Poker Article
The
Benefits of Aggressive Play
Almost everybody reading this has watched a major poker tournament on television. Most of the time you only get to see the final table, with high stakes players playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars. All of these players have their own style of play. From Gus Hansen's super aggressive play to Greg Raymer's now infamous stop and go strategy. Yet there is one thing these players almost always have in common. They play aggressive poker, or power poker as it is now being called.
The way the poker world is going now, you are almost guaranteed to miss the money if you play a tight game the entire tournament. There are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, if you are deemed to be a tight player, you are going to see a lot less action coming your way. You are not going to be able to build a substantial enough chip stack if you throw a raise out once every twenty hands and just end up stealing the blinds. You are going to have to make a play with what could possibly be the worst starting hand pre-flop and hope your opponent misses. You are also going to be prone to hanging on to big starting hands too long, even after they could easily be beat. I have witnessed many tight players get their AK busted by an aggressive player who chose to play a hand like JT. Another problem is the fact that good players can almost certainly put you on the hand you are holding if you play super tight. Once the blinds get to a higher stage, you are going to have to employ an all-or-nothing strategy in a last ditch effort to make the money. More often than not you are going to have to go all-in with a semi-marginal hand.
Even when the best players in the world aren't catching cards, they are still winning pots. They have what it takes to pull the trigger and win a big pot with the worst hand. So go ahead and take a chance every now and then. You are not going to win a tournament by sitting back and waiting for the nuts every hand.
Written by Jason Bisnett
Jason is a very experienced Poker Player. We are very happy to have him on our staff. To ask Jason a question, visit our Forum our email him at JBisnett@stackspokeronline.com
Want to play with Jason? You can find him playing at Stackspoker.com, his name is theprofessa
Almost everybody reading this has watched a major poker tournament on television. Most of the time you only get to see the final table, with high stakes players playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars. All of these players have their own style of play. From Gus Hansen's super aggressive play to Greg Raymer's now infamous stop and go strategy. Yet there is one thing these players almost always have in common. They play aggressive poker, or power poker as it is now being called.
The way the poker world is going now, you are almost guaranteed to miss the money if you play a tight game the entire tournament. There are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, if you are deemed to be a tight player, you are going to see a lot less action coming your way. You are not going to be able to build a substantial enough chip stack if you throw a raise out once every twenty hands and just end up stealing the blinds. You are going to have to make a play with what could possibly be the worst starting hand pre-flop and hope your opponent misses. You are also going to be prone to hanging on to big starting hands too long, even after they could easily be beat. I have witnessed many tight players get their AK busted by an aggressive player who chose to play a hand like JT. Another problem is the fact that good players can almost certainly put you on the hand you are holding if you play super tight. Once the blinds get to a higher stage, you are going to have to employ an all-or-nothing strategy in a last ditch effort to make the money. More often than not you are going to have to go all-in with a semi-marginal hand.
Even when the best players in the world aren't catching cards, they are still winning pots. They have what it takes to pull the trigger and win a big pot with the worst hand. So go ahead and take a chance every now and then. You are not going to win a tournament by sitting back and waiting for the nuts every hand.
Written by Jason Bisnett
Jason is a very experienced Poker Player. We are very happy to have him on our staff. To ask Jason a question, visit our Forum our email him at JBisnett@stackspokeronline.com
Want to play with Jason? You can find him playing at Stackspoker.com, his name is theprofessa