Any player knows that many online cash tables have hyper-aggressive players that can only be described as 'maniacs.' These players play with extreme aggression for the sole purpose of being feared, or they may just be intoxicated or a beginner to the game. Although a maniac's style of play isn't optimal for winning money, it can be profitable in the short run. More importantly, if a tight aggressive player gets in a pot with a maniac they could lose all their money, and that is exactly what we want to avoid.

1. How To Deal With Aggressive Poker Players
2. How To Beat Loose Aggressive Poker Players
3. Aggressive Poker Player Crossword
4. Best Poker Beats
5. How To Be An Aggressive Poker Player

In order to capitalize off a maniac's unique style of play, follow the strategies listed on this page. Do not change your entire method of play, but rather adapt to the fast play around you. Since this player cannot be ignored at the table, take the opportunity to enjoy his donations of chips.

1. If you liked my style of analysis on overbetting, check out my FREE 'Hand Range System' where you'll get access to the exact methodology I use to make each a.
2. The best way to beat tight poker players is to play loose and aggressive against them. You do this by stealing their blinds often and CBetting, barreling and bluffing them after the flop. By applying this pressure against the tight poker players you will force them to fold and surrender many pots to you.
3. Click here to claim your FREE tournament report so you can CRUSH the beginning of tournaments.

Aggressive players is a walk in the park, beating good aggressive players is the polar opposite. The best advice against these opponents is to practice, experiment, and be prepared to fail. You’ll find that you are more prone to variance against these winning aggressive players, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t be beaten over the long run.

Choose Your Seat Wisely

One of the advantages of playing cash games is that you get to choose your seat. If you notice there is a maniac at a table, make sure to sit as close to his/her left as you possibly can, with the best seat being the one directly to the maniac's left. This gives you the opportunity to react after the maniac makes his/her play.

If you are on the right of the maniac, you will have a tough session because every time you limp, the maniac can raise, and every time you bet the maniac can raise right after you act.

Continuation Bets and Bluffs

Many maniacs will play any two cards preflop. Therefore, your preflop raise will probably not deter the maniac from playing small, unsuited cards such as 3-6 off suit. Make sure to remember this, so when you raise with A-K and miss the flop, you can skip the continuation bet. Your C-bet is unlikely to scare the maniac away, as the ragged board actually may have helped his/her hand. Even if the maniac has not paired the flop, he or she may draw to an inside straight or backdoor flush draw depending on how loose the player is.

This same occurrence may repeat itself when you are attempting a bluff. It may not be that the 'maniac' actually believes he is calling a bluff, but rather he or she may think his or her hand is good. Therefore the maniac may call ridiculous bets with bottom pair or mid-pair in hopes of taking down any sized pot. Because of this, you should avoid bluffing against the maniac.

If you are truly set on bluffing the maniac, you have to put him/her to the test for all of his/her chips. The prospect of going bust is the only thought that may cause a maniac to slow down.

#1 Rated No Limit Hold'em Site » FullTiltPoker.com -Find out why HERE!

Return Aggressiveness and Strategy

Because the loose player plays so many hands, the overall value of his or her average hand will be less. This means weaker hands that you would normally muck to a tighter player become valuable against loose players. You should stick with your normal preflop game, and then play very aggressive postflop. Your aggressiveness towards the loose-aggressive player will be rewarded when you hold a strong hand.

Also, isolation is key when playing against aggressive players, especially when your opponent is the true aggressor in the hand. If you can isolate yourself against the 'maniac' with a strong hand, you are in the most profitable situation you can hope for. Let the aggressive player believe he has the hand won by playing the flop passively, most likely with a check and smooth call. Most unskilled players will then believe that they are good, and bet the turn and river, which will give you the chance to win a massive pot.

How To Deal With Aggressive Poker Players

More Specific No Limit Hold'em Strategies:

• »News
• »Loose-Aggressive Poker: How to Beat It

Any style of play can win money at poker, but the majority of winning players play tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive. It is time for some loose-aggressive strategy seeing how we covered how to beat tight-aggressive players last week.

