AAA (Aggression And Adaptation)

September 26, 2005

I just finished watching an episode of Celebrity Poker Showdown and was so appalled by the poor play once it got down to two players that I had to write about it. It appeared that neither player really knew how to play well, but one of them had no chance to win. Most of the time he limped to see the flop and when he did raise it was a minimum raise. After the flop if he didn’t hit anything he would check and fold to any bet. He was not aggressive at all. Finally he just moved in pre flop a few times, but was so far behind that he quickly was finished.

Effective heads up play has as much to do with how you play your opponent as it does with how you play your actual cards. Aggressive play, especially pre flop, is often rewarded. After the flop, often the first player to show aggression wins. Of course there are hands that aren’t worth battling over, and you should dump these hands before the flop. Minimum raises are for the most part worthless, unless you have a dominant hand. However, the best players will recognize patterns and will not often fall for a minimum bet when you are trying to trap. I try to be very aggressive pre flop until my opponent shows me that he or she can adapt to my style of play. Unless your opponent holds a pair to your under cards, you still have a good chance to win. Even a 7 2 off suit will win 33% of the time against an A K off suit. If the 7 2 is suited, it pushes the chances to over 37%. In this example, your opponent doesn’t have to fold pre flop many times to make this a profitable situation. Of course you won’t find any opponents who will fold A K heads up, but you will find ones who fold hands as good as Q 7 to a raise. These opponents must get extremely lucky to have any chance to win a heads up battle with an aggressive player.

In closing, the next time you are fortunate enough to get in a heads up situation, turn on the aggression until your opponent adapts. If they do adapt, then you can adapt your style of play accordingly because you will understand how they are playing. Practice your aggression and adaptation and you will quickly improve your heads up game. Until next week, good luck at the tables!

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