make notes on what happened) next day play with no raising, only calling and make similar notes.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

Aggression comes with time, it's definitely learned.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

I tracked myself using the pokertracker Agg system when I was playing live a few weeks ago. Maybe its just me, but wouldn't it be incredibly hard to play the 2+2 way and have an Agg factor of less than 2? (against a poor table however) Or am I misunderstanding this concept?

JT [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

Alcohol = Aggression potion.

For me at least.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

The next time you see a small stakes 2+2 table open up, especially a .50/1 one, join it. If those tables can't teach you to play aggressively with less than monster hands, I can't imagine anything that could.

By the way, I think that playing "raise or fold" poker is a terrible concept & a terrible idea, even if meant only as a short-term learning tool. There are plenty of times when it is better to flat call a bet coming directly from your right, and any method you use in an attempt to learn better postflop aggression should take this into account. Don't get caught in up in getting your aggression factor up to X.X; instead, focus on learning & understanding how proper postflop aggression is used to maximize your win rate. This, of course, comes with experience & intense study of the game...but it is most definitely learnable.

Re: Can you learn aggression?
 

I've found the best way to improve agression is to learn to make good reads and trust them. You will be able to value bet/raise your medium strength hands and to (occasionally) make good folds.