Author: Rick Braddy
Article:
The Texas Hold’em poker phenomenon has taken the country by
storm. There are reportedly over 100 million active poker
players worldwide. Poker’s popularity is largely the byproduct
of technology and several recent trends:
1) online gaming, where players engage and socialize in
real-time over the Internet, and
2) the broad publicity created by high profile TV shows like
the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour.
With all the poker-mania, there’s an amazing shortage of quality
information to help people learn how to play properly and become
great players quickly. This is the first in a series of Texas
Holdem strategy articles aimed at helping players learn how to
win at Texas Hold’em poker. Tournament play is a popular, fun
sport. These articles will help players understand how to
approach tournaments, which differ greatly from regular “ring
game” play.
This installment deals with the most-asked question: “How do I
deal effectively with aggressive players?” Many players struggle
against “maniacs”, the aggressive, wild players who play most
every hand, somehow seem to pull cards out of thin air, and
often manage to dominate the table.
Here’s what actually happened in a recent poker tournament. I
entered a tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
in Hollywood, Florida, about 20 minutes from my home in South
Florida. This weekly $300 entry-fee tournament fills the poker
room with 220 players every Monday night.
The blinds start at 50/100 and go up every 15 minutes. I spent
the first 30 minutes just hanging out and occasionally limping
in to see a flop. The reason for “treading water” was to study
my opponents and their playing patterns very closely. There were
a number of solid poker players, but right away I spotted the
aggressive ones.
I was sitting in the middle, directly across from the dealer.
There were two “wild men” to my right. These two participated in
most every hand, and agonized with themselves whenever they had
to throw a hand away. This was hilarious to me, and it was also
very telling. I knew these dudes were doomed from the onset, yet
they were extremely dangerous if they caught something with one
of their trash hands. These types are great targets, but only
when you know how to play them correctly. If you do, you’ll end
up with most or all of their chips in your stack. The key is to
get to their chips before someone else does.
There were some squeaky-tight and solid players, as usual.
Finally, there were two other players to my left who knew one
another very well and spoke what sounded like Russian. These two
played very aggressively. They rarely called or checked. They
would bet or raise the pot significantly, so if they played a
hand, you knew they were going to bet it big and you’d better be
prepared to push a bunch of your chips into the middle. As a
result, the table became tight overall, except for these four
players who controlled the early action and dictated the table
tempo for the first hour or so. They gambled with wanton
abandon, trading chips with each other as the rest of us just
observed and wished for a real hand to materialize.
It became apparent that our maniacs were playing mostly garbage
hands, and using assertive chatter in an attempt to intimidate
everyone. They were enjoying pushing everyone around with their
aggressive betting and raising style. Humorously, they got into
a number of showdowns, causing all of their trash hands to
become openly exposed; e.g., 69 off-suit, Q3 suited, etc. I
definitely had these guys pegged now – if only I could get a
strong hand…
Later, one of my Russian “friends” came in over the top of a bet
I’d placed with a huge raise, then smiled at me as he leaned his
head back as if to say “Go ahead. I dare you”. My middle pair
just wasn’t strong enough to engage with him, but I remembered
this little “lesson” and my mistake. He’d used this tactic many
times against the others and I should’ve expected it. I also
realized that we had not seen any of his supposed “big hands”,
as he always mucked them. Whenever you see an aggressive player
dominating, and then mucking all those supposed “great hands”,
you know you’ve spotted a target.
We played on, with the two maniacs to my right getting busted
out by the Russian contingent. It’s been an hour and fifteen
minutes – and I still haven’t seen even one decent hand yet!
This is, unfortunately, typical poker.
After about an hour-and 45 minutes, I finally pick up a pair of
wired 9’s (99). Now I was hoping the flop would yield a set
(trips). Sure enough, it came: 9, K, 5. I was elated and jumping
up and down (inside). I was finally in a position to make my
move, and hoped it would be against one of my aggressive Russian
friends with their big stacks.
To prepare my trap, I delayed and muddled around for about ten
seconds, and then casually “checked” verbally and using my hand
in a chopping motion, with a slightly disgusted look. Next, the
younger Russian moves in with a big bet of 3,000 chips. I was
sure I had him now. As expected, everyone else quickly folded
and got out of his way – except me. This fellow had pushed
everyone around and I was finally properly armed and ready to do
battle on my own terms. Note that this had been my “battle plan”
all along. I was deliberately targeting these aggressive
characters, knowing that when the time was right, their
ill-gotten stacks would become mine!
The action came back around to me, so now it was just the two of
us heads-up. The two Russians said something to each other that
the rest of us couldn’t decipher. I delayed and bobbed my head
around as if to be struggling with my decision. Then, I motioned
with both hands and uttered “I’m all-in”. I knew this series of
actions would likely trigger an aggressive reaction, since my
“check-raise” made it appear as if I was trying to steal this
pot! A check-raise almost always triggers a full-tilt response
from an aggressive player.
He immediately called me – he was so aggressive (and
pot-committed) that it was like a fish taking the bait and
running for deep waters – hook line and sinker! I threw my pair
of 9’s over, revealing the trip 9’s. There was a low murmur
around the table from the other players. My young Russian friend
reluctantly flipped his five/trash hand over – he had a pair of
fives (with a King over-card showing on the board!). He was
definitely angling to drive me out of this pot with his
ascertive play – one too many times…
You see, no one actually gets that many great hands in poker -
nobody. If someone plays 30% to 40% or more of the time, they’re
just “gambling” and bluffing. This guy thinks he has a “good”
hand, because he actually had a real pair – something he doesn’t
often have when pushing everyone around with mostly aggressive
betting as his only real weapon.
