Declining Aggression

Lou Krieger

If you took a poll of poker players and asked them whether they thought online poker or the brick-and-mortar variety was more aggressive, I'd venture to say that most respondents would come down on the side of online poker being the more aggressive of the two. Although there's plenty of room for disagreement, there'd also be loads of anomalies just based on the nature of the players even if there were some perfect way to determine which kind of game was more aggressive.

I play a lot of hold'em online, and if you ask my opinion, I'd tell you that in the mid-limit games that I play, and those include $10-$20, $15-$30, $20-$40, and $30-$60 as well as the hold'em segments of mid-limit HORSE games, poker in cyberspace seem to be more aggressive than games at the same limits in brick and mortar casinos.

Anyway, that's my opinion. It's not scientific. I didn't take a survey. It's just anecdotal - one man's opinion. But I think it's easier for players to be aggressive online because they are not subject to the constraints that occur when you look other players in the eye and know when they see you acting a bit friskier than you ought to be. It's probably also the reason online players call too much. There are no other live players to serve as speed governors.

But it's transient aggression. I see it all the time. I come into a pot for a raise and someone else comes in for three bets by reraising. I'll call his raise but check when the flop misses me. When another blank comes on the turn I'll either come out betting or raise my opponent because I'm putting him on two overcards and my raise tells him that I'm the guy with the big hand, not him.

If he three-bets the turn, I'm outta there, but usually he will fold and I'll type something like "good laydown" in the chat box. Sometimes I'll type "just a pair of treys" which, of course, usually convinces him that I had a pocket pair of aces.

If my opponent is the aggressor from early position- let's say he limped in and then reraised from early position-he'll always come out betting regardless of what flops. I'll call or even raise if the flop looks like the kind that missed both of us. Often all it takes is for me to come out betting the turn to cause him to release his hand. When players are often overly aggressive before the flop they can't have a powerhouse hand every time they raise. Sure, sometimes they go on a real rush and make hand after hand, but usually they speed around far too much, and even they realize they have to fold when someone plays back at them.

This kind of early aggression that turns into declining aggression on later betting rounds is very common online, and you can take advantage of it if you don't over do it. By positioning yourself in your opponent's mind as a very selective player, you can take advantage of early declining aggression by forcing your opponent to fold the weakfish hands he bluffs with too often.

There's money to be made there, and every time you play correctly by folding your weak hands, you're even supporting your selectively aggressive strategy because your opponent sees you fold. After a while, he'll begin to see you as a frequent folder. And compared to his style of play, you are. But if you dial in this play at the right frequency-so that your opponent continues to buy it-you can bet or checkraise him at the right opportunity with little more than a better knowledge of his playing style than he has of yours.

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