OK, after having had a good couple of nights, and one even night (up about 20c after about 3 hours play ), I finally decided I needed extra aggression that seems common from players in this forum. So I tried it out on a couple of free SNG's and a couple of cash tables with mixed results. Perhaps the free SNG's especially are bad examples, but it has opened up a few questions in general about tight aggressive play, which I'm sure are just common sense to people here:

1. You get AK, nobody is betting, so you put in a 3-4bb bet. It flops with 5 7 10, not suited, and especially not helping you at all. Betting comes around to you with nobody betting. Before I would check too, having hit absolutely nothing, but trying to be more aggressive put in a 3-4bb bet. More often than not I'm called by one or more players, and am stuck at the next bet, if nothing hits again. Do I keep pushing harder even after the call forcing the player to show his real colors (in this case how big do you go?), or should I just check/fold, realising nothing is coming or should I have check/folded on the terrible flop? This situation lost me quite a bit of money last night (relatively speaking of course, as some of it was free play), as I'd be called right to showdown and lose to someone with a pocket pair or where someone played with A7 and lucked out with the low card. Maybe it was just my bad luck on the night, but people calling my bigger bets worried me somewhat, and I felt like checking on the next hand, but knew that signalled that I'd either hit nothing, or was trying to lure the other player in.

2. Probably a no brainer, but when you are getting horrible starting cards consistently, do you just keep hanging in there, or do you loosen up a little. In about one and a half hours play I had about 2 hands which were better than Q7, which I lost anyway after horrible flops, like the scenario above, but other players were happily winning by playing lots of hands with average hands and hitting the flop. This was at a 2c/5c 9 seat NLHE ring game. Worst case was when I was bored out of my mind and wanted to play Q7 suited, but backed out trying to keep tight, as I'd been bored into similar hands with no luck a few times already and lost out. It turned out a Queens over 7's full house by the turn and had plenty of money in the pot by the showdown, making me want to tear my remaining hair out. I don't regret when 2 6 turns out to be a full house, but where the more marginal hands would have won, I tear my hair out, especially when I'm trying to keep tight. In general what do people do when absolutely nothing is hitting all night?

3. When in a tournament do you keep the aggression down until you get a little money under your belt? In both free SNG's I used more aggression than usual, with nice PF cards and lost 1/2 of my stack in a few hands, when people called out my "bluff", forcing me to tighten up even more, leading to a slow death both SNG's. Should I be much more conservative early on, by checking and limping a little more, until I hit something decent on the flop, or do I just keep pushing and burn out early if I'm called and can't back it up, just racking it up as a SNG where things didn't go my way?

4. In general agressive versus passive. I'm pretty good at passive, and can save my pennies until something hits, which makes me enough money to keep going forward. Only I'm worried in the long term aggressive will be the better idea. But especially when flops aren't hitting, it seems like a great way to throw away some valuable money. Is the idea behind aggressive that you'll win a lot bigger when you win, making up for the bluffs your opponent called, or are you guys playing it so aggressive that you don't get called much anyway when playing this way? Or am I missing something else really important in this theory?

Thanks for listening to my noob questions, hopefully I can gain clarity and overcome all

aggressive doesn't necessarily mean bluffing. it just means that when you hit hands you bet them strongly and get maximum value from your opponents' weaker holdings.

if you're playing for the money, don't loosen up during a run of bad cards. if you're playing for fun, ah whatever raise up that Q7 suited and see what happens.

Your bet pf was 3-4 bb so your flop bet (cbet) should be a lot bigger 75% or more of the pot. If you get called by one or two then i'd slow down unless you think he's on a draw that you can push him off.

I almost read that... one quick word though...after raising pf with AK, c-bet, but dont get attached on a missed flop/turn

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To squeezyplayer:
Yes, I hate the idea of constantly bluffing, but I don't want people seeing me constantly betting big with AK PF, then folding when rags comes up. I've done that before and good players tend to push you around after seeing it a couple of times. So maybe I can mix those two up a bit when the flops come up as bad as they were last night, rather than constantly betting "a bit".

