Poker News

George ‘The Engineer’ Epstein

To be a winner, aggression at the poker table is generally desirable - selective aggression, that is. In fact, “Playing Aggressively the Right Way” is one of the nine key strategies in my Poker for Winners! book. Play aggressively when it is to your advantage to do so.

But what do you do when you have one opponent who is VERY aggressive. He raises a lot! You have a marginal hand and call to see the flop; then he raises. Now it costs you a double-bet. That’s not what you wanted. . . So the next time you’re dealt a hand that could readily improve on the flop, you fold because you anticipate a raise by the AGGRESSOR. But this time he doesn’t raise. The flop comes down and - guess what: It would have made your hand a sure-fire winner!

How Do You Handle Such a Situation? Strategy #8 in my poker book explains how to play against aggressive opponents. There are two types of aggressive players. A tight-aggressive player bets/raises aggressively, but only with a very strong hand. He is quite predictable; that’s to your advantage. It’s the looseaggressive player who is the real problem; he is almost unpredictable. Such an AGGRESSOR may bet/raise almost on a whim; you can never be sure of the strength of his hand. An AGGRESSOR may also be deceptive. But you do know that he is likely to raise often. That’s valuable information.

If you are seated to his immediate left, then you won’t have to act until after he does his thing. If he chooses to just call the blind - and not raise, now you can see the flop for a single small bet. That’s good. On the other hand, if he raises, you can comfortably fold your marginal hand without having to make a double-bet investment. When I see such an AGGRESSOR at my table, I make it a practice to play very conservatively until I can get seated as close as possible to his immediate left. Sometimes it takes a while until another player to his left leaves the game. (That’s another reason you need to have patience to be a winning player…)

Using the AGGRESSOR to your Advantage. There are ways you can take advantage of having an AGGRESSOR at your table. When you hold a powerful hand, almost certain to win, you could raise to build the pot; but that would give valuable information to your opponents. If you are almost certain that the AGGRESSOR will make the raise, just call and let him do the deed for you. In fact, at that point, you might reraise and really build the pot; or you can wait for the next round of betting.

Another opportunity to “exploit” the AGGRESSOR is when you hold a hand that is best played against a small number of opponents. Say you have been dealt pocket aces - a hand that is favored against 1-3 opponents but usually is an underdog with four or more staying to see the flop. In low/middle-limit games, your preflop raise may not be big enough to force out many opponentswho have yet to bet. But, if the AGGRESSOR raises and then you reraise, now these opponents are faced with a relatively large cost to see the flop. Many will be inclined to fold, giving your A-A a better chance to hold up to win the pot. You can use this tactic even if you are seated to the AGGRESSOR’s right. In that case, his reraise after your raise will have more or less the same effect; but it is more certain if you can be seated to his left.

All in all, it’s best to be seated to the AGGRESSOR’s immediate left.

George “The Engineer” Epstein is the author of “The Greatest Book of Poker for Winners!” A retired engineer who received many industry and government awards and commendations, he continues to be active by consulting, editing an international technical newsletter, teaching an engineering course at UCLA, and serving as an officer in a professional engineering society. One engineering society has a scholarship in George’s honor. In writing his poker book, he applied the lessons learned while working as an engineer to solve problems. He is currently writing his next book on The Four Rules for Success in Life and Living.

Filed under: Poker News