Playing against aggressive poker players can be a frustrating experience.
While you should aim to play aggressive poker yourself, it’s annoying when you’re the one on the receiving end of aggression from your opponents.
This is especially true if they have position on you. In these cases, fighting back can often seem like a losing battle.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to deal with constant aggression from your opponents, and more importantly, how you can actually use it to your advantage to make more profits at the poker tables.
1. Call Down Aggressive Poker Players With a Wider Range
The basic strategy to beat aggressive poker players is simple: use their aggression against them.
This means that you shouldn’t try to fight their aggression with mindless aggression of your own (for the most part).
Of course, there will be times when the best course of action will be to fight back (more on that below).
But for the most part, the best way to beat them is to learn how to make their aggression their weakness, instead of their strength.
The easiest and most effective way to do that is to call them down with a wider range than you normally would.
If you’ve read a bit about the winning poker strategy, you know that calling is usually a losing play, and generally the last option you should consider in a given spot.
As the old saying goes, if it’s good enough for a call, it’s good enough for a raise.
There is some wisdom in that, but there will obviously be spots where calling will be the most +EV play. And one of these spots is playing against aggressive players.
We’ll break down why calling with a wide range can be an effective strategy in more detail, but here’s the general idea:
a) calling with a wider range sometimes allows you to take down the pot on future streets.
This strategy is called floating. To float means to call with the intention of taking down the pot on future streets if and when your opponent seems to give up the pot.
a) calling allows you to bluff catch against aggressive players.
As the name suggests, to bluff catch means to call (usually with a mediocre hand) in spots where your opponent is likely to have a lot of bluffs in their range.
c) calling allows you to trap your opponent with a strong hand.
Playing a strong hand passively (i.e. checking and calling instead of betting and raising) in order to conceal your hand strength is called slowplaying.
Slowplaying can be a very effective strategy against aggressive players.
Check out Nathan's recent video on how to easily spot if your opponents is bluffing you.
Now we'll take a closer look into each of these strategies to see why they're so effective.
2. Float Aggressive Poker Players in Position
Floating in position is one of the easiest ways to use your opponent’s aggression against them.
To float in position means to call your opponent’s bet with the intention of taking down the pot on future streets with a bluff.
This is one example of where calling down with a wider range can work against aggressive opponents.
The point is calling with hands you might not usually be comfortable with calling (i.e. weak draws, second or third pairs, or even Ace-high type of hands).
The point is calling with hands you might not usually be comfortable with calling (i.e. weak draws, second or third pairs, or even Ace-high type of hands).
It’s worth noting that this strategy can work against aggressive players, but you shouldn’t use it as a default.
In fact, calling too much and with too wide of a range is one of the biggest amateur poker mistakes a lot of players make.
The difference here, however, is the intention with which you are calling.
While some recreational players call with the intention of hitting their miracle draw, or because they overvalue certain hands, floating has a different intention behind it.
Floating is done with the intention of taking down the pot with a bluff if and when your opponent seems to give up their aggression on future street.
Therefore, floating is a more calculated move than simply calling and hoping to get lucky with your miracle draw.
As useful as floating can be, you shouldn’t just do it every time with just about any random hand.
It’s better to do it with at least some sort of hand equity to fall back on. The more hand equity you have, the more +EV floating becomes.
Also, floating is more profitable if your opponent is likely to have a lot of bluffs in their range.
For example, it’s better to float the flop when the board is dry than it is to float the turn when the board is wet and coordinated.
Example of a dry, uncoordinated flop:
K♥8♣3♦
Example of a wet, coordinated flop:
Q♠T♥9♠
The drier the board texture, the less likely it is that your opponent connected with the board in some meaningful way.
If you have a ton of equity in a certain spot, you can consider raising instead of just flat calling.
For example, if you have a really strong draw (like a nut flush draw or an open-ended straight draw) consider raising instead of flat calling.
The stronger your draw, the more inclined you should be to play it fast.
Playing a strong draw aggressively is a form of semibluffing, which is also an effective strategy to use against aggressive players.
Semibluffing means betting and raising without a made hand, but with the potential of making a strong hand on future streets if your semibluff gets called.
Whether to semibluff or to float is a judgment call, and it depends on a variety of factors. But as a general rule, the more hand equity you have, the more inclined you should be to play your hand fast (i.e. bet and raise).
If you have very poor equity, it may be best to just give up the hand altogether, especially if your opponent is likely to keep barreling on future streets.
Example Hand #1
You are dealt 8♦7♦ on the BU (button).
A loose and aggressive player open-raises to 3x from the CO (cutoff).
You call. The blinds fold.
Pot: 7.5 BB
Flop: K♠6♥2♦
Villain bets 3 BB.
