Head Games: Tournament Strategies to Handle Aggressive Tables and Aggressive Players

The Pros: Richard Trigg, Simon Deadman, and Dylan Wilkerson

Craig Tapscott: How do you approach an overly aggressive table during a tournament? What kinds of things are you looking to take advantage of and what adjustments are you making in your game? 

Richard Trigg: At a really aggressive table, it’s important to distinguish between good aggressive players and bad aggressive players. It is likely good aggressive players will know their perceived image; playing tight and three-betting only nutted hands versus them won’t cut it. But versus bad aggressive players, I will be looking to widen my three-bet for value range and look to take advantage of their weaknesses postflop.

The good aggressive players you can afford to be subtle against. You can continuation bet (c-bet) bluff smaller on the flop without risk of being floated or raised on certain textures. But against the bad aggressive players, it’s prudent to c-bet bigger or less often when you miss the flop on bad textures, as they are often wild postflop as well as preflop with their bet sizing.

Here is an example versus a good aggressive player. You can c-bet 300 into a 1,250 pot with Q-J offsuit on a 5-5-4 rainbow flop, but versus a bad aggressive player you might look to bet closer to 650. This is in order to prevent them from raising the flop super wide unaware that they are representing a tiny range. You could stick to the same c-bet size versus bad aggressive players, but be prepared to three-bet the flop more often if they go wild on certain flop textures.

Simon Deadman: How I approach these overly aggressive tables differs depending on the stage of the tournament. In the earlier stages I like to approach these tables with a tighter style; but if it is a much tighter table I tend to play more aggressive. I think I generally play opposite to how the table is playing.

The overly aggressive players just like to take off on you when they perceive you as tight or weak. So I like to give off this image as much as I can. I’m happy to give walks, I’m happy to just fold a hand that misses the flop, and I’m happy not to c-bet even if it’s a spot where I’m “supposed to.” All these things help me give off a weak image and at the same time I don’t really lose any chips. I always try to remain aware of my own image and more importantly which players on the table will have labeled me with that image.

The image I create for myself in the earlier stages helps me to pick up chips when the blinds and antes get bigger later in the day by showing a bit of aggression in the right spots. To take full advantage of these players I need to remember that when I do make a good hand that I approach it in the same passive style that I did in the previous hands. By that I mean under-represent my hand as much as possible and hope that the opposition tries to push me off the pot. People often say that I get a lot of gifts at the table, meaning people just blow up and donate chips to me. I truly believe that creating this type of image on these aggressive tables is part of the reason why this happens.

Dylan Wilkerson: One of the first poker lessons taught is that to adjust to a particular style of play you should attempt to do the opposite. If the table is extremely aggressive, opening wide and three and four-betting often, then the standard play would be to tighten up. You do that by lowering your opening frequency and widening your value range to combat their aggression. But in order to be truly successful, there’s more to consider.

At any table, you need to take stock of your position relative to the types of players around you. Pay attention to everything they’re doing, even when not involved in a hand. You should be asking yourself a myriad of questions, including: Are the players on your left three-betting and squeezing often? What ranges are the players on your right opening from each position? Are they likely to peel a three-bet, or simply four-bet or fold? How does each player proceed postflop? The answers to these questions will affect how you proceed in the hands you do decide to play.

I’ll give a short example to demonstrate what I am talking about. Let’s say you’re dealt J 10 from mid-position and are facing an open from early position. This is a hand that plays well postflop in a multiway pot. So if you know the opener to have a wide opening range and a high four-bet frequency, but the players to your left have not shown a propensity to squeeze, you can happily call his raise. If on the other hand the opener peels, three-bets too wide from out of position, or the players on your left have shown a propensity to squeeze when given the opportunity, a better play would be to three-bet yourself, handcuffing the players on your left and
putting yourself in position to have position in a heads-up pot.

Craig Tapscott: There is a one wild and crazy maniac at your table and he is to your right, how do you adjust your game? And what about a maniac on your left?

