Ultra Aggressive Poker Style

Posted By admin On 28/03/22

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The concept of a tight-aggressive poker strategy is simple: play very few hands, but play them aggressively. TAG poker worked like magic 10 years ago, when fishy players with loose pre-flop tendencies were a dime a dozen. Heck, even Mike McDermott recommended it to the professor in Rounders (1998). A TAG plays few hands and is a player who frequently bets or raises, but only rarely makes calls. Most multitabling-regulars in SnG’s and MTT’s play this style of poker. Benefits of tight-aggressive playing style. Restriction on the good starting hands, which limits losses and simplifies the game (important for multi-tabling). The concept of a tight-aggressive poker strategy is simple: play very few hands, but play them aggressively. TAG poker worked like magic 10 years ago, when fishy players with loose pre-flop tendencies were a dime a dozen. Heck, even Mike McDermott recommended it to the professor in Rounders (1998).

Commonly Used In Acronym Format Throughout The Poker World, But What Do LAG and TAG Play Involve?

You will often see LAG and TAG used to describe poker strategy styles on forums and in articles throughout the poker world. These actually describe two of the most profitable playing styles: LAG = ‘Loose Aggressive’ and TAG = ‘Tight Aggressive’.

This article describes a system which enables you to put opponents into different categories of poker playing style based on their observed behavior. Once you do this it is easy to adjust your own play according to their style – to maximize your profits.

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The starting point for assessing playing styles is to identify the two basic categories on which we rate players. The first scale describes the amount of hands played and goes from extremely loose (plays almost every hand) to extremely tight (premium hands only). The second concerns whether those hands are played with bets and raises, or with checks and calls. This goes from extremely passive (calls) to extremely aggressive (bets and raises). These can be made into a graph such as the following:

Next we can look at how a player with each of the styles identified in the graph might approach the game:

Tight-Passive: This player only plays solid starting hands from good position, however they will rarely bet and raise without the stone-cold nuts – allowing observant opponents to get away cheaply. Tight-passive players are unlikely to be winners, though their losses will be small.
Tight-Aggressive: This is the TAG Player from the introduction. Plays only solid starting hands and plays them positively and aggressively. An experienced Tight-Aggressive player is difficult to beat. This is one of the most profitable styles of poker.
Loose-Passive: Playing too many hands and playing them by calling rather than raising is asking to have your money taken in poker. This style is often employed by players who are new to the game, and is an expensive way to find out that this style is extremely bad poker.
Loose-Aggressive: This player plays a lot of starting hands and plays them very aggressively – especially while the bets are small. While not all hands played are profitable, this type of player will often get paid-off on big hands – since they raise so often those aces are nicely disguised.

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Finally we can look at how to adjust your own style to beat the playing styles of individual opponents.

When playing a pot against a Tight-Passive opponent: It is difficult to win a big pot against this type of player. Instead you can easily pick up small pots with bets when they show weakness. When a tight-passive opponent bets and raises strongly you need to exit the hand – they are unlikely to do this without the nuts.
When playing a pot against a Tight-Aggressive opponent: Here you need a strong hand to continue, calling bets is not advisable – as you are likely to be faced with an even bigger bet on the next betting round. These are the toughest opponents to play against – however their aggressive tendencies can be used to help you build a big pot when you have a monster hand.
When playing a pot against a Loose-Passive opponent: Rarely bluff this player, they are likely to call with some very weak holdings. You make the majority of your profit against this player by value betting – that is to say when you have a hand you must extract the most profit possible against a loose-passive opponent.
When playing a pot against a Loose-Aggressive Opponent: Never wait for the nuts against a LAG opponent – your chips will be slowly eaten away while you wait. Instead play solid hands from position and value bet with lesser holdings than you would against other players. Let the loose aggressive player drive the betting to build a big pot when you hit an unlikely nut hand.

The Classic TAG and LAG Definitions

While every player is different, there are three main types of aggressive poker players you will encounter.

The Tight-Aggressive (TAG)
The Loose-Aggressive (LAG)
The Loose Aggressive/Passive

You should already be familiar with the classic tight-aggressive and loose-aggressive definitions, which we detailed in our beginner lesson about poker playing styles. But the loose aggressive/passive type of player is a rare breed. They will raise a lot of hands pre-flop, but will often give up on the flop or turn. Typically these are former TAGs or tight passives trying to experiment with looser play but are not comfortable committing to their aggression.

