I’ll start by sharing that I love playing 5/10 and 10/20 NL holdem online. I regularly play those kinds, and I actually earn lots of money. But just recently, I’ve read something which I know will not make money whatsoever.

It’s actually something written by Doyle and something that discusses the trouble one can be into whenever he or she call raises with hands like AJ, AQ, KJ, KQ, etc. due to the pots.

With confidence, Doyle recommends calling with hands that are speculative, let’s say for an instance 65s or 79s. Sometimes a raise and a call for re-raise is also advised.

In my case, once I tried to call with hands like AJ. But there’s a problem. Doyle was actually playing at tables by which people have stacks by which 200+ times the size of the big blind. While online at a 10/20 NL table, the max buy in is 75 big blinds, and 50 big blinds is the average stack. So if in case I follow Doyle’s advice, there’s nothing much to gain I guess.

So now I’m wondering, if calling a raise with AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, etc. is bad and calling with 65s will not lead you to proper odds, then what do you think should you call raises with? Personally, what do you think? Please help me.

Thanks!

Bryan

Bryan,

You also have to remember that Doyle Brunson has been playing at the largest stakes cash games for decades. The skills and reads that he has developed are far beyond your current training. Doyle’s tips are actually very valid and can win money, but they also come with large swings. If you have a winning style already, work on improving your winning style. Super System is not the only way to learn to play poker.

I’ve heard that aggressive poker is actually a good poker, and that an aggressive player always wins the pot. Is this true?

How about if an ABC player raise with preflop (AA, KK, QQ, AK), and some suited connectors or AQ or even AJ in late position will be added, what do you think will this be sensible? I guess it will just increase the rate at which I’m losing, so it’s nonsense at all.

How about for an instance in a $3/6 NL game online the players are pretty decent so when you bet 2/3 the pot at a 842 flop, they have just figured out you are just betting overcards, therefore they just thought of either calling or re-raising. What’s your insight on this? I have actually experienced this one and I lost about 1/6th my buy in.

Do you think being aggressive at the table is the better way out and the better way to win the pot? If not, then should I tighten up? But I have already tried to tighten up and it wasn’t that effective.

How about if I try to be passive? Well, I also tried to be passive once and the results were not that good. But at some point, I thought that maybe everything was because of a bad beat or maybe wrong moves that came out of the blue.

So what now? I think I need some improvements. I think I need to develop sort of aggression on my plays. Also, I need to know when to slow play or re-raise a good hand as well as on how to get paid off with your good hands, particularly when you are playing ABC poker.

Can you help me? Please.

Thanks!

Carter

Carter,

Phil Gordon likes to state that “aggressive poker is winning poker.” Aggression is good for driving people out of pots. If you have what appears to be the lead or the clear edge, you need to bet to force players out or make them pay to draw out on you.

When you have good hands, you need to be aggressive with them. Slow playing should be done when you flop a monster hand or pick up a monster on later streets. With slow playing you need to be sure you are not giving them opportunities to outdraw you, such as slow playing a set when there is 2 spades on board.