Richard Trigg: If there is a maniac to my right I will immediately start to target him by three-betting a lot versus his opens and also look to regulars to my left trying to take advantage of this. Often a maniac will crack if you constantly three-bet him and he will four-bet shove a heap of big blinds (BBs) with marginal hands. Good players on your left will see this dynamic happening and look towards cold four-betting marginal holdings with blockers to hands that you can five-bet or jam, so we have to be willing to take high variance lines sometimes if the spot looks good for him to cold four-bet.
If the maniac is constantly four-betting me, then I will five-bet lighter for value or adjust to peeling his opens a lot more. Once he or she has seen you three-betting them a few times, they often won’t notice your adjustment. And if they are not a regular player you recognize, you can afford to be unbalanced and just three-bet a tighter range.

If the maniac is on my left I will maybe tighten my opening range slightly, but not much. Whenever there is a dynamic happening, the one who adjusts first or best will generally be the winner in the battle.

Simon Deadman: In the earlier stages of a tournament I’ll just play the same style versus a maniac, but when the blinds and antes increase having a maniac to your right is a good thing; you can pick and choose when you play with him and you get to control the pots in position versus his massively wide range. I like to see as many flops as I can against a maniac, as you only need to make one good hand because their stack is always in play. Pot control your mediocre hands in position and make the pots as big as possible with your good hands.

This type of player being on your left is a completely different situation because now he is in control of the size of the pots. He can three-bet you any time you open. So I like to play a much tighter range of hands and I won’t open hands that I can’t at least call a three-bet with. I think people make mistakes when they try to play back against these types of players. Remember you’ve labeled this guy a maniac; there is no need to try to bluff him, and no need to get stubborn and four-bet just because he never has a hand because they always just stick in the five-bet. One key thing to remember is that you need to be aware that this guy is on your left. If there is an open before you, you should be flatting with almost 100 percent of your good hands. Of course there will be the odd situation where it’s better to three-bet the open, but remember most of the time we want to keep this guy in the pot.

Dylan Wilkerson: Every so often, especially early in a tournament, you will find yourself at a table with a player who is playing nearly every pot. This will affect how you proceed, but as importantly, it will affect the way the remainder of the table proceeds as well. You may expect this player to be three-bet quite a bit, and indeed widening your value range significantly is a good place to start versus him. But at an average table, the majority of players are more likely to simply stay out of his way. Each of them sees him as an opportunity to win a big pot; all they have to do is wait for a big hand and get him. So they will be patient.

The rest of the table will narrow their opening ranges versus the aggressor significantly, allowing you to play aggressively. Remember, find out what the table is doing, and do the opposite. If he opens in early position, you can three-bet him widely in hopes of playing a heads-up pot against his weak range. If he is in late position, it is likely that the players in early position will only choose to open the top part of their ranges, so you can proceed accordingly.

Having a maniac on your left is more difficult. Again, take note of his play and ask yourself the right questions: How widely does he three-bet? Will he cold four-bet lightly? How does he respond to four-bets? Is he likely to fire postflop at every opportunity? There will be confrontations, so you must devise a strategy with these answers in mind. If he three-bets often but rarely peels four-bets, you can four-bet widely, for value or as a bluff. If he’s likely to squeeze when given the opportunity, you can call opens with premium hands in hopes of trapping him. If he tries to win every uncontested pot postflop, you can check and let him bet your hand for you. There are a number of situations to consider. The important thing is to consider them. ♠

Richard Trigg, 30, known as TheClaimEER on PokerStars, is one of the top five ranked online players in the world. Trigg has more than $4.8 million in combined live and online tournament cashes.

Simon Deadman currently lives in Leeds, Great Britain and travels all over the world playing the live tournament circuits. Deadman has more than $1.4 million in career tournament cashes.

Dylan Wilkerson is a 29-year-old poker player from Seattle, Washington. He has been playing poker professionally since graduating from UC-Berkeley in 2007. Wilkerson finished second at the 2014 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star main event for $728,000.