Profiling the Super-Aggressive Tournament Player

Profiling is a practice in criminology in which a professional profiler gives a description of a particular type of person who would be most likely to commit a specific type of crime. We can apply a similar principle to tournament play. In today's tournaments, one of the profiles to look out for is the "Super Aggressor," a bandit who can steal your chips even when he doesn't have a "lock" hand.

In Championship Hold'em, T.J. Cloutier and I define some of the changes in the way tournaments and cash games are being played today. One of those changes has been brought about by the playing style of the Super Aggressors. That style is this: Super Aggressors play much more aggressively before the flop with lots of hands - and they aren't always premium hands. They play position very strongly and don't need much of a hand to bring it in for a raise, especially when they're the first one in the pot. They're either raising or folding, and they're three-betting with lots of marginal hands. If a Super Aggressor thinks someone is out of line with a late-position raise, he will come over the top of the raiser, even with hands such as Q-10 or a pair of deuces.

In multiway pots, the Super Aggressor will gamble with all sorts of strange hands before the flop. For example, he might call two or three bets cold with an 8-6 suited or a small pair because he wants to gamble, hoping to catch a favorable flop. Super-aggressive players will play any pair, sometimes bringing it in for a raise, and I've even seen them cap the pot with hands like 10-10 or K-8 suited. When the flop is ragged, Super Aggressors are betting A-K even though all they have is overcards, a strategy that I think is generally a mistake. Suppose there are about five people in the pot and the flop comes 9-4-2 with three different suits. Continuing to be aggressive with A-K in this scenario is a mistake, because someone is going to have something - but we're seeing it happen. I don't agree with that kind of play, but we have to deal with it in today's faster, more aggressive tournament action.

Often, these Super Aggressors are younger than 40, fearless, and aggressive to the point that they either fold or raise with marginal hands (rather than just calling with them). In other words, they aren't playing "by the book," which, in many people's minds, means Sklansky and Malmuth's Hold'em for Advanced Players, in which they list playable hands by position. They aren't gauging their play by "Group I" hands, "Group II" hands, position, and so on.

The majority of these aggressive players play their poker in California. Generally, they are most likely to intimidate older, more conservative players, inexperienced players, and women. (Note, however, that although women players in general are more conservative than men, some women - Barbara Enright and J.J. Bortner, for example - are every bit as aggressive as the most aggressive men.)

The style of the Super Aggressor tends to throw more cautious players off their game by moving them out of their comfort zone. The "Cautious Conservative" is not comfortable playing in games in which people are reraising with pocket fours and 10-8. The Super Aggressors are unpredictable to their more traditional opponents, whose reading skills go down because they can't put their super-aggressive opponents on specific hands, so they wind up giving action when they're beaten. At the same time, these Cautious Conservatives are more predictable, so the Super Aggressor, who looks like a wild man, actually is reading his conservative opponents better than they are reading him.

How do you contend with and defend against the Super Aggressors? You'll find the answer in my next column. In closing, here's a tip of the Stetson to my writing partner T.J. Cloutier, who placed third in the championship event at the Four Queens Poker Classic. T.J. came to the final table in seventh place with only $46,000 in chips (out of $710,000 in play), and patiently moved four steps up the ladder, giving a "how-to" lesson on final-table strategy along the way. Dana Smith, who co-wrote this column with me, sweated him at the final table. "T.J. gave a superlative demonstration of how to play a short stack against such formidable competitors as David 'Devil Fish' Ulliott, Huck Seed, Jerri Thomas, and tournament winner Bruce Corman," she commented.

As soon as I arrive home from Bonnie Damiano's Caribbean Poker Classic tournament in Aruba, I hope to meet you in the winner's circle.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier are the authors of Championship Hold'em, one of the three books in their "Championship" series. Their fourth book, Championship Tournament Hands, will be published soon. For more information, visit www.pokerbooks.com.