NoMercy Monday: Adjusting Your Level of Aggressiveness

In this strategy series, CoinPoker’s Chief Community Manager and pro poker player Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier walks you through the basics of the game. Each No Mercy Monday comes with expert advice on how to play,  and it all starts with starting hands.

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Over the last four weeks, we saw why being aggressive is a winning style of play in poker, how it will open the door to use the continuation bet as a powerful weapon, how advantageous it is to raise instead of simply limping or calling before the flop, and how it will allow you to get the maximum of value out of your premium hands.

We will conclude this chapter on Being Aggressive with some helpful advice on how to adjust your level of aggressiveness depending on the situation you’re in.

How to Adjust Your Level of Aggressiveness

Precision is essential. While being aggressive is generally a winning poker style, the effectiveness of this strategy also depends on what you’re playing.

The style you adopt when playing satellites will be different from what you’d use in cash games or MTTs, and you will need to dial your aggressiveness up or down to get the best results. Below are some tips on just how much aggression you need depending on the type of table you’re sitting at.

#1 Multi-Table Tournaments and Sit & Go’s

In these types of events, being very aggressive will almost always be the most effective strategy that you can use. This is especially true in the bubble where players will tend to play very tight in order to get to the money.

The bubble is also a moment where you can abuse other players in order to grow your stack by simply raising way more than usual.

#2 Qualifying Satellites

The goal here is not to win the whole thing, but simply to get access to another bigger event.”

In these events you have to look out for the payouts more than looking at your own aggressive image. The goal here is not to win the whole thing, but simply to get access to another bigger event.

Therefore, when you see that 10 tickets are awarded for the target tournament and you are chip leader with 11 players remaining, the best strategy will sometimes be not to play at all to be guaranteed your ticket.

#3 Cash Games

In cash games being too aggressive will often be synonymous with trouble.

They won’t let you raise non-stop and many of your opponents will play the police to prevent you from bullying the table.”

Players are not limited to a tournament stack and they can rebuy as much as they want. Therefore, they won’t let you raise non-stop and many of your opponents will play the police to prevent you from bullying the table.

This concludes this chapter on the importance of being aggressive. Stay tuned over the next weeks, as we will get into a new exciting chapter: Calculations and Pot Odds.

Join me weekly in the Hubble Bubble tournaments and Sunday’s Andromeda events to practice your skills and try to win my 10,000 CHP or 25,000 CHP bounties! 

– Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier