Changing your game to the styles of play at the poker table is a crucial skill.
Have you seen the commercial with Gus Hansen where he says which Gus will be at the table? Wild Gus, Passive Gus, Tight Gus….It depends on you. How often have you sat at a table and watched a player play so many hands then score a big pot with his big hand? Here is how that happens…
Players will project their table image as loose by playing many pots and raising, re-raising to apply pressure regardless of their hole cards. Aggressive poker styles are profitable if done right.
The Goal of Being Aggressive
Misleading
Your forcing your opponents to play a style of poker vs you because your controlling the action. They will either have to fold or show a lot more strength of their own hand which will tell you even more about their style of poker then your giving up.
Extra Action with Good Hands
With the loose-aggressive table image on flops like 663 and you continue to bet out while your opponent is holding say for example pocket Queens who you called the pre-flop bet with A6. You can fire out and score down a big pot because they will have a hard time letting go their queens thinking they are trapping you.
The Fear Factor
By playing so many hands your opponents can’t put you on a hand only able to gauge your hand by putting in more money as a value bet or stone cold bluffs. When your at a passive table players will often give away the true value of their hand vs you the loose player, which takes away your fear of what you should do.
I understand that switching up your style of play is a good thing, to keep people guessing… it’s something that I haven’t been able to do.
I see people play aggressive and it scares me, because I have such a hard time reading them.
Any tips on how a tight player can branch out and be more aggressive?
Playing tight seems to work for me and I’m afraid of change