Countering Aggressive Poker Players

Countering aggressive poker players is something that everyone that plays No Limit Texas Hold'em will have to deal with. The same is true for poker tournaments as it is cash games. The typical aggressive player likes to raise a lot of pots and will show aggression post flop. There are also different kinds of aggression to be aware of too. You may be up against an aggressive player that likes to steal your blinds and has picked you out as an easy target. You could be up against a maniac that will raise with any two cards. Lastly, you could be up against a player that has built a monster stack and is simply using it to hammer away at the rest of the table.

So how do you fix it? How do you keep the aggressive poker types from playing so strongly at YOU?

I tend to tighten up just a bit as you will realize that suited connectors and drawing type starting hands are not what you want to use against a player that is overly aggressive. Narrow your choices to premium hands like AA, KK, QQ and AK, AQ, and AJ at the least. Even Pocket Jacks is a hand worth re-raising with when in the blinds and your instincts tell you that your opponent is on yet another steal.

The bottom line is that you must pick your spots to play back at your opponent and usually after they have layed down a couple of times to your re-raises the aggression will cease. At least agaist you it will. So remember that you must play back against aggressive players whether you are in the Blinds or not. Just make sure you have a hand when you do. Just be patient and allow them to do all the betting and use it as leverage to take them out of their game.