TODAY'S POKER IS SUPER AGGRESSIVE
Poker has changed. A lot. I have already written about this subject in: 8 and 10 = The New Black.
What happens when everyone is aggressive? Like everyone is nowadays, especially in online poker world. The tables are full of young guns betting aggressively with the most imaginable hands. Bet, raise, reraise, reraise the reraise... and there is the preflop all in: AQ vs J9 suited. Common scene.
Yet still, if you read any poker advises they will continue to tell you to be aggressive. To the certain point aggression is good in poker. With aggressive playing you will win pots. That is the fact.
One of the golden rules in poker however is, that you should play against the table. If the table is loose, you should be tight. If the table is tight, you should be loose. So what now, when all the tables are aggressive? Is folding one answer, like written in: Fold To Win.
Naturally that is not the whole answer, since if you fold all the time you can't never win anything. But is it possible, that wise and simple tight playing will see new daylight? Playing like the amateurs. Folding all the questionable hands? Folding all the hands, if they don't hit? Careful playing? It would make sense when thinking of "playing against the table" -rule.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Players are not just aggressive, but they are aggressive with all sorts of hands imaginable. And that is what is the key difference between these days and the old days.
In the old days you could be quite sure that opponent had monster hand AA, KK, QQ, AK etc, if he bet or called 5 times the big blind before the flop.
These days you can't have any idea what your opponent has. T8, 97, 86, 65, JT, JQ etc are well used for calling (and even betting) big bets before the flop.
Huge impact on today's poker has been made by poker "idols" such as Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu, to name just a few. All of these players play witty game, in where you can't predict what they have in hand. Hansen and Negreanu have also made education-videos about this. You can watch one of Negreanu's video-series from here: The video that have influenced poker-world on the internet the most.
CASE STUDY: "KIDPOKER" vs. "ISILDUR1", LEARN FROM NEGREANU
Keeping all this in mind, it was amazing that Negreanu, who has himself educated to play hands that are unexpected, played as he did against Viktor "Isildur1" Blom in their first match. To put it more straightforward: Negreanu played badly those big pots.
You can check the hands of those big pots from here: The Hands.
Right after the game Negreanu was upset. 24 hours after the match he calmed down and admitted he played badly, and that Blom was dominating in that game. (Check: Daniel - Poker Journal)
If you look especially at the hands #4 (Isildur1 T8 suited, against KidPoker's 56) and #8 (Isildur1 68 suited, against KidPoker's AK suited), you'll notice those are so typical hands in today's poker. Isildur1 knew them and had them. KidPoker was trapped. I would like to say, that many poker player who play regularly online could have expected those hands. At least they would have been very cautious. Maybe because Negreanu is more live poker player than online player, he wasn't cautious. At least he wasn't cautious enough.
However, Negreanu is the true poker player and pro. Not "a" but "the". He practiced a lot before their first match. And after losing that match he practiced even more intensively whole week for the rematch.
He won that rematch.
Everyone should learn from him. Because the most important lesson here is, that no matter how much you have played and won, you must always learn more. Players change. Therefore the game is different from day to another. You have to keep up with it.
There just isn't any absolute "right" or "wrong" in today's poker. That is why you have to keep up with current trends and styles by practicing and learning. Not just once and awhile but all the time. If not every day, at least every week.
Poker changes all the time. It evolves from year to another. So should you and your playing. If Negreanu, poker mentor, millionaire and idol, is humble enough to practice constantly to improve his playing, why wouldn't you? You think you are good enough? Think again.
T8, J9, QT, 68... they are all there against you. And never forget Doyle Brunson's T2. Learn from the past and present. Practice always. For the better future. Just like the true poker players do.
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