How to make aggressive play work for you

By Mark Lasser

One of the big changes that poker players have learned to incorporate into their game in the post-$5 betting cap era is to manage betting aggression.

Before we had the $5 limit lifted, hands typically were polarized between small pots that went unchallenged and massive posts with more than half the table capping the betting each round until no one had any idea what anyone else was playing.

Today’s $100 betting limit has changed the Colorado game to encompass a more genuine game in which legitimate bet sizing and raising strategies can be used. Now understand, I’m not saying it’s the same as true no-limit and it’s still a loose game of limpers especially in the $1-2 blind structures, but now one can size bets to make aggression mean something and to give callers incorrect odds to chase flushes and straights.

Many players don’t think much about pot odds and that’s a good thing for skilled players. Pot odds strategy is the difference between what the pot will pay you against what you have to bet or call and what the actual odds are of making a hand. Let’s consider a simple example. You play KQ of spades and the flop is 3 and 7 of hearts and a Q of clubs. You have top pair with a decent kicker and you’re up against one opponent who is on the button. You suspect the other player is chasing a flush draw based on a check-call on the flop.

Typically this makes you about a 3:2 favorite. The turn is a 2 of diamonds which you don’t perceive as threatening. If you check here, you offer a free card to your opponent where he might draw his flush. If you bet, you want to make sure you bet enough that their calling or raising is getting the wrong odds. If they have no pair, a flush will come about 20% of the time on the river, and if he has a pair he can win about 30% of the time.

If the pot is $100 at this point and you bet $20, the other player is getting $120 to his $20 call or 6:1 for his money and it’s a no-brainer call to try to make the flush. If on the other hand you bet the pot at $100, now they are getting $200 for a $100 call or only 2:1. Now a call chasing the flush draw is a mistake.

Even if the river is a heart, the other player made a mistake to call and you were right to bet. In fact, all you really had to bet was more than about half the pot to give the wrong odds to the caller. But if you suspect a calling station, than the larger amount you bet, the bigger mistake the opponent makes in calling and the more profitable this is for you in the long run.

- Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.