You: ???
You should call.
This is a textbook spot where floating can work well. Let’s break the action.
Preflop you have a standard flat call with a decent speculative hand. You’re playing on the button, meaning you’ll have the positional advantage throughout the hand.
You missed the flop, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you should give up the hand altogether.
This is a perfect spot to try a float.
The board is fairly dry, and the villain fires a standard continuation bet.
A continuation bet (or a c-bet for short) is a bet made by the previous street’s aggressor.
The villain could have missed the flop just as easily as you, which means they have quite a few bluffs in their range.
If you flat call and the villain checks the turn, you can fire a simple half-pot bet and take down the pot, regardless of your hand strength.
You also have some sort of hand equity, which makes continuing the hand more profitable.
You have a backdoor straight and a backdoor flush draw, meaning that a lot of turn cards will give you additional equity.
A backdoor draw means you need both a turn and a river card to complete your straight.
If you pick up some equity on the turn and the villain double barrels (i.e. fires a turn c-bet), you can either float again, or even consider raising as a semibluff.
As you can see, playing in position gives you a lot of flexibility and plenty of options to choose from.
There’s more than one way to win the pot, and you don’t necessarily need to rely on your hand strength alone to win.
Check out Modern Small Stakes for tons more advanced poker strategies just like this.
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3. Bluff Catch Against Aggressive Poker Players
Good aggressive poker players will likely balance their ranges well. To have a balanced range means to have an optimal ratio of bluffs and value hands in your range.
When you have a balanced range, your opponents will have a hard time putting you on your exact hands, and they’ll constantly need to guess at your hand strength.
This means they can’t exploit you, i.e. take advantage of your certain playing tendencies.
It’s worth mentioning, however, that very few players are perfectly balanced in every spot.
Everyone has leaks in their game, and while it’s useful to be aware of the concept, very few players play perfectly balanced in practice.
So how does this relate to playing against aggressive players?
Well, aggressive players can be frustrating to play against, because you often won’t be able to put them on the exact hand.
Even if someone’s bluffing a lot, they can still wake up with a monster hand from time to time.
With that in mind, calling down with a wider range can still be a good strategy if your opponents tend to be overly aggressive in certain spots. That’s because they’re likely to have a decent amounts of bluffs in their range.
As a general rule, the more aggressive the player, the more bluffs they will have in their range.
So one of the best ways to use their aggression against them is to try to catch their bluffs.
This is usually done with mediocre hands that aren’t strong enough to value bet with.
This is usually done with mediocre hands that aren’t strong enough to value bet with.
Of course, you don’t want to go overboard with this strategy and call them down with Ace-high all the time.
If you do that, decent players who are paying attention will adjust accordingly and stop bluffing you altogether.
The point is to try to bluff catch when it’s likely that your opponent has a significant amount of bluffs in their range.
In order to figure out if that’s the case, you have to think about the hand from their perspective, and think about all the potential hands they could be holding.
When thinking about your opponent’s range, a lot of players make the mistake of only thinking about hands that have them beat, and fail to consider all the possible hands they’re actually ahead of.
This is the secret to successful bluff catching: to think about your opponent’s ENTIRE range, not just the hands you’re ahead of or just the one that have you beat.
For more details about what goes into successfull bluff catching, see the Microstakes Playbook.
4. Slowplay Against Aggressive Poker Players
One final way to use your opponent’s aggression against them is to slowplay your big hands.
To slowplay means to play your hand passively (i.e. check and call) in order to conceal your hand strength.
Aggressive players love to push players out of pots if and when they sense weakness from them. One of the ways to take advantage of that is to feign weakness and allow them to donate their money to you.
This can be especially effective if they are the ones that have the initiative (i.e. they were the previous street’s aggressor) because this often means that they’ll continue barreling as a default and build up the pot for you.
By checking and calling, you’re essentially allowing them to beat themselves, and they do all the work for you.
The trick is to be patient and wait for a monster hand to trap them with.
Once you do get it, it’s important to keep your composure and actually play it passively.
A lot of players make the mistake by suddenly blasting off big bets when they get a monster hand, fearing they won’t get paid off if they just slowplay.
A lot of players make the mistake by suddenly blasting off big bets when they get a monster hand, fearing they won’t get paid off if they just slowplay.
If you’re confident in your assessment of a certain player (i.e. you know for a fact they’re too aggressive), it’s important to trust your judgment and let them do what they’re going to do.
All you have to do is wait.
You should be on the lookout for speculative hands that can see the flop with favourable odds.
Speculative hands are the ones that aren’t strong enough in and of themselves, but have the potential of making strong combinations post flop, like straights, flushes, full houses etc.
