Slow it down

	The check-raise, the call with intention of striking later and the relative stack size factor all intimidate aggressors at the table

Recently I made a few early ballgame bets at the Orleans casino in Las Vegas and decided to stay and play in their $75 no-limit Texas hold’em tournament. The 35- table card room attracts a nice mix of players on weekends. After the first two levels, our table was getting on very nicely. The group was having fun, no one was pressuring before the flop and the post-flop betting was relatively tame. But, there was one exception: the bully in seat six. He was raising frequently, stealing blinds, taking pots away on the flop and putting players to the test each time he played a hand. It was obvious he was either looking to build a big stack or go home.

When you’re playing in a cash game and feeling uncomfortable, bullied or overwhelmed, you can move to another game. However, when competing in a tournament, your table and seat designations are assigned and players’ seat changes are at the mercy of table breaks. But, have no fear; in this article we’ll formulate a plan to slow down selective and hyper-aggressive foes.

Turn the tide

While it is often advantageous to stop an opponent or opponents from pushing us around, that is not always the case. For an analogy, let’s turn to a long deployed, fighting form that has its roots in Japan. Jiu-jitsu (often referred to as jujutsu) is a close combat confrontation technique utilised to defeat or control an opponent. Methods vary from attacking and immobilising to neutralising and evading. A key tactic is an ability to change one’s position slightly to evade a direct attack. In doing so, a jujutsu practitioner can turn the momentum of the attacker into his or her advantage.

So, although I’ll focus on some of the methods I’ve developed to slow down a charging opponent, I don’t always use them, since a pushy, pugnacious adversary can often become a victim of his own momentum. As iconic tournament director Jack McClelland has been known to say, ‘not all trappers wear fur hats.’

Classifying aggressors

Aggressors are not created equally. Some are hawkish pre-flop, but back off on later streets when confronted. Others prefer to see flops cheaply, and then attack relentlessly when sensing a weakness. Many are almost maniacal in following through once they raise. Some get in the fray during 20% of all hands dealt. They play super-aggressively on every street. Others demonstrate similar strength, but enter twice as many hands. Obviously, you want to confront the less selective warrior more often, as his average starting hand will be weaker. Observe hyper-aggressive players’ sub patterns just as you would any other opponent. Then react. There are three main accepted ways to halt attackers.

Check raising
Many times an aggressor will have position on you. The most obvious way to slow down a raising pest is to raise him back. When out of position, your check will almost always elicit a bet from an attacker. One or two checkraises should stop him from thinking he can pick up pots uncontested after you check.

Here’s a case in point: I was playing with a Las Vegan named Alfred. Early on, survival was his paramount objective. When the blinds became noteworthy, he began to loosen up slightly; hoping to catch a few good hands. That’s not a bad strategy, because if you don’t start accumulating chips, you can’t win the big money. The only times I observed Alfred straying from the ABC road was when a bully tried to take over our table. In those instances, he stopped folding and calling. He began re-raising the intimidator at every opportunity.

Fortunately, he had to show his hand several times along the way and I saw marginal holdings he had never raised with previously. Alfred turned into a ferocious fighter when an aggressive foe backed him up against a wall.

Calling with the intent to bet or raise at a later point
During a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, I was tableside and watched Gus Hansen check a flop of J♥-7♣-4♠. That was expected since the ‘Great Dane’ had missed completely holding Q♠-10♦. John Juanda put in a bet and Hansen called – hitting his Queen on the turn. Both players checked. When the board paired 4s, Gus bet the river. Juanda called with 6-6. During the next break, I asked Hansen why he called on the flop with no hand and no draw. He said: ‘I was going to take the pot away on the turn or the river, but I hit a Queen that actually gave me a good hand, so I decided to check-raise the turn but Juanda also checked, so I bet the river.’ We see that Gus planned on slowing the aggressive Juanda down by calling first and betting later. His play also demonstrates the fact that we need to play hands dynamically, shifting strategy when an opponent fails to co-operate.

Size counts
In a tournament you can slow down even the hardiest of intimidators with a huge stack. Raising players know a false move against a player with chips to burn is foolhardy. Interestingly, a very small stack serves a similar purpose. A bully knows he can’t intimidate a player who is just itching to get all his chips into the pot in lieu of being blinded into oblivion. Watch how bullies react to opponents’ stack sizes.

The check-raise, the call with intention of striking later and the relative stack size factor all intimidate aggressors irrespective of your table image. Of course, the first two strategies work best when used infrequently.

Walk the walk

If all else fails, you may want to try the ‘talk tough’ strategy adopted by Daniel Negreanu at the Five Diamond Classic in November 2004. Negreanu needed a victory to capture Player of the Year honours and walk away with the $1,770,218 first place prize. He came in with his typical game plan: see cheap flops and pick up lightly contested pots, allowing Daniel to get action when he has a big hand. Since players observe him dabbling in so many pots they correctly assume he plays an extremely wide range of starting hands.

Unfortunately for Negreanu, Steve Rassi decided he would prefer to remove post-flop skill. Staying true to his game plan, Rassi pushed all-in more than the other five finalists combined. Now, seated to the immediate right of Negreanu and Daniel’s mountain of chips, Rassi moved in several times before Negreanu could act. Finally, when Steve simply called a raise, Daniel smiled and asked: ‘Have you finally decided to play some poker?’ It was Negreanu’s way of chastising his foe for taking much of the skill out of the game. It seemed to work, as Rassi started to play more than push. Steve did well to finish fifth ahead of Nam Le who has now amassed more than $2.8 million on the tourney trail and just behind the world’s best female player, Jennifer Harman. Negreanu took the trophy.

All for one?

While an assailant is clearly great cause for concern, we generally are in action against seven or eight other opponents at the start of a hand, and their combined holdings are of greater concern. Think about it: the bulldozer player is dealt a random two cards. At the same time your opponents pick up 14 or 16 random tickets. While you should adjust your hand selection and betting patterns to cope with a player who will put you to the test every time he enters a pot, don’t overcompensate at the expense of weakening your potential versus the other opponents at your table.

At the same time, observe the ‘secondary’ combatants carefully to determine whether their games have fallen victim to the tormenter. How are they reacting to their position relative to the browbeater and his position? How are they countering calls and raises you have put in when the aggressor is in the pot as opposed to when he is out of the pot? Have they adopted a ‘wait and see’ attitude or have they decided to take on the aggressor with strength of their own? Poker is a game of adjustments. I know you’ll adjust to the forceful players at your table, but I don’t want you to neglect the strategy alterations necessary to counter others.

A super-aggressive player can be a disruptive force, but through observation and strategy adjustments you can counter their play and profit from others at your table.