These definitions are a good place to start, but you can’t just put poker players into neatly defined categories. Using your observational skills you need to understand the spectrum of hands that somebody might be playing and also the degree of aggression they exhibit in their play. This will help you to formulate effective strategies to use against them, which is the goal of this lesson.

Define Their Hand Range

The first step you need to take when playing against an aggressive player is to define their likely hand range. If your opponent is considered a tight-aggressive, just how tight is his range? Is your opponent a ‘nit’? This is the type of player that always has a big hand because they play such a narrow range of hands. Perhaps your opponent is what we might call a ‘standard tight-aggressive’ – someone who plays the top 10 to 15% of hands.

What if they are loose-aggressive? – the type that’s going to be playing a wide variety of hands and is capable of doing so from any position. A typical loose-aggressive player will often bet on most flops and bluff a high percentage of the time. However, there’s a wide spectrum of loose-aggressive players. It’s not just about the hand ranges a player plays, but how aggressive they play their hands. How far will your opponent be prepared to go to move you off your hand?

The Degree of Aggression

It’s important that you know the difference between someone playing aggressively with value hands and someone playing aggressively with bluffing hands. There’s a big difference between someone who raises pre-flop from late position and continuation bets 100% of the time, but then gives up on the turn and someone who’s capable of triple barrelling as a bluff all the way down to the river with complete air.

As far as pre-flop action is concerned, poker players are 3-betting far more frequently these days. Yet there’s a big difference between someone who is capable of 3-betting light than with someone who will 4-bet light or even 5-bet light. You really need to observe the tendencies of your opponents and understand just how far they will go to take you off a hand.

Here are some basic types of aggression you might see from different players.

Pot Stabbers

They are aggressive, but they are also somewhat passive – in that they’ll take one stab at the pot, then they’re going to give up. They might continuation bet 100% of the time, but only bet the turn when they actually have a hand. These are definitely people you want to get into pots with and play position against them. It’s highly profitable and you should be able to take pots away from them.

Solid Players

Solid players know when to apply pressure and they know when to put on the brakes. They are generally winning poker players and they are the type you don’t want to play against. It doesn’t mean you have to avoid playing pots with them, but if you’re in a marginal spot then you don’t necessarily have to test yourself. Look for a spot that’s going to be more profitable.

Lagtard / Spewtard / Spew Monkey, etc

There are a number of names for this type of poker player. They are the ones that take aggression to a completely different level. They’re not necessarily bad players, but they can get drunk with power. They will constantly try and put you to the test. They can build big stacks against people who play scared. However, if you can find a hand or have a really good read on them, you can make a lot of money too. There are many times when these players just don’t know when to put on the brakes and quit.

Strategies to Use Against Them

Now that we’ve mentioned some of the different types of aggressive players you’ll meet at the tables, it’s time to discuss some of the strategies that you can use against them.

Let Them Bet For You

If they are aggressive then let them take the lead in betting if you have a strong hand. Why try to blow them off their hand? Let them bluff and keep throwing chips in the pot.

Feign Weakness

Ask yourself ‘how would I play this hand if I didn’t have a good hand?’ This might include betting a small amount or checking in certain spots to induce a bluff. You might even check the river with a monster hand because you know that they can’t win without a big bet. It depends on the hand situation, but any time you can feign weakness against someone who is going to bet strongly, it’s generally going to be profitable.

Open Up Your Value Range

This is the opposite of the old advice to ‘just be patient and wait for a big hand and then you can trap them’. But when playing an against an aggressive player, you cannot wait for the nuts to play back at them. It simply won’t happen frequently enough and they will know you have a big hand since you’ve been waiting around all day. This is why opening up your value range against some aggressive players is the way to go, depending on the situation. It really depends who you’re playing against. Hands like Ace-Jack offsuit, King-Queen, King-Jack, middle pocket pairs, have super high value against a loose-aggressive player, but are very weak when against a tight-aggressive opponent.

Hand Example – Opening Up Your Range

No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
Blinds: 25/50
You and your opponent both have 2,500 in chips.

Reads

The player directly on your right has been very aggressive from the start of the tournament. Any time it folds to him in late position, he has raised 3x the big blind. While no one has really played back at him, he did lose a pot earlier when the big blind called a raise pre-flop and check-raised him on an Ace high flop, resulting in a fold from the LAG. You have been moderately active at the table seeing some flops and raising a few, but nothing abnormal.

