Learn Texas Holdem

Question: When I play poker, I occasionally look at the stats provided by the site I happen to be playing on. There are times when I bet/raise the same amount of time I call. However, most often I bet/raise more often then I call, many times I bet/raise nearly twice as much as when I call. I play about 20% of my starting hands, although sometimes it is higher, between 20% and 30%. When I feel I have the best hand on the board, I always go after it and try to win it right there, not willing to allow someone to draw out on me without paying for it. I believe I am an aggressive player, although it is probably more accurate for someone else to determine that. Granted, you have never seen me play, however what do you think based on the information I provided you? By the way, you have a great site. I check it every day. I love the FAQ's and use the 4/2 Rule for calculating odds all of the time. Thanks for all of your time on the site.

Don Zanelotti

Answer: Thanks for the question, Don -- good timing, I just got done with another question on aggressive play.

On the online poker site stats, I wouldn't give them too much attention. There are so many different ways you win on a day-to-day basis playing poker that it would be hard to find an average for what are "good stats." Sometimes you may only have a couple key pots in a day that make you a big winner, other days you may have tons of small pots.

Some days you may have AK or AA a dozen times, other days not at all. There is nothing that says you will have an even distribution of good hands over your poker sessions. The most important stat is if you are leaving with more money than you started with; if you are consistently doing that, you are doing something right.

As for what type of player you are, I would be careful not to get stuck on labels. When I was first starting to play, I felt trapped by what I assumed was play a "tight aggressive" player would do. Any moves that didn't seem to coincide with that concept I missed out on. The problem is that labels are too rigid, coarse and general to be useful on a hand-by-hand basis; instead, you need a more relative, fine grained approach to poker where your skills allow you to play correctly even if from the outside it looks strange:

For example, calling someone's bet on the river with Ace high or bottom pair when you think you have the best hand. Your experience at the table should be held more highly than anything else, including what you are reading here. Question everything because then you know the "why's" and you become a strong player that can adapt instead of using a knee-jerk reactions (not that you are now, but like I mentioned above, I felt very much in that situation when I first started to play).

More than one person now has emailed me about aggression and I get the sense that what I have written here has lead people to believe that checking and calling aren't good plays, which couldn't be farther from the truth. You need to be able to use whatever move is best geared to the hand. Sometimes a check and call is your best move, sometimes a raise is.

The correct move is always about balancing risk and reward. I can think of a lot of examples where I might even play weakly instead of strong because I'll end up making more money. For example, I might check and call with top pair weak kicker from the big blind against a good player because I know if I check raise, he will fold a worse and only call me with a better one. If I check and call I'll get him the whole way and minimize my risk if he does have me beat already.