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It pays to remember that everyone wins money on their good hands, but winners will consistently win money on their bad hands. The best players will pick up blinds and pots regardless of their hand. In 'Shuffle Up And Deal" Mike Sexton recommends betting 3-5 times the big blind almost without exception when you enter a hand. I have never read one line of advice that changed my game as drastically as this has. Why is this aggressive betting style is so successful?

In every pre-flop there are three types of players; the 'folds', the 'calls', and the 'raises'. When you bet aggressively you will blow the first two types off the table. The 'calls' wanted to see the pot bad enough to throw in their 100 dollar chip, hoping for some play out of the first three cards. They will seldom pay an additional 300-500, and so most of the time you have already won their money. (plus the blinds) The 'raises' are legit "card carrying" players, or are trying to pick up the blinds themselves. If they don't have cards, you already have them wishing they'd aggressed a different hand. That leaves only the people who have solid cards with any kind of edge over you. Your goal now is to put them on their cards as soon as possible, or get out as soon as possible. I know it sounds like you just threw 300 dollars away, but you will find, (especially in late position) that you will pick up more than enough blinds and abandoned calls to cover it.

Post flop your aggressive betting really pays off. Anyone left in the hand probably has decent cards, so you need to build on your opening bet until it is clear to you that you will lose or win. Opening 3-5 times the big blind has given you an advantage in betting though. 1) your opponent will (inaccurately) put you on a premium hand by the way you entered the betting. 2) you will (accurately) put them on their hand by the way they called your big bet pre flop.

This is monumental, as your opponent is already thinking your hand is as good as or better than his, and it sets you up to blow them off the table at the first sign of hesitation. How many ways can you win now? 1) you are playing many more hands this way, so you will get many more solid betting hands. 2) you never limp in, so any bluff carries extra weight. 3) people can't put you on a hand, 'cause you always bet the same 3-5 times the big blind no matter what you came in with 4) when you do decide to slow play a hand everyone at the table will notice and think you must have garbage cards if you didn't bet the 3-5 times the big blind 5) you will get more value for your premium hands, 'cause you always bet the same, so noone knows when to run from you! 6) your playing style (aggressive) will only improve as you gain chips, because now you can really put some chips into those openers and bluffs, and call more of those all-ins. 7)

You will get ten times the satisfaction from the game 'cause you're playing like a monster. Confidence in poker is akin to confidence in stunt driving. The harder you press the accelerator, the more cars you can jump!

Things to look out for;

watch out for paint in the flop - if you come in with garbage cards and someone bets hard on an ace in the flop, turn, or river, back out. Unless you are willing to stone cold bluff for a great deal of money, people don't like letting go of aces, and will usually take them to the show. likewise, when a paint card is turned over and you bet first, sometimes it's better to check first and see if that's their card before you bluff. if they check even once, then you make your move.

follow through - Stu Ungar says "Lots of guys will fire one shell, but not very many will fire two." Often you will come up against someone who didn't get their card, but will pay almost anything for one more shot at it. You bet 500 and they call. They may or may not get their card (odds are they didn't...) and now you have to bluff a second time. It's hard to pull the trigger the second time, but if the pot is big enough, you don't have to be successful at this too many times to give yourself a big stack!

Answer:

Thanks for sending this in!

I think this is good advice, primarily because it gives you more opportunities to win a tournament than just waiting for the best hand. Most books talk mainly about what cards to play preflop, but there isn't much information available on how to play well postflop. If you do what Kin has stated here, you'll need to also develop good postflop skills or this can backfire.

The general rule for playing a more aggressive loose preflop style is that you must play that much better postflop. You give up a little preflop by taking the worst hand in, but you make up for it by outplaying your opponents, using position, and deception. The counter to someone who is doing this too much is to play the role of the trapper. You wait for a hand and then let him bet it for you. If you are the aggressor and you know this, you can nullify it some by paying close attention to the way the person is playing and the texture of the flop. In addition to picking up a lot of pots when scare cards hit, like betting into an ace high flop, you'll also sometimes win some big pots when the opponents misread your hands.

For example, say you raise with 98 and get a tight opponent to call you. If the flop comes back something like A-9-8 or A-8-8, etc, you'll nail him. Also, you'll win when he misses the flop if you follow up with bets. And on top of that, often times the opponents will get frustrated and try to make a stand at the wrong time. Say he has AK and the flop is 7-6-2 and you have A6. If you are a good enough reader of hands, this is an excellent money making opportunity when he decides to go bet big.

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