A common mistake that many poker players make is that they are too passive, so much that their game completely lacks any form of aggression except with very strong hands, which makes their play exploitable. This isn’t to say that you should become an over aggressive maniac, but there is a fine balance that needs to be reached. A strongly aggressive game puts your opponents on edge and will make them afraid of playing against you. You should be aware of your table image; if it is too aggressive tighten up and profit from your previous aggression. Most importantly you should identify the players at the table who are lacking in the aggression area and exploit their passive playing to your benefit. Aggression is a major factor at a poker table which will impact your profitability in a significant way.
It is generally agreed that the most profitable style of play is “Tight Aggressive” or TAG for short, but an alternative playing style that also can enjoy great success is the “Loose Aggressive” or LAG playing style. What you want to avoid is being both tight and either passive or weak. Being LAG requires a higher skill level than TAG but can also result in higher profits if you are good at what you are doing; however, a downside of playing LAG is that variance can be quite a bit higher, which can result in tilt if you lack emotional control.
Switching between LAG and TAG can give you the best of both worlds: once people start playing back at whatever style you are using, switch to the other one. For example, if you sit down at the table and are very loose for the first half hour or so – raising a lot and being aggressive after the flop – the other players will notice this and begin to re-raise you. Once people start to play back at you, switch to a tighter style of play so that when people continue to play back at you, you will have strong hands and can win some big pots. The same goes once you have established a tight image: switch back to raising a lot more hands and betting after the flop. As long as people are confused as to how you are playing you will be able to maximize your profits.
An important factor when deciding what style of play you wish to adopt is the overall playing style of the table you are at; the rule of thumb is that you should try to play in the opposite style of how the rest of the table is playing. If most people are being very loose, you want to be tighter. If the table is very passive you want to be more aggressive. By playing contrary to how the rest of the table is generally playing, your playing style will be best suited to maximizing your profits.
It is still important that you mix up your playing style so that you do not become too predictable. Even just showing a well timed bluff is often enough to make the entire table think you are a lot looser than you actually are. Being chatty and casual – and perhaps sipping on an alcoholic beverage while you are playing – can also give off the impression that you are a recreational player and more likely to spew chips. How you appear to play and how you actually play can be two entirely different things and it is desirable that the two are actually complete opposites of each other.
Simply adding more aggression to your game will not result in increased profits; the key is being more aggressive in situations where other players are weak and have to fold, allowing you to take down many more pots. One concept that all players should master is reading a board’s “texture”. The term “flop texture” is not familiar to many players, and essentially it means how coordinated the board is, for example analyzing if there are potential straight draws, flush draws, overcards to your hand, etc. Then you want to take into consideration your opponents’ playing style, try to put them on a range of hands and figure how those hands play on the flop.
A term commonly associated with analyzing the texture of a flop is when there is a “dry” flop. That is to say, if you happen to be holding pocket jacks and the flop is 26J rainbow, that is an extremely dry flop: there are no straight draws, there are no flop draws and you hold two of the cards that would have made someone else top pair. In this case it is pretty unlikely anyone will be holding a hand that they would be able to call a bet with. Since you have a monster hand you would likely want to check and give someone else a chance to hit a hand to pay you off or let them try and bluff at you. Alternatively, if you have pocket jacks and the flop comes out 7QK with two spades this is not a dry flop at all. It is quite likely that someone has hit an overpair to yours or possibly some kind of straight or flush draw. If they call your bet you will have little idea of where you are at in the hand; the best decision is probably to not try a continuation bet on a scary board such as this, as any raise would get you out of the hand.
Choosing whether to make a continuation bet or not has a major impact on your win rate: on “dry” uncoordinated flops such as 26J a continuation bet with any two cards will usually result in taking the pot down right there. However, betting on this flop with pocket JJ is not a good idea, as you want to keep people in the hand. If people are playing back at you often, betting the flop could also be good, as they would never expect you to have JJ and be betting it. The beauty of the continuation bet is that roughly two thirds of the time your opponent will have missed the flop and be unable to call.
If there is more than one other opponent in the hand you should be more selective in continuation betting on more dangerous boards, as one of them is more likely to have a hand. Say you raise with AKo and have two callers. If the flop comes out 689 with two hearts it might be a good idea to pass on continuation betting, as it is fairly likely that someone will have a hand good enough to call you with.
By paying more attention to how aggressive you are playing and how the other players at the table are reacting you will be able to maximize your profits while minimizing your losses. This is what playing solid poker is all about! I will leave you with the closing line of a famously sampled 90’s song about being aggressive: Go, Fight, Go, Fight, Go, Fight, Go, Fight, Win!