Starting Hands And Aggressive Players
In this tip I'm going discuss starting hands against aggressive players. I'll go over some things to think about, including the problems this type of player creates and ways to beat him.
Who is the aggressive player? Players are much more aggressive in heads up play, and rightly so. It takes a lot to still be classified really aggressive in HU play, yet there are still plenty of those types of players. I'd venture to say that there are as many aggro players HU as there are loose players in live limit holdem ring games. To earn my "aggressive player" title, a player has to take the approach or strategy that he is going to raise just about every hand and force you to play back at him to win a pot. If you check, he'll always bet. This includes going the river almost every time betting.
Why do they do this? A couple reasons: One, it sometimes works. There's a natural give and take because of the blinds and button -- the button has inherent strength. So it isn't completely wrong to try to push some with position. Included in this is that many players are use to playing at full tables, so it isn't a stretch to think that a way to beat them is to bet every hand. I think the bigger reason why players do this is because they see it at larger tables and assume it is the best way to play heads up poker. You see that and couple it with some stats for how hard it is to hit a hand on the flop and you can draw this conclusion.
Each strategy or style an opponent chooses in turn dictates your counter strategy. This is more true in heads up poker, since in games with more opponents your options are more limited since the average hand someone plays is stronger. Each style creates difficulties. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent's strategy allows us to exploit it. Aggressive players will bet too much, plain and simple. Betting too much is betting without hand value. And when someone bets too much, you need to call more, with less hand value. If you don't adjust, then it will be much harder to beat the opponent.
Before we get into the implications of loosening up and calling more against the guy who bets too much, it's worth mentioning that there is no perfect tool in poker. You have to weigh the alternatives and pick one that is the best. And when we choose a counter strategy, we have to be careful we don't create a bigger problem for ourselves than the original problem. Much of heads up poker is like this.
If we take the approach we'll just play every hand against him since he is playing every hand against us, we trade one group of problems for another. Basically, you just create larger pots for him to keep betting at. And since good players find it harder and harder to keep calling without anything postflop, this strategy can back fire. Just like there is inherent value in acting last (position), there is inherent value in being the first one to bet. Example: it's much easier to bet with ten high than it is to call with ten high.
Likewise, if you just play any two cards and decide to gamble it up with him, you're playing his game, and hence giving up your edge. The best thing to do in a game where someone is better than you is to take away some of the edge by playing more pots for more of the money, faster. A pro wants to play against an inexperienced player longer for more pots. This gives more time to make better decisions. If you cap 10 hands in a row with a crazy player, you may or may not win, but the results won't reflect your skill as much as they would if you played 30 hands for less money. With this said though, in limit holdem you have to get the money in when you think you have the best hand.
A large part of how I decide how I'm going to play my hands preflop is determined by how the player plays postflop. I've already defined the aggressive player as the one who will always check if you bet. What about in other situations though? If you check raise him postflop or reraise preflop what will he do? The better he plays postflop, the more money I'm going to put in preflop. Think about having an Ax hand like Ac4d in the big blind against his DB raise. If the opponent is careful postflop after I reraise preflop, then I may not do that as much. An Ace hand is really strong in these games, so I want to do whatever I can to make the most with it. Most of the time I find these super aggro players aren't that tight postflop with their calls either, so I play as straight forwardly as I can, only mixing it up when they stop paying me off.
Next, it's important to adjust your postflop play based on his play. Since we know he'll bet with anything on the flop and after, we can't assume just because we don't hit the flop our hand isn't worth continuing with. Because of this need to defend, we have to choose hands that will make our life easier postflop. One tip for this is to avoid J high hands hands a below with a kicker that is 4 or below, unless they can work together to make straights. Here are some of the those hands: J4, J3, J2, T4-T2, 94-92, 84-82, 72, 62, 52.
Calling with a hand with a card that is four or below creates some issues. The problem you face with these hands is that you call, pay two small bets and then miss the flop 2/3s of the time you usually have to fold since you only have one card to draw to (you don't have to draw to pair of deuces or treys). And another, almost bigger problem, is that when you play hands with cards that hold 2s, 3s, or 4s and actually hit a pair, you can easily get outdrawn by the river. Say that 94 hits on a flop like 8-4-3. That's a good flop, but against a player that will play to the river with his overcards every hand, it cuts into your value. You can purge some of this variance and make beating him easier by folding some of the really bad hands.
Let me state the obvious here: If you have a hand like J9 against your opponent's 87, your advantage doesn't come only from having him high carded, but also from the fact that if you hit either your Jack or your Nine, he is going to be drawing very slim. Big cards, when they hit, are stronger because they can't be outdrawn as easily. Compare that with having Q3 versus J9. If the Q3 hits a trey on the flop, the guy still can catch a Jack or a Nine to win. If you hit a Queen on the flop, the J9 is worthless.
Folding some of the garbage hands -- J4 and below, T4 and below, 94 and below, 84 and below, etc -- on the dealer button and big blind will save us some bets but also have the nice by product of making him think his play is working -- which is what we want. Also, by folding these hands that have a hard time catching a flop, we'll slightly increase our chances of hitting flops that we can make a stand with more successfully. And lastly this will help us a bit because our average starting hand value will go up.
Another tip is to reraise some more hands against him. Generally speaking, we're going to reraise and get more money in the pot with our better hands preflop. That's basic poker: get the money in with the best hand. Because this guy is raising so many hands, and because we're going to actually fold some hands both on the button an in the big blind, I find it helps to reraise some extra hands. This helps for a number of different reasons: One, you don't want him to assume you're only reraising when you have an Ace in your hand or some other legit starting hand like KT or 88. Secondly, given that he is raising so much, you're probably making the right play percentage-wise. Also, like I mentioned before, being the bettor versus the caller in the hand has value, so flipping it on him now and again is good.
Hands I like to occasionally raise knowing he'll reraise me, or reraise knowing he might cap it are middle connected cards: J9, T8, 98, etc. Even if he wasn't extremely aggressive, I like these cards because they get action. When you have a hand like Ax or Kx and the flop is Ace high or King high, you probably won't get that much action, while the 98 hitting top pair will keep him in.
In all poker you should consider how a hand will play postflop. That helps determine if it's worth playing preflop. Heads up pronounces this more than other structures because you have just one opponent and he will likely take advantage of your weakness if you check. So when you think about which hands you want to play heads up, the biggest factor is how they'll play against the opponent if you hit, if you miss, if you both hit, etc. If you avoid some bad spots you can make your life way easier since you know how he is going to play. You can play every hand if the opponent is playing every hand and sometimes win. I've found this makes my variance a lot higher and gives bad players and easier time playing me. I've had many sessions where I'm playing 24 hours straight online, going back and forth with some guy. Only after I clean up my play a bit, folding some rags, and putting more bets in with middle range hands, do I win.
