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LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE GAMES
(Play-money Poker)

You should have gone onto the Internet and joined one of the play-money poker games. You would have found at its most aggressive-raising wars with raises frequently capped, people having bet heavily on the flimsiest of cards, and no caution being shown when scary cards had appeared on the board. Of course, everyone could have afforded to be aggressive because the money had been truly meaningless there hadn’t been any.

Play-money poker would be an extreme example of a loose-aggressive game. The defining features would be a lot of betting and raising with little consideration of the cards. Loose-aggressive poker players would be there for the competition. They would also be the people who like to gamble. Play-money poker would be a good approximation of loose-aggressive games, because for loose aggressive poker players, money would be something they play with. Part of the thrill would be unnerving the other players with their lack of caution towards money. Often it would take one or two loose-aggressive players to turn an entire table into loose-aggressive play. Everyone would start throwing money around to show that the aggressive poker player couldn’intimidate them. Soon the whole table would be on a tilt.

STRATEGIES

Strategic Considerations for Loose-aggressive Games

Primary reasons for the game – entertainment, competition.

Money – no one cares.

Competitiveness – high.

Safe Assumptions:

Your cards

You would always have to pay dearly to get to the river in loose-aggressive poker games. Often you would have to pay dearly just to see the flop. You should ascertain your cards are worth it. If you wouldn’t have raised with the cards you have had, you shouldn’t call because you should assume that someone would raise later on.

Position

Position would be important but in a different way. What would count would be your seat in relation to the aggressive poker players. Many poker books would advise you to sit so that aggressive poker players would be on your right,which means that they will act before you do. By acting after an aggressive poker player, you would have better knowledge of the cost to play your cards. If the aggressive player chooses to stay in the hand, you should fold all but your strongest cards because it would cost too much to play speculative hands. While this would be true, in Sid’s experience, there would also be advantages to having loose-aggressive poker players on your left and having them act after you. You should assume from the beginning that the aggressive player would bet and only play your strong cards.

But you should only bet those strong cards if you would have to. In most cases, you should hold back and let the aggressive poker player bet for you.

You should check when it’s your turn and either call or raise the bet when the action would come back. The other poker players would often pay to chase a loose-aggressive poker player when they would don't pay to chase you.

Number of players

Generally more than half the poker players would have seen the flop no matter how many pre-flop raises there would have been. Often, raises would have goaded loose-aggressive players into staying in the hand rather than driven them out. The more action, the more they would have felt compelled to play. They would have hated to be left out.

Playing styles would be aggressive. You should plan on calling raises before and after the flop. Seeing the raver card would always be expensive. The other poker player on marginal and speculative hands would wager big money.

Most Important Factor

Cost

You should ascertain you would get the correct pot odds when you would throw your money out. There would be a constant temptation to gamble. In some situations of poker, it would have been correct to gamble because there would have been so much money on the table that any draw would have been playable. Other times, the same draw should have to be folded because the money at stake would have been too small.

Frustrating Features of Loose-aggressive poker Games:

No action on your best hands

You have flopped a monster boat and you are getting no callers. Your highest-ranking hands of the playing session may generate little income.

Blinds can whittle away your chip pile

Pots being so small they often wouldn’t generate enough income to replenish your blinds. A big win to get yourself firmly in the black would be hard to come by. Worse, if you were falling behind, it would be hard to catch up.

A Common Mistake

Becoming too tight yourself

With so little money in each pot, there would be temptation not to bet your moderate hands. It would be common in these poker games to see head-to-head playing where no bets would be made. The two poker players would check to each other while the dealer would run the rest of the cards. Their thinking would be, why risk anything for such a small pot? The problem would be you would not be making money with this kind of passive play. If you were to have a decent hand, you should bet.

Strategy:

Make little wins add up

The key would be to counter the general passivity with careful aggression. ‘Careful’ would be a strange adjective for aggression, but you would need a good poker sense to know when to be aggressive. Because the poker players would only play good cards, unrestrained aggression would not necessarily intimidate them. But if you were to establish yourself as a tight poker player by being in a few hands and showing good cards early on, whenever you were to sense weakness or hesitation from the opposition, you should go for the pot, even it were to be small. You have to steal a few small pots in these kinds of games or you would never cover your blinds. Knowing how to play your position would be key. It would be risky to bet ahead of tight poker players when you were to have marginal cards.

If you were to act first and bet a marginal hand and a rock solid poker player were to call or raise, it would be time to fold. However, if you were holding the same marginal hand in last position and the rock solid players were to check to you, a bet would often win the pot outright. In both these cases your cards may have been the same, but your position would have determined which play would have been profitable. Typically in tight-passive poker games, there would not be much money on the table.

An extreme tight-passive poker player would buy-in for the table minimum and would guard his chips, putting money in the pot only when they would have a lock. You couldn’t possibly win money in the pot only when they have would have a lock. You couldn’t possibly win money that would not be in play and you certainly couldn’t win more money than were on the table.

If you were to see three or more players at a table behaving in this manner, you should consider finding another game. Your profit potential would be limited and if you did fall behind, you would have no hopes of catching up.