Just Poker Talk

The stereotypical view of schoolyard dynamics usually involves bullies beating up nerds and taking their lunch money by holding them by the legs and shaking the money out. An article on gambling911.com called Better to be the Bully suggests that being aggressive is key to winning in poker.

This idea is nothing new. Most poker players concur, though not all follow through with this advice. Poker analysts, pros, and amateurs have been saying this for decades. In Doyle Brunson’s Super System, arguably the Bible of poker, there is a section on No-Limit Hold’Em which revolves around the concept of pushing people all-in and forcing them into a decision.

As the article points out, there is a difference between being a poker maniac and being a poker bully. In real-life, a bully would turn out to be decent person with a regular job, but a maniac would, in all likelihood, turn into some kind of deranged serial killer.

From gambling911.com:

[A poker bully and poker maniac] may seem similar but they are not. A maniac will bet anything at anytime and make stupid decisions. The bully bets aggressively and intelligently. He doesn’t make bad decisions. Keep that foremost in your mind if you are looking at playing aggressive poker. It is one thing to bully the table and win chips, but quite another to just be a maniac and bet everything in sight. The bully will win chips in the long run. The maniac will eventually make a mistake and lose all of his chips as he runs into a bigger hand.

All of this is pretty straightforward. The hard part is figuring out the right balance of aggression and passivity, knowing when to fold, bet, call, raise, and reraise.

Here are two ways you can practice or force yourself to be aggressive at the poker tables.

The first involves choosing a rag hand such as 6-4 that you will play in late to middle position almost every time. The reason you don’t play the rag hand under the gun, is that you need position to make your play. You will play the hand like aces and kings, betting and raising preflop. You will then make a pot-sized continuation bet on the flop if you’re facing one or two opponents. If there are more than three you should check the majority of time. When contemplating a continuation bet, also take into account the flop. Half the time you should check if there are two face cards on the board.

The second involves following your gut. If you believe that you have the best hand or that your opponent is weak, force yourself to bet strong. Large raises and check raises are especially effective against opponents with weak holdings. The key to this exercise is following your gut and not your mind and reasoning. At first you may lose money on bad reads, but the point is to make you feel more comfortable wagering a large portion of your stack. Being afraid to lose money is not conducive to winning poker. The other thing that this exercise will help you with is folding a hand after making a big raise and getting reraised by your opponent. Do this enough and gets to the point where losing two dollars at a 20NL table doesn’t phase you one bit. Instead you will have the knowledge that you can win that back later with a few successful bluffs or by getting paid off with a big hand.

Previous Poker Tips:
Poker Tip #4: The Lay Down
Poker Tip #3: Faith in the Rush
Poker Tip #2: Check Raise
Poker Tip #1: Starting Hands for NL Texas Hold ‘Em

poker tips, poker strategy, bullying, aggressiveness in poker