A little help please

[EMcWilliams]

I've been playing poker seriously for about a year now, and I feel as if I need some help on my game, and was hoping this would be the place to find it. I consider myself to be a Tight player preflop, and I raise and re-raise when i deem necessary to add the aggresive portion to my game, or so I feel. Is being aggressive preflop really just raising or is there something im missing? Additionally, I don't feel as if i'm too aggressive post flop, and I could really use some suggestions as far as what to do post-flop aggressivness. Finally, I know many of the key concepts of play i.e. Pots odds, tells, semi-bluffing and most of that fun stuff,but yet when im playing i cannot seem to apply it. Any suggestions...

Thank You

[Paul2432]

Read Small Stakes Hold'Em by Ed Miller. Miller advocates an aggressive style of play especially in larger pots. He gives a lot of good advice on how to identify situations that call for aggression. Misplaced aggression can be very costly, so this book must be read carefully.

Many of the situations are too complex to be distilled down into simple rules. I would suggest posting some hands where you are unsure of the right amount of aggression.

Paul

[shadow29]

Read Internet Texas Hold 'Em by Matt Hilger then SSHE.

[EMcWilliams]

#Game No : 1641226132
***** Hand History for Game 1641226132 *****
NL Hold'em $5 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:9853815 Level:1 Blinds(10/15) - Thursday, February 24, 14:49:30 EDT 2005
Table Table 12206 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 4: coinstar2 ( $1040 )
Seat 10: jwmhforlife ( $740 )
Seat 9: TVMovieFan ( $730 )
Seat 3: EMcWilliams ( $785 )
Seat 5: Drgasdrywall ( $875 )
Seat 1: BBtown ( $665 )
Seat 7: zasom ( $740 )
Seat 6: aggiewxman ( $1080 )
Seat 2: byronkincaid ( $770 )
Seat 8: JJab75 ( $575 )
Trny:9853815 Level:1
Blinds(10/15)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to EMcWilliams [ 3c Ac ]
coinstar2 raises [30].
Drgasdrywall calls [30].
aggiewxman folds.
zasom folds.
JJab75 calls [30].
TVMovieFan folds.
jwmhforlife folds.
BBtown calls [30].
byronkincaid calls [20].
EMcWilliams calls [15].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6h, As, 5s ]
byronkincaid checks.
EMcWilliams checks.
coinstar2 checks.
Drgasdrywall checks.
JJab75 checks.
BBtown bets [15].
byronkincaid folds.
EMcWilliams raises [135].
coinstar2 calls [135].
Drgasdrywall folds.
JJab75 folds.
BBtown calls [120].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
EMcWilliams bets [200].
coinstar2 folds.
BBtown is all-In [500]
EMcWilliams folds.
BBtown does not show cards.
BBtown wins 1285 chips
Game #1641231449 starts.

I cannot find the converter, sorry

[Niediam]

There is a huge difference between playing aggressively and playing like a maniac...

[K C]

I want to say a little about pre-flop raising first, then we'll look at this hand. Being aggressive pre-flop is a good thing generally, but there are a lot of considerations that need to be accounted for. Here's what you need to do, and it's not that difficult. Track your extra bets that you put in pre-flop, along with the hand. Now, keep track of the net gain or loss from the raise. If you tend to raise a lot pre-flop, this will be a little eye opening.

Now, let's look at this hand. This is one of the cases where it's a good move to call the raise from the BB. So far so good.

You raise big on the flop. I have no idea why you would want to do this. You don't really have much, and at these tourneys, the players don't tend to scare that easily. If you get called here you're probably in trouble.

Sure enough, you get called. You go even bigger on the turn, and get re-raised all in. The fold was good here, but you've wasted 300 chips on this hand you didn't need to. Much better would be to just call on the flop, and look to fold if you get any kind of serious action on the turn. I would have checked this puppy and folded to any kind of reasonable sized bet.

This is the hand where you either make a little or lose a lot on. You've got to look at risk a little more and not play so risky, or this sort of thing will tend to happen quite a bit.

KC
kingcobrapoker.com

[EMcWilliams]

Yea, I will admit i miss played that hand, but I wanted to try to be a little more aggressive as i felt in previous tourneys i was being a little too passive. That was not one of my proudest hands but my hand history isn't up to date for some reason and that was all i could really find. I know there is a difference btwn being a maniac and aggressive, but that line seems to be a little blurry to me...what are some key differences btwn the two

[EMcWilliams]

#Game No : 1641163415
***** Hand History for Game 1641163415 *****
NL Hold'em $5 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:9852958 Level:2 Blinds(15/30) - Thursday, February 24, 14:31:26 EDT 2005
Table Table 12365 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: flyguy_mp ( $550 )
Seat 3: randersfreja ( $400 )
Seat 4: Mosds44 ( $1100 )
Seat 6: nyjprose ( $1495 )
Seat 7: goldpanjac ( $2480 )
Seat 9: EMcWilliams ( $665 )
Seat 10: jnoyes1981 ( $1310 )
Trny:9852958 Level:2
Blinds(15/30)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to EMcWilliams [ Th 5h ]
jnoyes1981 folds.
flyguy_mp calls [30].
randersfreja calls [30].
Mosds44 folds.
nyjprose folds.
goldpanjac calls [15].
EMcWilliams checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, Tc, 2s ]
goldpanjac checks.
EMcWilliams bets [120].
flyguy_mp calls [120].
randersfreja folds.
goldpanjac folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
EMcWilliams bets [200].
flyguy_mp is all-In [400]
EMcWilliams calls [200].
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
EMcWilliams shows [ Th, 5h ] two pairs, tens and twos.
flyguy_mp shows [ 3c, Qc ] a flush, king high.
flyguy_mp wins 1160 chips from the main pot with a flush, king high.
Game #1641166850 starts.

Again, I'm pretty sure I played this hand with the right amount of aggression, but I'm not sure, as to what the best play is here

[Niediam]

I suggest you read Harrington On Hold'em Vol. 1 as you seriously are playing in reckless manner.

[Paul2432]

If you are going to bet the turn you might as well go all-in. However, top pair with a weak kicker is hand that you need to be careful with. In the actual hand you did well to get all-in as a substantial favorite. However, most of the time on this sequence of bets, your opponent will have a ten with a better kicker or a two. There is nothing wrong with trying to keep the pot small and either folding to heavy action or getting to a cheap showdown when you have weak hand.

Paul