Poker is a game that offers immense strategic and tactical depth ranging from your bankroll to the adrenalin level involved. What will have the greatest impact upon your strategy and tactics is your betting style, focusing on how much you bet, and how frequently you place a bet, whether it is to check, bet, raise or call. Your betting style is what determines you as an aggressive -betting and raising – or as a passive – checking and calling – player.
Depending on poker variance there is no one successful play style that will work in every situation changes with every new PokerStars.net hand dealt. However, more often than not, aggressive play is often more profitable than passive play. This is because the aggressive poker player aims to make money with every hand, either by bluffing with a weak one or by playing a strong one without giving away that they have the goods.
The aggressive player is daring, spontaneous while the passive player is cautious and careful and will take their time in making decisions. Being opposites, the best way to counter one is sometimes play the other. A passive player will play a strong hand the same as a weak hand, which can cause an aggressive player to overplay a weak hand.
Every world famous professional player has tried to clarify when a given style is appropriate. Texas Legendary Champion Doyle Brunson believes that aggression at the poker table can be very powerful at any time, by letting them sweep small pots by forcing other plays to stay in, even for a few chips to see the turn and the river. Moreover, because of this aggression and the bluffs, it is hard to tell exactly when an aggressive playing is posing, bluffing or actually has the goods to sweep the pot. This is how the aggressive play style lets players make more money over the course of the session.
However, using one style exclusively makes a player predictable, something regarded as being far worse than a less professional play style. For example, an aggressive player who chases too many weak hands (the maniac) can be called and bluffed by other players and be taken advantage.
Therefore, it ultimately comes down to the player to choose whether to play a purely passive or aggressive play style, but what most famous professionals do is blend the two to create what is called a “loosely aggressive” play style. The famous and successful aggressive poker players will go all in when it suits them but also throw in a generous helping of passive behavior to keep their opponents on their toes and guessing about not only their hand but also their play style. Many will go as far as to give false tells and make random almost incomprehensible bluffs. The difficulty involve in trying to read an aggressive player is what makes this play style the most common in no limit tournaments and oftentimes the highest of the high rollers in Texas Hold’Em.
