Aggressive Poker

Several of you have written in asking how to deal with aggressive poker players. Obviously there are lots of tactics to suit different situations but I’ll outline what I call the “snare”.

Let’s assume you’ve been playing with the same group for a while and you’ve spotted that a particular player is aggressively raising pre-flop every hand. Play tight and  let the player win the blinds until you land a premium hand pre-flop in the pocket. Then nail him.

That’s a “snare” strategy.

Mike “the psyche” from Newcastle writes in with a simple but useful beginner’s observation. If a table has ten players, the odds of someone else having a premium hand in the pocket are very much better than a short-handed game. More competition literally means stiffer competition. Start your poker career in short-handed games.
                               
POKER F.A.Q.

Q: What is a "backdoor flush"?
A: You require two perfect cards in the same suit to complete your hand. Let’s say you have the jack of hearts and ten of hearts and the flop is the queen of hearts and the four of spades and the three of spades. This means you require two hearts in succession. If that happens, it’s a backdoor flush. Be warned. It’s a twenty to one shot.

Q: I keep hearing the expression "gutshot". What does it mean?
A: A gutshot is a straight draw wh