When is this used?
Aggressive play is used when you have very good reason to believe your opponent will not call your bet – for whatever reason. One reason why he might not is because you all have the same stack size and he doesn’t need to gamble yet. For example, in CASE2, everyone has an equal stack. You can play aggressive vs anyone else, sincethey will only call your all-in if they have an AK or JJ+ (most cases). On the bubble you must play aggressive if your opponent is tight. With blinds
as big as they are, you won’t survive if you wait for a premium hand or a pair. You must play aggressive and take the fight to your opponent who you suspect is not ready to gamble with a call.
Plays allowed: Check it down, allin and min raise.
How to play it
General:
You will put pressure on this player any time you have the chance.
Call his allin?
JJ is even optional. AK, QQ, KK and AA are for sure. I will typically call with JJ also.
He’s big blind, you are small blind
If he is in the big blind, you will raise his blind with any two cards from the small blind. You will always raise all-in. You only do this if no one else has entered the pot (obviously). Also, you can’t do this move every hand. Do it once, and then fold on the second chance if you have the chips (unless of course you have a hand on the second time around). You don’t want it to be obvious that you do this all the time with nothing. Again, you don’t expect a call from him – but he might take a risk with AT+ or any pair – so be prepared. You need the blinds however so try and take them. So the pattern is that you do it the first chance you get. The second chance you get, you fold unless you have A7+, any pair, KT+, QJ+.
*another good play is to do the following at a tight table. Raise allin the first chance you get – sb vs. bb. Next time FOLD your sb to his bb. The very next hand, no matter what cards you get- when you are on the button, if he is in the SB and the BB is another equal stack to you, raise ALLin to steal the BB and SB (if the guy in late folds to you). This is a good play because you just folded your sb to his bb. He will believe you have something and shouldn’t call unless he has AQ+, JJ+. The bb will think nothing of your move and will only call with premium hand as well.
He’s big blind, you are late or on the button
You can raise allin with any pair, any AT+ or KJ+ – IF NO ONE ELSE HAS ENTERED THE POT, if someone else has entered the pot, say the guy in late raises all-in, you have AJ. If your playing style vs. the raiser is fearless, you can call his all in, and push the rest of your chips all in to attack the big blind as wel.
AT+, KJ+ and any pair is fairly standard bubble play. You have to take risks.
IP: Remember to stay afloat! In some cases, you must play almost any hand just to keep from going under and becoming a big short stack target! You don’t want to become the smallest stack with a small chip count.
