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How to deal with an aggressive player?

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tomvee
Joined: 18.02.2024

Tonight, I was at an online table for real money, and there was a guy that was in on every hand, and raised on about half of them. And he won a lot, because when he raised, people folded. It seems impossible to me that he actually had a playable hand every time. But he dominated the table, nonetheless. So how do you deal with this type of player?


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8 replies
Coach
Kyyberi
Joined: 09.07.2010

You have two basic ways: trap him or fight fire with fire.

If opponent is thinking aggressive, the worst way is to call when you have a draw or weak hand and raise when you have a strong hand. It's easy for him to play against you and the aggression works.

Trapping means you just call when you have a strong hand and let him be aggressive.
Fight fire with fire means you use aggression. If he raises half of the hands, you start to re-raise with a bit stronger range but still wider than normal.

You can (and often should) combine these. Trap with strong hands and raise with semi-bluffs. But this requires that he is actually folding sometimes when he faces aggression. If he is gambler who likes to go all-in with almost anything, then the game plan is easy. Wait for a strong hand and go all-in. :)


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Super Moderator
VorpalF2F
Joined: 02.09.2010

Hi tomvee,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com :welcome:

You will often see players like this build up a stack in a short time. They rarely keep those stacks very long.
Kyyberi is quite correct about how to deal with them. For me, I prefer trapping.

The aggressive player that plays far too many hands isn't the only player type you'll encounter.
You can read about the others here: The Five Player Types

All the best,
VS


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ghaleon
Joined: 17.10.2007

Hot running maniac is potentially worst opponent type to run into :)

One key point is to put focus on showdowns you see. Some of these guys might bet often flop and turn but rarely bet river without having it. So if we go to the end wide thinking he just keeps blasting three street we might end up with bad strategy. One of key points is imo to not continue that wide on early streets. Because if we know he keeps blasting our weaker range will have tough times on later streets to take that heat. So some of marginal hands we might continue as default might be best to just fold right away. One reason why this type of maniac strategy can work is by other players to adjust by widening their preflop and flop ranges. Thus folding lot more on later streets or potentially making quetionable light calldowns.


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taavi1337
Joined: 29.05.2009

Call him down see what he has?


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tomvee
Joined: 18.02.2024

Thank you for the replies. In my case, there were dozens of hands where a player was in on every hand. I can imagine a situation when it is only 5 or 6 hands. And it possible to have 5 or 6 good pocket cards in a row. So I guess you have to be a little careful before classifying a player.


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taavi1337
Joined: 29.05.2009

You could build a table with your friends where everyone has 100% VPIP but that would be called colluding. :f_biggrin:


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SirShovealot
Joined: 23.02.2024

Don't forget position. Reraise when you have position on him. It is impossible for him to have so many strong hands.


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ghaleon
Joined: 17.10.2007

Originally posted by tomvee
Thank you for the replies. In my case, there were dozens of hands where a player was in on every hand. I can imagine a situation when it is only 5 or 6 hands. And it possible to have 5 or 6 good pocket cards in a row. So I guess you have to be a little careful before classifying a player.

Sample size is indeed cruzial and basically most important stat on hud. Only do minor adjustments with very small sample. But if you see showdowns even one hand can give ton of good info to adjust more.


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