Do you need to play like the Macho Man to win?
By now everyone knows that being an aggressive player is supposedly the only way to make it as a poker player. In fact, there are tons of articles littering the Internet that tout the benefits of playing as aggressively as possible. But if playing aggressively is the only way to truly make money as a professional poker player, then why are there so many successful players who aren’t raising and re-raising every chance they get?
Take the last WSOP Main Event for example where several of the final table participants were admittedly non-aggressive players. The runner-up Ivan Demidov, who also made the 2008 WSOPE final table, confessed that oftentimes he plays too tight at the table and doesn’t gamble a lot. Ylon Schwartz mentioned that he simply stuck around, waited until he had his opponents dominated, and took advantage of their mistakes. Craig Marquis said that his only goal throughout the 2008 Main Event was to make it to the next day.
If you want further proof of how successful a laid-back approach can be then just look at Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth has earned a record 11 WSOP bracelets by playing cautiously through every step of tournaments while mainly trying to dominate his opponents’ cards. He doesn’t throw insane amounts of chips on the table just to intimidate other players, and he sticks to a more solid game plan.
And people will often point to the online game of today and suggest that the only truly successful players are the ones who are very aggressive. However, even this must be questioned since a lot of players nowadays are making their money online by playing tight poker, and simply waiting to cash in on rakeback and VIP bonuses.
But this isn’t to say that aggressive poker won’t get a player far in online or live play since the majority of successful players are aggressive. However, not everyone needs to play aggressively with frequent raises, re-raises, and bluffs in order to be a good player. If you know the game well enough, and are a master at your playing style then you will no doubt be successful whether you are overly-aggressive or not.
Tags: Tips
