Aggressive Play vs. Passive Play

Aggressive Play vs. Passive Play in a game such as no limit holdem can determine winning players and losing players for any one session of poker. Aggression is something every player needs to have in order to be a winner in the long run. But, passive play can be correct at times given different situations.

Selective aggression is something that a lot of players don’t have today especially relating to online players. Most online players will play overly aggressive and go through massive swings playing; losing a lot some days, and winning a lot other days. Being selective is something that can win more pots than lose. If you see a player who is playing very tight and just calling or making small bets; this is the player to key on, and take small pots away from using selective aggression. If you can take the small pots away from these players and use aggression with a big hand against other aggressive players you can maximize how much you make when playing a session. Also, while maximizing your profit you will be losing the least which is also what you want when sitting down to play a session.

Passive play is more of a term used to refer to tournaments when the field is large and the players are aggressive. When you are playing passive you are letting other players do the betting for you and thus setting traps. If you can set effective traps against aggressive opponents you can get them shoving half or even their whole stack in to pots on draws, or weaker hands when you are sitting with the nuts. The only times to play passive are when you feel players at the table are better than you and you have the fear of being run over. If you are playing and giving off a sense of being uncomfortable, the better players will see this and they will capitalize on your mistakes. Passive play can get you stuck in more hands and should only be used in order to trap or wait until something like a big poker bonus money move up in a tournament. If there is a significant dollar figure moving forward in a tournament or if you are sitting in 1st place with 20 players left in a tournament you can sit and play more passive to coast through and move to a final table.

When looking at both aggressive and passive play there is no right or wrong thing to do. The beauty of poker is that both can be correct given certain situations. Playing overly aggressive all the time is not something you want to do day in and day out, and playing overly passive is not something you want to do all the time. Ideally, you want to find a common median between the two defining your own playing style. If you can make adjustments depending on the tables you are playing at then you are better for it, and will improve your game.