Learning Aggression

[QMC]

I am working on improving my game by becoming much more aggressive. I have tried playing lower limits on the internet as my primary learning tool. However, when I get to a real game all my hard work is thrown out the window. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being aggressive and 1 being passive) I am on average a 7. Any suggestions to improve my aggression level? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Thanks in advance.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Aggression does not usually come naturally to most people. Passivity does. You usually have to learn aggression, as you've already figured out.

Now if you're a 7 out of 10, I think you're probably aggressive enough for most situations. My guess is that you're not really a seven though, probably more like 5. There's some good info in "psychology of poker" by Schoonmaker. I'd start there if I were you. It will help you learn about how to be selectively aggressive in the right spots, and how to overcome your own unprofitable tendencies.

al

[rkiray]

[QMC]

Already retired from the military.

[QMC]

Thanks Al. I probably am less than a 7. Everyone thinks they are higher than they really are.

[Al Schoonmaker]

You may already be aggressive enough. When I was writing "The Psychology of Poker," David Sklansky said that a 7 to 7.5 on my 9 point scale for aggression was probably optimal.
I know that you see some extraordinarily aggressive players do very well in tournaments, but may of them do not do well in ring games. In addition, they also have extremely good player-reading skills. If you are just extremely aggressive without those skills, you are heading for trouble.
Regards,
Alan

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I have never found that people who were in the military have any special ability to do better at poker than anyone else. The military probably doesn't teach many skills that have a direct cross-over to poker. People react much differently (and more conservatively) to money situations than to someone trying to blow up your humvee. Poker skills are basically unnatural, and must be learned by almost everyone before they can become very good at it.

al

[Idaho]

Alan is right, if you don't have the skills to recognize that your hand is second best when you are playing aggressive, then it's only going to get you into trouble.

When I first started playing ploker I was very passive, my friends taught me the basics so I only new the fundamentals.
But as I learned and started to read books I became much more confident. And with confidence, I also think natural aggression comes.

I only started playing poker 6-7 months ago, but because I am so confident in myself I control the action at the table becasue of my aggressive style. This works well for the home games where we play no limit, but in the casino where I play in loose games ($3/$6) I have learned its best to tone it down quite a bit. So it really depends on your oppenents. But with enough experience I think you'll come up with a perfect blend of aggression that works for you in your games.

I hope this helps, it is my first post.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Good observations. Toning it down in ring games, especially loose ones, is necessary. You'll almost always need the best hand to win, so being super-aggressive usually doesn't help much. Now of course you need to raise for value, or raise to knock people out, in the right situations. But over-aggression in ring games doesn't do much to help your win rate, and mostly hurts it.

No aggression in no limit is of course another story.

al

[Al Schoonmaker]

Welcome to our forum. We're glad to have you. You will find that we take you seriously and try to be helpful to each other.

Al