Hands like suited connectors or small pocket pairs are examples of speculative hands.
Check out my recent article on EXACTLY which poker hands you should play and how to play them.
If you flop an absolute monster hand (like a full house, for example), slowplaying can be the best play because
a) you’re allowing your opponents to catch up on future streets hand-strength-wise and
b) you’re allowing them to potentially try to bluff you.
Example Hand #2
Cash game, effective stack size: 100 BB
You are dealt 7♥7♦ in the SB (small blind).
A loose and aggressive player open-raises to 3x from UTG (under the gun).
You call. Big blind calls.
Pot: 9 BB
Flop: K♣7♠3♥
You: ???
You should check-call.
This is a great spot to slowplay and let your opponent build up the pot for you.
You flopped a middle set, and you almost certainly have the best hand. The only hand that has you beat is pocket Kings, but this is only a very small part of your opponent’s overall range.
If you check, you can expect your opponent to c-bet with a very high frequency.
Then you have the option to either call or raise.
While an argument can be made for check-raising here, check-calling is likely a more +EV play.
By check-calling, you’re allowing the other player from the big blind to continue the hand and build up the pot for you even more.
You’re also allowing the open-raiser to keep barreling with their bluffs and build up the pot for you.
Finally, you’re also concealing your hand strength, so you can potentially get more action on later streets.
Depending on the turn card and how the action goes, you can then check-call again or even check-raise if the majority of the effective stack size is already in the pot.
Note: against other types of players, check-raising the flop may actually be a better play than check-calling.
But in this particular example, slowplaying allows you to trap your opponents and use their aggression against them.
Important caveat: slowplaying can be an effective strategy in certain spots, but you should avoid doing it just for the sake of being deceptive.
If you’re playing against recreational players, for example, your best bet is to actually avoid slowplaying altogether.
This is discussed in more detail in many advanced poker training programs.
That’s because most recreational players tend to play passively, so you can’t rely on them to build the pot for you.
Instead, keep things simple and value bet your strong hand relentlessly against them, as they’re likely to call you down with an insanely wide range.
The exception to this rule would be wild and crazy maniacs who like to spew chips left and right. Against them, slowplaying can be a viable strategy.
5. Play Back Against Aggressive Poker Players
Calling with a wider range is an effective tactic against aggressive players, because it uses their aggression against them.
However, sometimes this isn’t enough of a deterrent. There are times when you need to take it a step further and respond by playing aggressively yourself.
Now, this doesn’t mean you should fight aggression with a mindless aggression of your own. That’s like fighting fire with fire.
But a well-timed aggression from time to time can deter aggressive players, and will make them think twice before betting and raising you with impunity.
If you try this tactic, you should pick spots where they’re likely to have a lot of bluffs in their range.
Also, it should be used as a last resort, because you can’t win the pot otherwise.
It’s worth noting that this is a high risk, high reward tactic. Even though aggressive players might have a lot of bluffs in their range, it doesn’t mean they won’t have the stone-cold nuts (aka premiums) from time to time as well.
So if you decide to play back at them, be careful not to do it out of frustration or spite, as this is a recipe for disaster.
So if you decide to play back at them, be careful not to do it out of frustration or spite, as this is a recipe for disaster.
Playing against aggressive poker players can be frustrating, so it’s important to keep your cool and make sound, logical decisions at all times.
Now let’s take a look at a few spots where playing back against aggressive players might work.
6. 3-bet Light Against Aggressive Poker Players
Aggressive poker players will likely try to steal your blinds fairly frequently. Since playing in position is such a huge advantage, they will try to steal your blinds with quite a wide range.
To dissuade them from doing that, you should throw an occasional light 3-bet against them.
A light 3-bet preflop (or a 3-bet bluff) is a re-raise against another player’s open-raise made with the intention of getting the open-raiser to fold.
So when you’re light 3-betting, you’re looking to win the pot outright preflop.
Most hands in your opponent’s open-raising range from late positions aren’t strong enough to stand the pressure of a 3-bet, so 3-betting can be outright profitable in these spots.
Of course, you don’t want to 3-bet with just about any random hand. You should choose hands that have some sort of playability postflop in case your 3-bet gets called.
Example Hand #3
You are dealt A♥3♥ in the BB (big blind).
A loose and aggressive player open-raises to 2.5x from the BU (button).
You: ???
You should 3-bet to 10x.
This is a great spot for a light 3-bet. Based on your opponent type and their table position, they are likely open-raising with quite a wide range.
A lot of the hands in that range won’t stand the pressure of the 3-bet, so you can win the pot outright preflop.
Your hand also has great playability postflop.
Small suited Aces have great nuts potential, meaning they can make strong combinations like straights and flushes.
