How Do You Play Superaggressively?

If you're never called, you can never lose a pot. So if you're employing a super aggressive style, is it a good strategy to just consistently make bets you know people can't call (assuming you know they can't), since most of the time you won't have good cards? Does that mean that you can't value bet? What's your strategy when playing super aggressively?

Pick out the guys that you know won't play back at you and work em, but you shouldnt need to be playing strictly super agressive to do that.

[CardSharpCook]

Aggressive play is defined as (bets+raises)/(checks+calls).

Think about this. Where do folds fit in? Are you a baseball fan? Folds are like walks. They don't count as an "At Bat", but they are an appreciated and necessary part of a hitters repetoire. As a baseball fan, we like to see our favorite take pitches and get walks. Sure, it is better when he hits a HR, but if the pitcher doesn't give him a good pitch, he shouldn't swing at it.

So... Good aggressive poker incorporates a lot of folds. I'm not talking about "great laydowns". If you are an hyper-agro player, you shouldn't be making great laydowns, because players will be playing back at you with far less than the nuts. I mean, you raise 97s PF, the flop rags and the other guy bets out.... you fold!!! It isn't about constantly "putting your opponent to a decision for all his chips" it is about constant pressure. Constant bet bet bet that wears down your opponent and eventually gets him to make a mistake. What mistake? He raises back with nothing and you have TPTK. Or he gets his entire stack in the middle when you have a set. THAT is the benefit of agro play. Part of it is the slow accumulation of tiny pots, but the bigger part is making your opponent make a mistake for his entire stack.

Good post. I like the baseball analogy.

[lotus776]

I'd say that that was an excellent evaluation

[woodguy]

Good Post.

You cannot hammer away at every pot you are in or else everyone will be gunning for you and you'll find yourself trapped eventually.

If you fold where you know you are in trouble, but hammer away when its probable that no one has much, life is much easier.

Regards,
Woodguy

[ QUOTE ]

You cannot hammer away at every pot you are in or else everyone will be gunning for you and you'll find yourself trapped eventually.

If you fold where you know you are in trouble, but hammer away when its probable that no one has much, life is much easier.


[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, this is easier said than done. An extremely skilled superagro gets paid on his monsters, but never pays off a monster. Think Layne Flack when he's feeling frisky, or Tuan Le if he could ever fold.

Very nice post, CSC.

There was a key assumption - you knew they couldn't/wouldn't call. Naturally, hammering away at someone with the nuts or a calling station who'll call you down with 3rd button is dangerous... to say the least.

Good post, but not what I was really asking about. (No disrespect intended. Your posts in the anthology have been especially helpful.)

Question: Is there a place for value betting in super-aggro play, since you don't want people calling you most of the time?

I'm not talking about the instances when your opponent has a monster, but you have a bigger monster, so you can bet however much you want anyways. I'm talking about when the board is J-3-7-K-6, you're checked to, you have AJ, you correctly put your opponent on TT. Normally, a value bet is in order. However, a super-aggro will usually have trash, and thus, does not want to be called, and should not value bet, right?? For his opponents would quickly pick up that he value bets when he wants to get called and doesn't when he's bluffing.

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
Good aggressive poker incorporates a lot of folds.

[/ QUOTE ]
been reading zen and the art of poker lately huh? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

nice post.

I play aggressive poker, sometimes tight, sometimes loose, and sometimes super aggresively.

The trick is to know your enemy basically. If they tend to be unbluffable, you do not want to start betting and raising with air, because you will bleed. You want to have some sort of hand against them. Against weak tights, you can win alot of pots by firing a shot, or even a second one on the turn with nothing.

The real trick is that you don't want to be seen going to a showdown with bad cards very often, so you want to try to take down pots when you have nothing by them folding, and get them to a showdown when you have a monster by making good bets against those who will see you to the river, that way the rest of the table thinks that you are tight.

In the 2+2 NA vs. EU, I applyed a superaggressive style to the first part, and it worked out very well, by the end of the tourney, I had something like 60 pots won without showdown, and 9/11 won with a showdown, winning a under 1/3 of the total pots I played.

Best people to do this against are tight aggressive and weak tight players, worse players to do this against are calling stations, loose aggressive, super aggressive, and maniacs.

Also very important to know when you are behind, and to slow it down when you get called or raised, you never want to trap yourself.

Post flop skill is very important for this, as well as knowing when you can steal preflop.