Aggression in higher NL Cashgames

January 25 2009, Julien Nuijten

Pretty much every poker player who has been playing profitable poker for a while on low limits ($50NL -$200NL) will eventually want more and will move up to higher limits. Since the ratio of bad players to winning players becomes more unpropitious as you move up in limits, you will need to extract more money from the few regular bad players in order to maintain a similar winrate as the one you had on the lower limits.

Therefore, when playing my usual limit (1000NL), I spend more time analyzing the players that I run into often at these tables than trying to optimize my game against the fish that only come around every now and then. It is good for your bankroll and helps you to improve as a poker player in general if you keep adjusting to the players that you play 10,000 hands against every month. In this article I will be discussing the preflop and postflop (over)aggressiveness that you will encounter when playing against regulars on higher limits, and how you can adjust to these players.

It is becoming very apparent that, on the higher limits, players are becoming more and more aggressive. Aggression is fundamental when trying to play profitable poker, and more and more players start to understand this. The percentage of hands that a winning player will raise preflop in general lies between 12%-25%, and between 25%-40% in late position.

As a result, the preflop hand values are, on average, a lot lower than compared to a passive low-limit game. You will often be ahead preflop with a hand like A-J, but at the same time you get less implied odds when playing hands like low pocket pairs or suited connectors, as your opponents will not be holding premium hands all the time with which they would usually pay you off.

This leads to the creation of something that you don't really see that often in low limit games, namely a 3-betting game. As a result, hands that are often hard to play profitably when taking a passive line become much easier to play, especially now that we know that we don't need JJ+ to reraise and we get paid off more when we actually do have those sort of hands. On the other hand, there will also be a lot more expensive mistakes being made if you play more big pots.

Two general examples of situations in which we want to 3-bet: one player who raises 34% of his hands in late position opens for 3x the BB on the button. The rest of the players fold and you wake up in the big blind holding 55. If you don't hit with this hand on the flop, it is almost impossible to play this hand profitably out of position. If we do flop a set, we probably won't get more than a continuation bet out of our opponent since he's playing a wide range of hands that often miss the flop. Now imagine the same player opens and we get AJ on the big blind. This is a very troublesome hand to play out of position when you hit the flop, but we do again have a hand with value, and are pretty far ahead compared to the range of our opponent.

A logical solution in both situations is to 3-bet your opponent. Some players will react correctly to this, but especially the regulars who come from the lower limits and aren't used to the constant 3-betting are the ones who make mistakes in these situations. What often happens is that opponents get fed up with constantly being reraised when they themselves are holding a marginal hand, and then they start calling more and more weak hands to see a flop.

Principally this is not even wrong, as we ourselves are often holding weaker hands as well, but its after the flop when things often start going wrong. There are many players who will often call a 3-bet with a suited connector or a low pocket pair, but by the time you see the flop you have already invested such a big part of your stack that you will be forced to play back aggressively more often instead of just hoping to flop a set or a good draw.

A much better way to play back at these players is to fold a lot of these marginal hands, or make a small 4-bet bluff, and see more flops with hands that you can play for stacks postflop against a wider range. Hands like 99, TT, JJ, KQ, AQ and AJ can now more comfortably be played for stacks if you hit a top-pair type flop. A recommended range with which to 4-bet and go all-in with when holding a stack of 100BB is often QQ+ and AK, although in certain situation you could even extend this range.

You should bear in mind though to not 4-bet with hands that might have value in a 3-bet pot, but with which you are not prepared to go all-in with preflop. You are basically giving up all the value of your hand and are turning it into a bluff. Sometimes it is also necessary to just call a 3-bet with hands like QQ+ and AK to keep these hands in your range in 3-bet pots, especially if you raised from early position and you're not sure whether you want to play for your entire stack holding AK or QQ.

A special situation in which you can 3-bet is when a player opens and another player flatcalls his raise. This is also referred to as a squeeze play. This play gets better the wider the ranges of your opponents are, as they are more likely to fold their hand. The most common situation for this sort of 3-bet is if an aggressive player opens and a weak, passive player calls the raise. You will only get action from a small percentage of the initial raisers' range, because he knows that if he calls, he will often get involved in a 3-handed pot, which makes it very difficult for him to play back at the squeezer.

There is also not much room for a 4-bet bluff, as that would often require too much of his stack, which would make it almost impossible for him to fold to an all-in. The player who originally flatcalled the raise is already representing weakness by just calling. If he then does decide to call your 3-bet, he is likely to fold to a continuation bet on the flop, because you are getting a lot of respect for your large reraise, although you are actually doing this with a wide range of hands. Because the blinds get presented with a very good stealing opportunity when a player on the button only calls a late position raise, I usually play my hands very aggressively here. Hereby you avoid getting squeezed out of the pot, and it is especially difficult to play back at someone who constantly reraises you in position.