The turn came and it wasn’t a five – then someone pipes up and
says “he’s drawing dead”. Believe me, you never want to hear
that when you’re in a showdown! I looked over as he said
something in Russian to his buddy – another violation of
tournament rules, as everyone is compelled to speak English at
the tournament table. It wouldn’t matter, as he stood up,
grabbed his jacket and left after receiving some consolation
from his friend.
His older friend glared over at me and uttered something
derogatory in Russian. I had no clue what he said, but I knew
from his tone that I didn’t like it. I also knew I’d gotten
under his skin by taking down his buddy and raking in all of his
chips. I responded with “what’s that, I don’t understand what
you’re saying since you’re not speaking English?” loudly so
everyone at the table could hear me.
He mumbled something about his friend…I smiled and said
politely with a smile “I deliberately laid that trap for your
friend and he fell right into it!”, pushing the knife in deeper,
knowing he’d be gunning for me anyway – might as well make sure
my next trap was fully set. This also signaled to everyone else
at the table that whenever I checked or limped, it could be
extremely dangerous if assumed to be a sign of weakness -
something I’d leverage later as the blinds and antes rose and
the proper time to bluff and steal blinds actually arrived.
After a slight pause, my Russian friend noticed that everyone
was now looking at him. He looked down at his chips and said
“nice play” with a reluctantly polite tone.
Boy, I was elated! My battle plan was definitely becoming
field-proven here – and my next target was clearly sighted. It
had taken careful observation, planning and a lot of patience to
wait for the right hand, and then play it correctly to take this
highly-skilled, aggressive player out and rake in all of his
chips.
About ten minutes later, it was tournament break time, after two
hours of play. I counted my chips, which totaled 14,900 (we
started with 5,000 each), then grabbed a quick bite to eat,
reflecting on what had just taken place.
Within ten minutes of returning from break, I finally picked up
a serious starting hand: Cowboys (KK). I knew it was time for my
new Russian friend and me to tango, so I fired out a bet of 3
times the big blind: 3,000 chips, bait that I was sure he
couldn’t turn down. Sure enough, he bit – big time. His all-in
raise came almost instantaneously, before I could even get my
bet onto the table. He was totally ready to engage, and had been
laying in wait for me – just like I had planned. I had set him
up by taking out his friend and then challenging his poker ego
in front of everyone. He just had to retaliate against me – it
was a totally predictable “full-tilt” response from this kind of
player.
This is what the game of poker is really all about – having a
well-defined strategy, the patience to wait for the right hand,
and then executing properly. It’s what makes poker a game of
strategy instead of a game of chance (for some of us).
He raised by going all-in with around 8,000 chips to my roughly
14,000. I quickly called his all-in bet. Everyone else quickly
folded and got out of our way.
I flipped my pocket kings over, then looked him straight in the
eye and just smiled. Then someone says “Yeah! Now we’ve got some
action!” He sighed and flipped over QQ – he actually had a real
hand for a change. That’s one of the problems with these kinds
of “semi-solid, aggressive” players, like my Russian friend
here, and other poker greats like Gus Hansen. You never really
know exactly what to expect from them. Of course, my opponent
could’ve held pocket rockets (AA), but I’ll play those KK
cowboys strong each and every time I get them, since there’s
only one hand that can beat them heads-up. I also knew this
aggressive player on tilt was likely to be overplaying his hand,
improving my odds significantly.
The flop, turn and river came and went without another Queen and
it was done – my cowboys stood up and I had all of both
Russian’s stacks, which included most of the other two poor
maniac’s chips (who lost to the Russians earlier). This
instantly made me by far the chip leader at our table with well
over 22,000 chips!
I went from having an average chip stack to being the table chip
leader, against tough, aggressive opponents, within less than
half an hour by: a) Playing solid, reasonable tournament poker,
b) Not taking big, undue risks with weak or “drawing” hands,
c) Studying my aggressive prey and where the chips were
sitting,
d) Formulating and refining a battle plan while observing the
game progress,
e) Remaining patient while waiting for the right hand to make
my move, and
f) Executing this plan with precision against a predetermined
opponent, and on terms of my choosing – not the opponent’s.
There was no luck involved at all – except that my opponent
didn’t hold AA or pull some lucky cards with a trash hand –
which was simply playing the odds in my favor.
I started out with a high-level strategy to target aggressive
chip leaders, and go after them with strong hands from the right
position. I planned this before I ever arrived at the casino
that day, or knew who these players would be. Then, I refined my
plan once I knew for certain whom the evening’s targets would be
and how I’d provoke them. It certainly helped that I caught two
decent hands during those first hours of play.
Unfortunately, I later lost to a legitimate full house, but made
it into the top 40 – it happens…
The key to playing against aggressive and maniac players is
having a viable Texas Holdem strategy you can profit from when
you get some good hands. If you have a good plan, you can
convert it into a formidable stockpile of chips – a stack that
you‘ll definitely need as the blinds and antes increase and the
tournament field narrows in the latter stages.
This is how I approach Texas Holdem strategy for tournaments now
- at least when the tables are full with 8 or more players, some
of them aggressive and maniacs. So, the next time you encounter
wild and aggressive players at your poker table, get ready to
have some fun! It’s like Tae Kwon Do – using the opponent’s own
energy and momentum against them.
In the next installment, we’ll detail this Texas Holdem strategy
more formally, along with exploring some other tournament tips
for playing better Texas Holdem poker.
Until then – good luck!
Rick
Rick Braddy is an avid writer, poker player and professional
software developer. Visit his Texas Holdemwebsites
to learn more.
