Tha last couple of days I've been thinking about aggression. One thing that I have noticed is that lately during the day (morning for you yanks), the level of aggression at the Prima tables has been insane. Just today I was at a table where 3 or 4 had PFA of over 10, and a few of the others where in the 2-6 range! I miss my loose/passive little fishes!

Still, everyone (at leats me) loves playing against a LAG since you tend to get paid off handsomely, but several of these players don't get their aggression that high by betting and calling, they get it by betting, raising or folding. The bastards. Basically, they're playing pretty good poker. Don't you just hate that?

Anyway... since aggression is one of the key factors in winning at poker I've decided to try and get as far as way from my inner loose/passive fish as possible, and I've been forcing myself to decide whether to bet, raise or fold... and keeping my finger off the call buton unless I have a draw in a multiway pott and have the odds to draw.

I just checked my PT stats for the last two sessions and they look like this (stats inside paranthesis are my stats month up until these sessions):

PFR: 6.58 (4.34)

PFA
Flop: 4.56 (2.83)
Turn: 10.67 (4.13)
River: 12 (4.24)
----------------
Total: 6.14


Obviously the sample size is way too small to say whether this is good or not, but it sure is a lot of fun, I learn a lot and it feels more like good poker.

This is something I need to work on as well. Just curious, have you changed your starting hand requirements at all in? Or is it just betting out if you would be willing to call a bet. What does your VPiP look like? Is bluffing/semi-bluffing more a part of your game now than before?

-80

I have changed my starting hands only slightly, playing more speculative hands in late position. This includes un-suited one-gappers but not total junk. I never play Ax for example. My vpip is up to 26 but some of the tables were shorthanded for a while.

Instead of calling I now tend to bet/raise or fold unless it's a multiway pot and I am getting the odds. The thing to realise is that folding is an aggressive move. Three hands today that would show the difference:

I complete in the SB with A9s. Pot is 6 or 7 handed. Flop comes AQ6 with none in my suit. I check, LP bets and gets a caller, I fold. LP bets turn and EP caller folds so I don't see what they had, but I chose not to defend TP no kicker... earlier I might have.

QJo in LP. Flop comes J8x with two in one suit. UTG bets and gets a caller, I fold. Turns out UTG was betting the flush draw and the other guy calling down with an 8.

I have 65s and limp in MP. Pot is 8 handed. Flop comes K5x with Kx in my suit. SB leads, I make a BIG re-raise, get a caller. Turn completes my flush, I push all-in, he folds.


I guess it's a bit weak/tight sometimes, but I'm trying to not play defense in multiway pots with marginal holdings. I'd much rather have a draw than a finished hand as weak as top pair no kicker.

The question is, how much aggression is too much?