To Fadi:
That makes very good sense. Assuming 3 people are in on the flop, 75% is somewhere about 10+bb, which is a lot scarier to someone with no match yet. I know that would scare me off, and as long as I don't try it too often people will think it means I have something. If called with 10bb it's time to worry

To Pinguaq:
I had already learned not to get attached to any cards (except AA/KK), but had read more than a few posts mentioning big continuation bets after all rags come up. I'll try to time my cbets when I think nobody will call and also think I've still a chance at winning the hand if called.

One last thing, if the flop does come off, do you still bet 75% of the pot just to make sure people don't know when you are on or off? I would think that's the idea, but I'd be happy to hear otherwise.

I might hit the free tables to test out the theory a bit. Once I'm comfortable with tight aggressive play it's onto analysing other players, which is unsurprisingly bad at the moment. I always bet when I'm beat, and check when I have the top hand

If you've not made a hand with AK by the turn and someone's called a couple of your bets, just check to them. It'll leave them in a position where they will bet if they have something, or check because they worry you're slowplaying. Also if they only lay down a min bet it's worth 3betting as they will probably fold.

Betting amounts is one of the things I found hardest to get to grips with. 3xBB, 4xBB tend to be strong bets pre-flop whereas after the flop it's all really about the pot. Anywhere between 66%-100% is a reasonable bet if you have the best hand. Closer to the 100% if there's a draw on the board. The only reason I say closer to 100% is because I see so many donks calling the flush draw with 75% of the pot raised.

That's the way to do it. Not point cbetting on the flop if an A has hit after you raising QQ pre-flop unless there's no action before you.

Yep. That way you get good value for the great hand you just flopped.

It's probably best not to mix up ring game and tournament play as they are completely different. Also, these concepts are very situation dependent and one play might be completely wrong or completely correct depending on who you are up against, what the stack sizes are, table image etc.

I would suggest posting individual hands in the hand analysis section and going from there.

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You should not c-bet into a multiway pot. Occasionally if you get two callers preflop, a cbet is OK, but if you're up against 3 or 4 people cbets are -EV. Also, you need to bet more than the "standard" if there are already people in the pot. A 3-4bb raise means little when 8 people have limped.

This happens to me all the time. I just keep playing my tight/aggressive game until I get to ~10bbs, then I switch to push/fold mode. It works well enough.

Not sure what you mean by aggression, but no I start playing tight aggressive and I keep at it until chipstack sizes force a change in strategy. It sounds to me like you are loosening up when you build chips, which is not what you want to do until the endgame...

Passive is wrong unless you're against an overly aggressive player. You need to bet out middle pairs to take down pots right away rather than let people catch up. You want to bet your made hands for value rather than hoping someone will take a stab at it...

watch this video: $27t Win Video

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I'll have to watch the video at home tonight, it sounds like a good one though.

Mixed up my games again last night. Free 45 man SNG was useless. 5 all ins on the first hand, whats the point. I still kept going, but every sized bet you make is called by many, so it's just not realistic, even if you are winning.

So I played a $1.20 45 man SNG, played pretty well, choosing aggression at the right time, folding the rest. I built up to $4K, then the early chip leader ($10K) bet his aces against the flush draw, which I had, and was top flush draw at that. I lost all in and was out, porbably risky to go all in, but needing 1 heart with 2 cards remaining to have an unbeatable hand seemed like a good idea at the time. Any thoughts?

Onto the 1c/2c NLHE 9 player table, where I was happy to use up $3 to try to learn the gentle art of tight aggressive Long story short I lost $3.50 to 2 all ins where I had best hand until the river (one was all in PF where I had TT, he had 77, the other on the turn I already had straight, he hit a better straight on the river), but ended up only losing $1, so made $2.50 when I wasn't all in.

Overall, I was very pleased with my use of aggression. I bet very similar when I had the best hand and when I had nothing, so people folded to my nothing, and called my good hands which was very good to see. The 75% rule was brilliant, because on some hands I wouldn't have noticed that 20bb are already in the pot, so why would someone fold to only 3bb. It also makes you more aware of the pot when others are doing their cbet, and if they don't do 75%, raising to 75% (even if you have nothing) usually forces them to fold.

Do you think I should tone down my all-ins, they seem to be getting me into the most trouble the last couple of nights?