The Aggressive, the Hyper-Aggressive and the Sick Aggressive

Here it goes. The brief version of my bust-out from the Main Event. The short analysis of how I got all 80 % of my money into a pot holding Q high and an up and down straight draw. I have already seen quite a few comments floating in cyperspace and after thinking it over for a couple of days, here is my conclusion.

This year has shown the true up-rise of uber-aggressive players or "sick-aggressive" players as I believe they should be called. People re-raising all-in on the turn with nothing but air, players re-re-raising pre-flop with 74o and players calling re-re-raises all-in with T5o. In the beginning I thought there was some kind of reason behind the madness. That these guys actually had a clear strategy and superior reading skills but to be honest I am not so sure anymore.

It seems that being uber-aggressive is all about gambling. Gambling that your opponent hit absolutely nothing or that your opponent is too afraid to respond to your aggression. Don't get me wrong it is a very powerful strategy against very inexperienced players who might be playing their first Main Event but I would think that you would need to change your strategy once you have actually built a very solid stack bringing you within reach of a fantastic result or even the final table. In short you need to have a reverse!

I bring this up because when we sat down for Day 5 the uber-aggressive players were scattered all over the different tables. I had the pleasure of the chip leader coming into day 5 who apparently had been throwing raises around for three days with tremendous success. I had a decision to make was I going to play against this guy or just leave him alone? My first mistake of the day was that I never really made up my mind. It just happened.

I started day 5 holding about 1.35 million and lost a couple of medium-sized pots right off the bat bringing me down to around 1 million, which at the time was still above average. The chip leader now opened in early position, which he had been doing ever quite so often and I decided to look at one of my cards before I re-raised him it was the



If I look at a Deuce a Trey or any other small card, I am probably just gonna fold but a picture card does give you some comfort. Do I need this confrontation? in hindsight obviously not - but I was pretty sure that I could push him off the hand and send him a message at the same time. I made it 120k and he called which told me a lot! I was almost certain that he didn't have a big hand, in which case he would just have re-raised right there so at a maximum I put him on AJ or AT.

The flop came



I took a look at my opponent. My gut, along with my pre-flop read, told me that he had missed this flop completely. Now was the time to bet in order to take him off the hand. I still hadn't looked at my other hole card and decided not to, as this might have slowed me down in what I had to do.

I ended up betting 180k only to see my opponent move all-in for an additional 500k. I had to call 500k to win 1150k which means I needed around 30 % winning chance. Now I also had to look at the second card in my hand it is the



To me there was really not much to consider. I could not put the guy on a hand and even if he somehow slow played an over pair such as JJ, I still had about 42 %. Against Aces I had 32 %. But these scenarios didn't exist. The only hand that I could be afraid of was a random 77 but since I was holding a 7, that didn't make much sense either. I also considered him sitting with Js Ts in which case it is also a coin-flip.

Bottom-line I called and he showed AJo. At least my read was right. Unfortunately the board blanked and I was left with just under 200k. Next hand I got my money in with top pair against Ace high and a gut-shot straight draw. He hit a straight on the river and so long for this year's WSOP.

Was it great poker? Typical Hansen style? Today, as I am sitting here overlooking the Mediterranean I don't mind my play, but I probably should have waited a couple of hours longer before engaging in open battle with an uber-aggressive player. Strategically, it wasn't the right decision to put in a re-raise against this type of player at this point in the tournament. I will elaborate on that in my next blog.

I am in Cannes right now getting ready for the Riviera Cup the last tournament in the World Series of Backgammon leading up to the World Series of Backgammon Championship Event. For more information go to www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com.

Feel free to drop by my Facebook profile here with any comments you might have.

Later

Gus

Gus plays online exclusively at FullTiltPoker.com. Be a part of Gus Hansen's poker community at www.theplayr.com, where among other cool stuff you can check out Gus' blogs, analysis, poker articles, Gus TV, Tips'n'Tricks, "Ask Gus" and even play against Gus in exclusive online and live tournaments.