Playing the 'preflop 3-bet game' does, however, require you to make some adjustments to your postflop game. Your range is now fairly large, so you can't just keep on C-betting every flop. Try to figure out how every player at your table handles your 3-bets, what hands they call you with, and with that information, try to figure out whether or not the flop has a good texture. You should also generally bet a smaller percentage of the pot than what you're used to, seeing as you have already invested roughly 12% of your stack preflop (assuming you start with 100BB). It Is easy to get your money in on 3 streets, and you lose less when your opponent decides to play back at you.

Apart from the preflop aggression, you also encounter a lot more aggression postflop, especially in 2-bet heads-up pots. Everyone is aware that the preflop aggressor often C-bets the flop, and many players react to this by playing back at them. This brings us back to needing less of a hand to play back at our opponent, which again leads to hands with some showdown value playing bigger pots that is usually the case at lower limits.

There are also quite a few over-aggressive opponents, who see every sign of weakness as a chance to pick up the pot. Against these sorts of players it can often be more profitable to take a passive line. It can sometimes be irritating to play against these opponents, surely when out of position, because your opponent is sitting in the drivers seat and can force you to make difficult decisions. But as long as it's not and extremely good player, he will often end up making mistakes with this sort of play by trying to bluff too many hands, because it's hard for him to put you on a good hand.

When playing against the average aggressive regular, it is also essential not to C-bet too much. It is expected of you to fire out a continuation bet after you completely miss the flop, and if you do this less than he expects you to, opponents will often react aggressively. There are also many flops where your hand might have some good showdown value, but there is still more value in checking than betting.

One example of this is on a board. In this situation, you will rarely get value from just a pair of queens on all 3 streets. However, if you check the flop, you will often get value from a middle-pair type hand, because you show a lot of weakness on the flop. You do have to make sure, however, to not only do this with hands with which you can win showdowns, but also include hands in this range with which you missed the flop completely. It can be unfortunate at times, since a flop like this has a good texture for a continuation bet, but if we don't do this, our opponent can easily adjust by just never betting out the turn without a made hand. You also don't necessarily have to give up the hand if you check behind with a missed hand.

Against players who realize that you not C-betting on the flop doesn't automatically mean that you missed the flop, you can still try and pick up the pot with a C-bet on the turn (delayed C-bet), if he checks again. To him it seems like we have a weak made hand, seeing as we play the same line as we would if we were holding QQ here.

This all becomes a lot more troublesome if the board has more drawing possibilities; if there are more bad cards on the turn. In these situations it is important to know how your opponent plays his draws on this specific flop. If, in general, he likes to take over the initiative with his draws by semi-bluff raising the flop, you could still go for a check, also because a player who will check-raise the flop with a weak draw will often bet on the turn as well. If you think he's going for a more passive line, it is often best to immediatley bet out yourself, seeing as you are less scared of having to fold a hand with showdown value.

When out of position, all of this becomes even more difficult. It is easier to let hands go that don't have any value, seeing as many player often (semi)bluffraise when they're in position, but it is a lot more difficult to play hands with showdown value passively and hand yourself over to the aggression of your opponent. It then depends on how often your opponent will put through pure bluffs on all 3 streets, and how often he will turn his made hand into a bluff, or you can chose the check-call option. You also can't just turn your hand into a bluff that easily when a scare card hits the turn, which would be a lot easier f you were the aggressor.

Another way of making use of his aggression is by often checkraising, with a mix of very strong hands and bluffs. I think that many players, including myself, don't checkraise the turn and river often enough, although we can expect our aggressive opponent to take over the initiative in many spots if we check to them. The most common situation where you can checkraise the turn is if you think your opponent is floating you on the flop: he calls your continuation bet to bet on the turn if you check. He thinks you will C-bet the flop with a lot missed hands, and then he tries to steal the pot on the turn as soon as you show signs of weakness.

A check-raise on the turn is a big sign of strength, as you represent a hand with which you want to play for stacks, seeing as you have already invested half of your chips. Therefore there is a good chance that your opponent will fold, but it can also turn into an expensive investment. I therefore recommend you only do this with monsters or bluffs with which you still have a number of outs.

Checkraising on the river is a little bit more complicated. You don't only have to know when your opponent is making a thin valuebet, you also need to focus on your own line and think about what hands you can represent. If the way you played your hand seems illogical to your opponent, you will often be called. This can obviously work to your advantage as well if you take on really weird lines with monster hands. Bear in mind that in many cases where you think you have the best hand, it is still not always a good idea to raise. Many hands lose their showdown value if you push them too hard, as you will only be called by hands that have you beat.

I hope I managed to give you some new ideas. Poker is a game that you learn best by playing, and I think that if you play against aggressive players often enough, it will always become easier to identify the spots I described in this article. Try out one or two things, and don't be scared to try out new things against a couple of regulars.

Success

Julien Nuijten

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