Learning how to deal with heads-up aggressiveness in poker will guarantee a victory
Facing aggressive opponents while playing a heads-up poker match can become stressful. These players apply constant pressure to the game by raising, three-betting and using a lot of check-raises or bluff strategies. Many players tend to react in a negative way to an aggressive player, so, instead of trying to come up with a new strategy, it’s easier to focus on counterproductive actions and sometimes lose control. There are a few tips you can consider to better approach this kind of players, and they require just small adjustments in your strategy.
To better respond to an aggressive player, you can make subtle changes one at a time. How wide you open or defend post-flop is the first thing you can adjust, which is basically trying to adapt an opposite style of play. In other words, you will do exactly the opposite of what your opponent is doing. You can narrow your opening range by asking yourself if the hand is good enough to call a three-bet, which will most likely happen. If the answer is no, then it is better to fold and move on.
Another adjustment to make is the amount of bluffing you do. It is better to limit the number of times you bluff, or not do it at all. This is based on the statement that, to confront aggressive players, it is better to make sure all actions are valuable since you are taking the passive side. If you bluff too much, you are exposed to this player calling your bets and re-raise you most of the time, so a lot of money can go down the drain.