Also, your hand has blocker power.
A blocker is a card in your hand that reduces the number of potential strong combinations from your opponent’s range.
Since you hold one Ace, it’s less likely for your opponent to have strong combinations like pocket Aces, Ace-King, Ace-Queen and so on. This means they’re more likely to fold to your 3-bet.
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7. Check-Raise Against Aggressive Poker Players
You won’t always have the luxury of playing in position against aggressive players.
When you’re out of position, it’s a lot harder to play back against them, because they can use the positional advantage to keep applying the pressure and push you out of pots.
So you’re generally better off avoiding playing out of position, especially against aggressive players.
But you can’t avoid playing out of position altogether, so you need to find a way to offset the positional disadvantage.
One of the ways to do that is by adopting a check-raise in your arsenal.
A check-raise is a powerful play that can only be done when you’re playing out of position. It’s a great way to take over the initiative in the hand, and to potentially even win the pot outright.
When you’re check-raising as a bluff, you want to do it in spots where your opponent is more likely to fold. In other words, you want to do it when they have a lot of bluffs in their range as well.
One common spot where you can employ this strategy effectively is when you’re facing a c-bet on a dry flop.
As mentioned, a lot of players will make a c-bet on the flop regardless of their hand strength.
This is especially true for aggressive players, so they’re likely to have a fair number of bluffs in their range, especially on dry flops.
The drier the flop, the less likely it is your opponent connected with it in some meaningful way.
In other words, the drier the flop, the more bluffs your opponent is likely to have in their range.
If you attempt a check-raise bluff, it’s better to do it with some hand equity to fall back on.
Example hand #4
You are dealt A♦T♦ in the BB (big blind). A loose and aggressive player open-raises to 2.5x on the BU (button). You call.
Pot: 5.5 BB
Flop: K♥4♦2♣
You check. Villain c-bets 2.5 BB.
You: ???
You should raise it to 7.5 BB.
This isn't something you should try to do too frequently, but pulling off a bluff like this from time to time can help your table image, as well as deter your opponents from trying to push you out of pots any chance they get.
Let’s break down the action.
Preflop you have a standard call from the big blind.
An argument can also be made for a 3-bet here, but by calling, you’re allowing your opponent to continue with a number of hands you’re actually ahead of, namely some Ax and Tx hands.
You miss the flop, but in all likelihood, so did your opponent.
You face a c-bet, and there’s nothing wrong with folding here, but you can also try playing back from time to time.
If your opponent calls you with some sort of a Kx hand, you can still outdraw them on later streets with an Ace. You also have a backdoor straight and flush draws.
If you pick up some equity on the turn, you can keep applying the pressure and keep betting.
If your opponent comes back over the top with a re-raise, you can just fold and count your losses.
Check out Nathan's recent video for effective bluffing strategies.
The Simple Trick to Beat Aggressive Poker Players - Summary
To sum up, here are a few simple ways to handle aggressive poker players.
And you don't need to spend years studying advanced poker strategy to use these.
1. Call them down with a wider range.
Calling is usually a losing play in poker, but it can be an effective tactic against aggressive players, because it uses their aggression against them.
3. Bluff catch against them.
Aggressive poker players are likely to have more bluffs in their range, so bluff catching is an effective tactic to beat them.
You should bluff catch with hands with showdown value (i.e. hands that aren’t strong enough to value bet with, but can often win at showdown).
2. Float them in position.
Floating means calling with a wide range with the intention of taking down the pot on later streets with a bluff.
When an aggressive player checks to you on the turn or river, you can try to take down the pot with a simple-half pot bet.
The beauty of this tactic is that it works regardless of your hand strength (or lack thereof).
4. Trap them by slowplaying.
This tactic requires a bit of patience, but can work wonders against aggressive players. When you get a strong hand, play it passively and let them build up the pot for you.
Just sit back and allow them to donate their stack to you.
5. Play back against them.
While calling down wider is an effective strategy against aggressive poker players, sometimes you have to step it up a notch and respond with a well-timed aggression of your own.
If you do this, pick spots where you have some hand-equity to fall back on (like a strong draw, for example), as this gives you more than one way to win the pot.
6. 3-bet bluff against their blind stealing.
Aggressive players are likely to play a wide range from late positions. Most of the hands in that range can’t stand the pressure of a 3-bet, so light 3-betting often allows you to take down the pot preflop.
It also deters them from trying to steal your blinds with impunity.
7. Check-raise on dry flops.
It’s hard to play out of position, especially against aggressive players. To offset the positional disadvantage, you can throw an occasional check-raise into your arsenal.
This will make them have to think twice before they try to push you out of pots.
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