In poker, most players can be separated into four categories characterizing their style of play. Each style is described as a combination of the starting hands the player chooses to play, and the way the player bets these hands.
"Tight" and "Loose" describe the choice in starting hands. "Passive" and "Aggressive" describe the betting pattern.
Loose/Aggressive is the most difficult style of play – to master and to oppose.
Mastering the Loose/Aggressive style to perfection, you are well on your way to making a killing at the poker table.
Loose/Aggressive players play a lot of hands, and they play these hands very aggressively. This makes the Loose/Aggressive player immensely difficult to stop at the table, as it's highly intimidating for the opponents to know that the Loose/Aggressive player will lead out with big bets almost every single hand.
If you do not however master the Loose/Aggressive style of play and still try to play this way, it can very quickly become very expensive.
The Loose/Aggressive player constantly balances on the edge of the next all-in, and if you are unable to precisely read your opponent's strength, you'll inevitably end up second best in huge pots.
The difference between the skilled and the not-so-skilled Loose/Aggressive player is, that the skilled player is able to read opponents and take advantage of position at the table, whereas the not-so-skilled player relies blindly on pure aggression.
"Raise", "reraise" and "all-in" are the main weapons in the Loose/Aggressive player's arsenal. Huge bluffs, big continuation bets and standard semi-bluffs are all key moves.
Characteristics:
Will call and raise frequently preflop and then outplay or simply scare opponents away on the flop.
Will raise and reraise all the way to the river and has no problem going all-in to put the maximum pressure on the opponents.
Will very rarely fold – regardless of position.
Strengths:
The Loose/Aggressive player plays a lot of hands making this player almost impossible to put on a hand. For this reason the Loose/Aggressive player often gets paid off all the way when actually from time to time holding a big hand.
Will give away absolutely no free cards but will bet draws heavily as if holding quads already.
Often wins the pot with a weak hand simply by applying pressure on the opponent and inducing folds with huge bets and raises.
Weaknesses:
Will bluff and semi-bluff too much and is apt to go on tilt if losing a few big pots. Also, playing that many starting hands means playing a lot of garbage.
How to counter this player:
The key is discipline and patience.
Be very careful in selecting your starting hands, and when you hit a good flop, be prepared to show weakness and just call the Loose/Aggressive player – especially if you have position.
A Loose/Aggressive player will more often than not fire a second big bet on the turn, and you should take advantage of this to set a trap.
This is particularly true for the not-so-skilled Loose/Aggressive players of which there are quite a few at the lower limit tables.
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Read more »
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Read more »
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Read more »
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