My latest poker strategy article, Dealing With Aggression in Tournaments, is now appearing in 2+2 Magazine. The title is pretty self-explanatory, but here’s an excerpt that gives you a better idea of how exactly I address the subject:
The key to minimizing these headaches is to anticipate and prepare for the situations you’re likely to encounter. You want to avoid giving the aggressive player the opportunity to put you in tough spots. When you do get involved in pots with him, you want to have ranges that will be difficult to exploit and hands that will not lead to a lot of uncertainty about where you stand.
The article draws on a couple of examples from a live MTT I final tabled recently and should be useful to anyone who, well, has to deal with aggression in tournaments.
Your experience with Mark sounds a lot like my experience with Ari Engel (minus the horrible sizing errors). I also heard the latest TPE podcast on which Cory Waaland said he had a similar experience with Ari.
Your open statement is something I have heard on repeat in my mind since our AC trip.
“Even those who are overly aggressive, meaning that they are making mistakes from which you will ultimately profit, can be a real thorn in your side, especially in the late stages of a tournament where you’d prefer to play conservatively and avoid big confrontations.”
I have a theory that the tournament players we frequently see at final tables are these kamikaze types. They lose a ton of buy-ins playing this way, but enter so many tournaments that they cant help but final table a few of them when they occasionally suck out in a big pot like the AQs vs. QQ hand.
Maybe their frequent top 3 finishes, and the marketing deals that follow, make up for all the times they blow a big stack with wild aggression.
Maybe I should play with controlled aggression in cash games and parlay those winnings in tournaments by playing balls to the wall against both good controlled players who have a hard time dealing with it and bad beginning players who have very little chance against it.
Seems the only way to beat these guys and give myself a chance to win the tournament is to learn how to go kamikaze myself and fight fire with fire.
I liked the article Andrew.
Carlos, I’d make a distinction between pros like Ari who have a (seemingly) thought-out form of aggression and the wannabes like this Mark. Don’t be like Mark. Make sure you understand how to best be aggressive because thinking players like AB will be there too. Process vs. outcome my friend. And thanks for all the help you given me recently.
Hit submit too soon. Meant to state what I liked about the article. Like all good teachers, Andrew usually has good examples, that make his points well. But I like the general premise best. Too survive aggression, you should have a plan and you should avoid tough spots. I preach this message to investors, where aggression is analogous to volatility. You have to think during the calm about how you will deal with the volatility when it presents itself.