4 Reasons to Play Aggressively

Reason #1

Initiative. If there is a one word answer that would represent a fantastic reason for you to play aggressively, it would be the word initiative. When you take the initiative in poker, what you are doing is forcing your opponent to make the decision. Consider a no limit poker hand. If you push all of your chips in, you are forcing your opponent to make the tough decision regarding the call. If they were to push in before you however, you would then be in a position where you needed to make a tough decision for all of the chips in your stack. When these two situations are compared with each other, it becomes very easy to see that you would rather be in the first position than the second. You can do so by taking the initiative and you can’t take the initiative in poker unless you play aggressively.

Reason #2

Another reason that you play aggressively is to set up a play of some sort later on in the session. The human race is a curious one and one particularly interesting point about human beings is that when they are playing poker, they tend to more easily notice and remember players when they play aggressively than when they play conservatively. A person can play 99 hands conservatively and one hand aggressively and chances are that if they make a big enough deal of playing that one hand aggressively, most of the players at the table will peg them as an aggressive player. Playing aggressively, especially early on in the session, can be a good way of pre-emptive gear changing and can allow you to play conservatively later and get some serious action for your big hands.

Reason #3

When you consider the various reasons that are available for aggressive play in poker, another one that picks up is that the best players in the world are aggressive. When you think of players like Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu, you cannot help but notice how aggressive those players are. By the same token, even players like Mike Sexton, Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein are all players that play aggressively. That is the only way to play if you want to be successful as a poker player over the course of the long term and that is yet one more reason why aggressive play is absolutely essential when you are seated at a poker table.

Reason #4

One final reason to play aggressively that many people actually miss when they are thinking through the reasons is that playing aggressively actually helps you focus on the task at hand. When you are playing conservatively, it is very easy to let your mind wander because you are involved in the action less often. If you play your hands aggressively however, you are going to be taking the initiative quite often and in the end that means that you will be forced to pay far more attention to the game than you otherwise might do.