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Switching Gears

Adjusting the level of aggressiveness in your poker game is an essential part of becoming a successful poker player. It is important to know which players you can gain an edge against by playing aggressively and which player’s you need to be patient and play passively against. In it’s simplest form, switching gears just means changing from being passive to aggressive on occasion. For some of the great poker players, switching gears becomes an art form, especially in no-limit hold’em.

If a player was to maintain the same style of play throughout a tournament, his opponents would eventually learn how to exploit that player’s weaknesses. There would be very few opportunities for this type of player to induce mistakes from their opponents.

Here is an example of a common scenario where choosing the correct level of aggressiveness has allowed me to play optimally against certain opponents.

This begins with me raising a few pots in a row. On some occasions I may have good cards, on others I may be bluffing. At this point I have raised perhaps 6 of the last 8 hands. Throughout these hands, I become aware that my ability to bluff is quickly diminishing. Eventually it will reach a point where I know that I will need to have a hand because I will not likely be able to bluff anyone successfully. This is usually helped by turning over 1 large bluff after raising continuously. Doing this will confirm to everyone that I have indeed been running them over with garbage cards.

In this scenario, if I am then able to get some good cards, it is important to continue to play aggressively. I will usually even go into a hyper-aggressive gear at this point. This is a spot where my opponents will begin to make large mistakes because of their perception of me. When a player decides that he is not going to allow me to raise any more, and I am then able to pick up a better hand than him, he is sure to lose a lot of money.

It’s a great feeling to look down and see pocket aces after you just showed the table a few big bluffs.

I used to tell a friend of mine that no matter how often I am bluffing, if I ever raise 4 pots in a row, I will always have a monster hand when I raise the 4th time. This is because a player can sometimes get away with bluffing 2-3 hands in a row, but the 4th hand tends to be the point at which opponents will lose respect for their raises. Anytime that you raise several hands in a row, it is important to adjust your aggressiveness according to your hand strength in the subsequent hands.

To continue with the original scenario…now that you have successfully bulldozed through a few of your opponents with some aggressive play, the other players will likely begin to try and set traps for you. If you are able to recognize these spots and switch gears, you can take full advantage of some of the mistakes that your opponents will begin to make by compensating for you.

For example, if you hold a drawing hand and your opponent plans to check-raise you on the flop, you can elect to take a free card to try and draw out. When this happens, you will have forced your opponent to play the hand in a way that is far from optimal.