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Preflop Basics – Taking control with aggression

Now that you have a handle on starting hand selection, you already have an edge in most microstakes games. If you’re looking to drastically increase that edge, and consequentially your profits, learning to use preflop aggression properly is key.

Preflop aggression is often regarded as the first ’secret concept’ of poker strategy. This may seem like a bold statement. A ’secret concept’… How cheesy. Surely, lots of players know about preflop aggression, particularly those playing higher limits.

But secret in this case is not meant in the sense that the concept is kept hidden from the poker masses. Secret here simply means that most microstakes players either don’t care enough to learn the concept, or aren’t smart enough to grasp it.

That being said, it’s obvious that you are capable of learning it. You obviously care about maximizing your profits, or else you wouldn’t be reading this. From that, I am willing to infer that you are also smart enough to learn and apply the concept to your play.

You will therefore be able to add to your poker toolbox a potent weapon, one which your opponents will have no idea how to handle. Your expected value on all plays will increase dramatically, and your opponents’ mistakes will be magnified to a large degree.

Ready to pick the money up off of the table? Read on…

Why employ aggressive play preflop?

Why? simple. Because your opponents will have no idea how to handle you. It is critical for you as a player to understand who you are up against at the tables. The average microstakes player is not playing to win- he is playing to gamble.The average microstakes player wants to see a flop, hoping to hit some miraculous combination of cards against all the odds.

The average microstakes player wants to know that he is lucky, not that he is good. It follows that the average microstakes player is not thinking rationally about his decisions, and this is why you will succeed by using aggression to your advantage.

Most players at low limit tables will see a raise, and think one of two things (sometimes both):

1.    “This guy is raising… He’s got aces. Better fold.”
2.    “Woo hoo, look at all that cash in the pot, if I hit my cards I’ll win big! Can’t fold now.”

You’d be surprised at how often, even repeatedly over the stretch of only 20 or 30 hands, the same player will assess your raise as option 1. The true gamblers won’t even think about the possibility of option 1, and will choose option 2. Both are great outcomes for you.

In general, you will raise for 3 reasons:

1) To take control of the hand:

This is key. When you raise, it will be assumed by all players that you have at least a marginally good hand. Therefore, players will tend to switch to a more passive game, not getting fancy or tricky, allowing you to control the action. If you bet a flop after raising preflop, and get reraised by a caller, you can be pretty sure you’re beat.

Folding saves you a lot of money in this case, and the information you needed to asses a fold as the correct move came from your use of aggression. Being first to raise preflop also gives you the opportunity to size future bets appropriately given opponent behavior. This will prove to be useful, especially down the road in your progression as a player.

2) To maximize your value with your strong hands:

The rule is simple here- if you have a good hand, you want money in the pot. Lots of players love to limp their very strong pocket pairs in fear of everybody folding to a raise. This is irrational thinking. Limping strong hands means you are relying on your opponents getting “lucky”, hitting their cards, and paying you off.

However, if your opponent gets too lucky and flops a stronger hand than you, it will be you paying him off, not vice-versa. You are also risking winning only a very small pot by limping strong hands. Say none of your opponents hit anything on the flop, you bet with aces after limping preflop, and everyone folds. You win 5BBs. Fine, but you could have accomplished the same thing by raising preflop, with much less risk.

3) To steal small pots:

It has been said that all hands of poker begin as battles for the antes. Therefore, you should be happy winning only the blinds. Any pot is a good pot, and if nobody wants to play ball preflop, so be it- you get the blinds. The chances are though, that in microstakes games, you’ll end up with more than your share of callers to pay off your solid starting hands.

How does agression work continued in the next post