Head Games: The Top Three Keys to Winning Tournament Poker:  Aggression, Aggression, Aggression

Craig Tapscott: Share a little about how you apply pressure on other players and keep the lead in a hand by selective aggression. And what are a few key things you do to set an aggressive tone at the table?

Brandon Wittmeyer: One way to be successful in no-limit hold’em is using a selectively aggressive approach towards the game. A common tactic I use is three-betting in position against a player to isolate. This way you can take the lead in the hand and have a better understanding of where you are at; because sometimes if you don’t, you will be guessing the whole hand.

After three-betting the player, he will either fold and you’ll win the pot without a showdown, or the player will call your raise or the player will reraise you. You can apply different tactics depending on the player’s skill level and hand range that you put him on, but nonetheless, it’s a strong approach I like to take.

Now when the flop comes, I’ll most likely make a continuation bet. The continuation bet is a play to gather information. Now depending on the flop texture, you can continue to put your opponent on a hand. If you have a good hand, great, but sometimes you will miss the flop as well, so if he calls, you’ll have to decide what to do on later streets. This is where things can get tricky and or you can play tricky depending upon your opponent’s style or tendencies. If I think the player is weak, I’ll fire another barrel on the turn regardless of what I may have and again on the river. Against good players this tactic may not work, so I may slow down.

Everything is situational in poker, besides the mental game. I always try to apply some type of psychological tactic towards an opponent. It could be by just raising them continuously, by talking to them, or by your movements and the way you handle the chips at the poker table. The psychological approach towards poker is what I like to use best and a great way to set the tone at the table. When you get good at it and you feel comfortable and confident at the table, then you’ll be one dangerous player!

Josh Reichard: When choosing when and where to apply pressure, what I like to do is pick a select few players at the table who are more passive and attack their blinds in unopened pots. They are generally only going to be playing fit or fold poker post-flop when they defend their blinds, so this is a very good opportunity to use aggression to accumulate chips.

I like to also see if I can pick up on someone that is doing that same tactic of picking on passive players and then take advantage of that. If one of the passive players opens the pot in front of me I generally avoid trying to take control of those pots. But if someone who is showing aggression seems to be attacking a player’s blinds or raising from a certain position too often, those are the pots that I feel I can try to take control of.

As far as setting a tone at the table, I like to do it early and make sure it is established if I plan to be running the table. It is harder to take over a table after some time of just sitting back in my opinion. Some people will be intimidated if they know who you are or have seen your name around, while others will assume you are super aggressive and play back at you. So I like to be friendly and welcoming at the table. I do this not only because I am generally just friendly and easy to get along with, I feel that it takes away from the tension and or aggression I am applying while playing.

Joseph McKeehen: I think raising a lot of hands, if you’re comfortable playing post-flop, is a good thing. A lot of the time when the stacks get shallow, it’s much harder to play more hands post-flop, as people just aren’t deep enough to be seeing flops super wide, so if you’re putting a lot of aggression out preflop, you will win many pots uncontested.

To set an aggressive tone, you can three-bet people pretty wide to begin and let them know that you’re always a threat behind them. Even if they make a good adjustment of tightening up, that means you will be given more spots to open later on in the tournament. On day four of the recent WSOP main event tournament, I came in with a big stack, and the first hand I three-bet the person two to my right with Q-10 offsuit. It folded back to him, he went all in, and I folded, but the table now knew if they wanted to win some pots they would have to fight with the big stack.

Craig Tapscott: When sitting at the table with a very aggressive player on your left, how does the dynamic change in regards to how aggressive you will continue to be and why?

Brandon Wittmeyer: This is an interesting situation and one I actually enjoy because of
the challenges it presents. The dynamic never changes though because I’m not worried about the other players at the table. I focus on myself and the process. Where your mind goes, energy goes as well. So by concentrating on myself, I can accumulate the right type of focus.

With that being said, it is poker and you’ll always have to adjust, but you shouldn’t lose focus on your game plan. If the player is extremely aggressive and good at playing that particular style, I may tighten up because you always have to respect position in poker. If two equally-skilled players are playing in a game, the one that will win is the one with the positional advantage more often than not.

Now, if I feel I have more skill than the player to my left, I do not mind calling three-bets out of position and, in fact, I enjoy mixing it up with that type of player. As the tournament progresses, you’ll play many hours with certain players and you’ll find yourself in certain situations. That solid aggressive type player to your left may be reraising you a lot and, at times, I may go with my read and come over the top of that player to make a statement, but it really depends on the situation and flow of the game. I trust my reads and don’t mind getting into confrontations with others at the table because eventually you’ll find yourself in one sooner or later anyways. But I’m very selective because playing hands out of position can be extremely tough at times.

Josh Reichard: I firmly believe you must adjust your style based off the players and your position at the table. I can go from opening literally 90 percent of the hands to not playing a hand for three orbits. It just depends on how my table is playing and what they are allowing me to do.

Generally, if there is an ultra-aggressive player to my left, I would avoid them as much as possible and tighten up my game. If there is a very good player to your left making things tough on you, it is perfectly fine to just wait for premium hands. If they have seen your aggressive side, there is a good chance even if you have not played a hand for 45 minutes they still will not believe you when you enter the pot.

There are some circumstances where I may be looking to mix it up with this player as well. Usually you can tell just based off their play within a few hands if this player is using aggression effectively and are going to be hard to play against or if they are just going to click random buttons and dust it off because that is what they think they are supposed to do.

If I have not played with them in the past, I honestly will probably assume they will fit their basic profile based off their image until I have seen them play hands to make me think differently.

I can sometimes be stubborn and mix it up with good players at the table when I should really be avoiding those situations. It is important to know the table breaking order, because if you and this player to your left are going to be together all day and end up with big stacks, that may determine how you will continue your play against them. If the table is going to be breaking soon, you can just wait. But if you are going to be playing together for hours, it is probably inevitable that you will be tangling at some point. 

Joseph McKeehen: When you have a super aggressive player to your left, you can either make it a point to play back at them a lot or you can just tighten up. Both are fine responses.

Even if you play back at an aggressive player early on and they put it in your eye, they know for the future that you’re capable of playing back and they might lay off you more. You can tighten up and open stronger ranges so you can play back at them with stronger holdings. That is one solution.

I have to say that determining whether they are a smart player or not can be very hard. A lot of the time, you have to pay close attention to what they are doing. You have to figure out if they are putting people in tough spots or whether they are just putting chips in the middle and hoping to get them back. But sometimes you can pick up on something that you can use against them later in a big spot that will make it easier for your decisions. ♠

Brandon Wittmeyer has been a professional gambler for the past 13 years. He made two final tables at the 2015 WSOP, won a gold bracelet, and earned $427,000 in the process. He splits his time wagering professionally on sporting events and poker. Brandon lives in Las Vegas, NV.

Josh Reichard learned poker from his dad while growing up and they currently travel and play together. He has accumulated three WSOP Circuit rings as well as a Mid-States Poker Tour title.

Joseph McKeehen is from North Wales, PA. He has won multiple live events and made the November Nine for this year’s WSOP main event final table. McKeehen has more than $3 million in live and online combined career tournament cashes.