Lack of Aggressiveness
January 16, 2008
There are some people out there that play poker too safe. These poker players have a lot of things to upgrade in order to be competitive in poker. Poker is not all about having the right cards. Sometimes, you have to be aggressive in poker in order to win, regardless whether your cards are good or not. Here are some tips on how to increase your aggressiveness on the poker table.
First, try to play hands that are not really good. If you are dealt with a three and ten off suit then you should try playing it once in awhile. Sometimes your cards get pretty on the flop. If you are the safe pre flop player then you should try to be more aggressive. If you are only joining a pot when you have a king and an ace, a queen and a jack, a king and a queen, and so on and so forth, all those face cards, then you should rethink your strategies. If your opponent has a king and an ace and you only have a two and a three then why not try fighting it. If the flop comes out with three two’s then you have certainly beaten the ace king already.
Second, try to bluff. Yes, I am telling you to lie. Sometimes, try to bully your opponent out of the pot by raising a substantial amount for him or her to fold. For example, if you do not have anything on the turn card, why not try increasing the pot and scaring off everyone? If you succeed in your bluff then your poker skills are increasing. If you fail in the bluff then learn from your mistakes and try to bluff better next time. As the wise people would say, if it does not kill you then it makes you certainly stronger!
Third, be unpredictable. Sometimes you just have to do something out of the norm to throw your opponents off their seat. For example, why not try going all in on the first hand on the first round? Even if you do not have great cards, you might be able to steal the pot on the first round, right?
Lastly, why don’t you put a bounty on someone on the table? You can make a side pot with your seat mate and bet on who will be able to take out player number six. If you take out player number six then you will be able to bring home a side pot with your seat mate. If your seat mate takes out opponent number six then he or she will be the one to take home the side pot. In this way, both of you are being aggressive on one particular player. Sometimes, even if you lose a hand but if you take out the bounty player, you are still a winner at the end of the day because of the side pot. If you want to make the game more interesting, you can put a bounty on your seatmate and bet on who will take out whom. This is a seat mate rivalry and it will force you to be aggressive with your seat mate.