What is a Loose-Aggressive Style?

Loose-aggressive, or LAG, is a style of poker that is considered to be the most dangerous. At least this is true when a LAG player is skilled. You see, loose-aggressive players tend to come in two guises. The first is the reckless maniac who relies on pure aggressive. The other is highly skilled and a pain in the ass, especially if they have position on you.

How To Beat Loose Aggressive Poker Players

LAG players play many more starting hands than their TAG counterparts. Where a TAG tends to play stronger, more premium holdings, LAGs can and do play any two cards. This makes a LAG player extremely difficult to read because they also receive strong cards in addition to weak ones.

What Are The Strengths of a LAG Style?

The biggest strength of a loose-aggressive style is they are so difficult to put on a hand. TAGs are easier to read for the fact they play a narrower range. LAGs, however, can turn up with all sorts of weird and wonderful hands that you would not dream of playing.

LAGs have an uncanny knack of getting their big hands paid off handsomely. Why is this? Because nobody believes that they have the goods. Poker players either forget loose-aggressive opponents also receive powerhouse hands like aces and kings. They also second guess themselves and pay them off when the LAG has somehow made two pair.

Put yourself in this scenario where our opponent is a good LAG player at a $1/$2 cash game. We raise to $6 with pocket queens and a solid LAG three-bets to $15. A TAG player in this spot has a narrow range of hands, but a good LAG could have anything. We call and the flop falls J-9-7. We have an overpair to board, but our LAG friend could have us well and truly beaten. They will bet almost 100-percent of the time if we check. We will face at least a call, perhaps a raise, if we lead out. The LAG has put us in a bad spot.

Think of the hands they may have. They could easily have a set of jacks, nines, or sevens. Aces and Kings are possible. Jack-nine or nine-seven is a possibility, even ten-eight. Maybe they are making a move with five, sixes or eights? Could it be ace-ten, ace-jack, ace-queen or ace-king? We are in a horrible spot despite holding the third-best preflop hand in hold’em!

What Are The Weaknesses of a LAG Style?

It looks like there are no weaknesses to a loose-aggressive style based on the strengths we just covered, but there are chinks in a LAGs armour. The most significant weakness is it is easy to fall into traps and pay off big hands. This is because a LAG pounces on weakness like a lion on its weakened pray.

A good, thinking player will play passively against a LAG when they have hands such as sets. LAG will see the checks as weakness and take a stab at the pot only to discover the bad news on later streets.

Aggressive Poker Player Crossword

Loose-aggressive players also see large fluctuations in their stack sizes in both cash games and tournaments. It can be a stressful style of poker to employ. This considered, LAGs require a larger bankroll than a typical TAG because both their losses and wins tend to be larger.

In terms of tournament poker, LAGs either bust out early or find themselves with a large stack. The latter is good because it gives them chance to win the tournament. It is also crucial for a LAG to have plenty of chips as their style revolves around putting opponents to their test for their entire stacks at all times.

How to Beat a Loose-Aggressive Player

You should be able to tell by now that LAGs are a real pain to play against. The best way to beat a LAG is to play a completely opposite style, that is more tight-passive. Only does this, however, when you have a strong hand. Allow the LAG to do the betting for you before putting a raise in on the turn or river. They could be too invested in the pot by this stage to find a fold.

Best Poker Beats

Another way to beat a LAG only really works against thinking, solid LAGs. These players are still aggressive, but can smell danger and will duck out of the way when they face resistance; a bit like a school bully. With this in mind, a good strategy can be to fight fire with fire.

How To Be An Aggressive Poker Player

For example, you raise preflop from the button with king-ten offsuit and a good LAG three-bets from the big blind. If they have continually defended their blinds with a raise of their own, you could four-bet despite your weak holding. The majority of LAGs will fold everything except their strongest hands in this situation, and seeing how they will not have a strong hand often, you get to scoop the pot without showdown.