Playing a Loose-Aggressive Style

            When Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003, the face of poker would be changed forever. People were rushing to play online poker and soon Texas Hold ‘Em was a household name with millions of people playing every day. What I want to focus on is a style of play that has evolved over the last decade and has become almost synonymous with online poker, and because of that, it has moved into the world of live poker. I’m talking of course about a loose-aggressive (LAG) approach to the game, and this is what I’d like to focus on for this post.

The loose-aggressive form of play is inarguably the most sought after approach to the game: it creates action on the table, it builds large pots, and is a good way to keep people guessing. On the flip side of that however is susceptibility to huge swings, lots of variance, and miles of frustration. If you’re a tight-passive player, you may not be forced to fix many things about your game as it’s very straight-forward. However, playing a LAG style can make you your own worst enemy. The point of the game of poker is to let others make the mistakes for you, but if you’re playing loose-aggressive, then you’ll often have your foot on the gas which can cause you to be the one making the mistakes. You’ll often find yourself in spots where someone has set a trap for you, or people will call you down with marginal hands because your bluff ratio will be much higher than your opponents’. There are absolutely ways to counteract these events from taking place and gain an edge over your opponents, and that’s what I’d like to focus on in upcoming posts. We’ll cover:

• Range of starting hands
• Bet sizing
• How to merge your range
• Building an image
• How others perceive you, how you perceive them, how you want others to perceive you, and many other topics.

Chris Moneymaker at the 2003 World Series of Poker.