Playing Medium Strength Hands vs Aggressive Opponents
Aggressive Poker Opponents
Loose aggressive players will play a lot of hands and hence it can be hard to put them on a range of hands because they play any two cards. Instead of trying to put them on a hand range, a good poker strategy to use against them is to sit to the left of them so you have position, tighten up your starting hand range, and wait for a spot where they overplay a mediocre hand or make some stupid bluff.
If you are the preflop raiser, you should be less willing to continuation bet when you miss the flop. Aggressive players will defend against cbets particularly on dry flops when they know you are cbetting with nothing, and if they don’t check raise out of position they will often call your flop bet with a weak holding.
Playing weak/strong hands are straight forward against aggressive opponents (the same can be said against most opponents really). Don’t play back against them when you miss the flop, allow them to win the small pots. If you have a strong hand which is not susceptible to being outdrawn, then it can make sense to slow play the hand.
However, the topic of this article is playing medium strength hands which can be tougher to play against loose aggressive players because they are vulnerable to aggression.
The concept of pot control is important to understand when playing medium strength hands against loose aggressive players. There are different ways to apply pot control, but the most common scenario is when you check behind on the turn to eliminate one round of betting.
Although you risk giving a free card and possibly getting outdrawn, when playing against loose aggressive players the advantages of pot control are greater then the possible negative consequences because you minimize the risk of folding the best hand if the aggressive poker players decides to check raise as a bluff.
Also, by checking behind on the turn you show weakness and may induce a bluff on the river when they miss their draws or turn their mediocre hands into a bluff.
There are many situations where its not possible to extract 3 streets of betting, especially against aggressive players who will often only have a weak hand. So instead of betting to protect your medium strength hand it can be more profitable to apply pot control to avoid tought spots and maximize your winnings on the river when the aggressive player is likely to bluff.
Here is an example of playing a medium strength vs a loose aggressive opponent.
Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
CO: $20.49 (82 bb)
Hero (BTN): $33.27 (133.1 bb)
SB: $26.24 (105 bb)
BB: $31.19 (124.8 bb)
MP: $28.66 (114.6 bb)
Pre-Flop: Hero is BTN with J
J
MP folds, CO raises to $1, Hero calls $1, SB folds, BB calls $0.75
Flop: ($3.10) Q
9
7 (3 players)
BB checks, CO bets $2, Hero calls $2, BB folds
Turn: ($7.10) 7 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks
River: ($7.10) T (2 players)
CO bets $6, Hero calls $6
Results: $19.10 pot ($0.95 rake)
CO showed 9 J (two pairs, Nines and Sevens) and lost (-$9 net)
Hero showed J J (two pairs, Jacks and Sevens) and won $18.15 ($9.15 net)
Villain is 37/21 over 20 hands so they were a loose aggresive player. It seemed like they were involved in every pot.
Preflop I guess there is the option of 3betting JJ to isolate the aggressive player in position but I decide to flat call and the loose passive player in the blinds calls as well.
On the flop the aggressive player who raised preflop makes a continuation bet. The flop was very coordinated and it was Q high, which isn’t great for my hand in a 3-way pot however considering the board was very coordinated and likely hit a piece of villains range, they were probably continuation betting with hands I was still beating, so I call.
The 7 comes on the turn which pairs the board, which didn’t change much and the aggressive player checked the turn. If the aggressive player had the Q, they would definitely be double barreling with the flush draw to protect their hand. They would take the same line if they made trips or were on a strong draw, so when they checked the turn I felt like they probably had a 9x hand or air which I was still ahead of.
I didn’t see much point in betting the turn even though I felt like I was ahead of their range, because I didn’t want the aggressive player to check raise the turn and make me fold a better hand. Also, if they had a 9x hand, by applying pot control on the turn, I can probably still extract two streets of betting because the aggressive player will sense weakness when I check back the turn.
When the T comes on the river, it completes some straight draws if they had 68/J8. Considering I have pocket jacks, them having J8 was unlikely. When you analyze the bet sizing, it really looks like it doesn’t want a call so I felt like they were bluffing with a worse hand in this spot and make the call with a medium strength hand.