Pre-Flop

You are on the button and it folds to the LAG in the cut-off. As predicted, he raises to 150. The players in the blinds both have about 1,500 chips and have been playing conservatively. You have , which against a habitual late position raiser is a strong hand. You are definitely ahead of the range he is likely to be raising with. This could include anything from a low suited connector, any high cards like KT or QJ or any pocket pair including 22.

Figure 1

Now you have a lot of options here if you choose to play the pot. With the size of your stack in relation to the blinds, you can make a case for folding, re-raising or calling. Since you have a good read on the player, the blinds are conservative players and you have enough chips, I would call about 50% of the time, raise 30% and fold about 20%.

With your stack size and the low blinds, calling is probably the best option because you can control the size of the pot. By re-raising you are bloating the pot with a marginal hand that could be dominated and a smaller pot allows you to have options on the flop, turn and river without committing yourself if it turns out he does have a better hand. Additionally, re-raising might cause him to fold a worse hand that he would have otherwise tried to bluff you with.

The Flop

The flop comes . There is 375 in the pot and your opponent bets 250. What now? Well, there is certainly a chance that he has an Ace with a higher kicker, but you got into this pot with a marginal hand against a very aggressive opponent. You have to expect him to continue the aggression and it’s very possible you have the best hand, so you can’t change your mind and get scared now.

Figure 2

Ultra Aggressive Poker Style Damper

There are two ways to approach this hand and your decision should be based on how he sees your table image and how you both have played previous hands. For example, if you have been playing tight and you raise here, he will usually fold any hands that you are beating. However, if you have recently been pushed off of a hand and you are steaming he could think you are steaming and just making a move, thus playing back at you. Additionally, if you have shown to have called flop bets with middle pair or a low pocket pair and you call now, he might think you don’t have an Ace. He might fire another barrel on the turn with a bluff trying to represent having an Ace.

Deciding how to play this hand also goes back to his past betting patterns and whether or not he is capable of firing on the turn with a bluff. If so, I would be more inclined to call here in order to induce the bluff. If he is the type of player that will only bet the turn with a hand that beats you then you should raise here to define your hand now while the pot is still small and you can get away from it if he gives you action.

Without having any strong reads, I would usually stick with the plan to control the pot size by calling and evaluating how he plays the turn. Most players are not going to fire another strong bet on the turn without a hand.

The Turn

The turn is and your opponent checks:

Figure 3

Okay this is a good sign. Unless he is running an advanced slow play, you most likely have the best hand here. But should you bet?

You can certainly make the case for it, but that decision also goes back to your read on the player and whether he thinks you have an Ace. If you think he will call a bet with a worse hand (i.e. weaker Ace, mid pocket pair, etc.) then you can bet. But based on the size of the pot and your remaining stack, a really aggressive player can check-raise here and put you in a really tough spot. There is 875 in the pot and you have 2,100 in your stack. Any reasonable sized bet (i.e. 600-800) will commit a lot of your stack and anything smaller could look like a weak attempt to take it down.

Since the blinds are low and we have likely only been playing with this player for less than an hour, all we know is that he is very aggressive so I would suggest checking in this spot. We are checking for two reasons; we are controlling the size of the pot in the event we are actually behind here – and to either induce a river bluff or get him to call a river bet with a worse hand.

The River

The river is a and your opponent bets 500 into the 875 pot:

Figure 4

Since the opponent could have any two cards here and there were no significant draws, there is a high likely hood that your opponent is bluffing. Could he have AJ or some random hand like 87? Sure, but sometimes you have to make decisions based on what is the most likely from the information about the player and the way the hand has played out. In this hand, you do call and your opponent shows for a pure bluff. You may be asking – if we think we are ahead why not raise? Well because he most likely will only call with a hand that beats us. We gain no value if he always folds a worse hand. Sure there are times he might call with an Ace with a worse kicker, but over the long run a call likely has a higher expected value.

The point of this example hand was to show how we can open up our value range against a loose-aggressive opponent, and how this can pay off – particularly in the long run. But as was stated earlier in this lesson, there are many different types of aggressive players. The key point to take away from all this is to really get better at observing the play of your opponents – and their specific individual tendencies, both before and after the flop. Understand who you’re playing against and go from there.

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By Donovan Panone

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Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.

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