Hold Em Authority - Texas Hold Em Strategy and advice for all levels of players

I always wonder what it would be like to go back a few years to when I first started playing texas hold em on the internet. I want to see A) How horrible I was, and B) the way everyone else played the game at the time. I have a pretty good idea of what A would look like, but B intrigues me. I have a feeling that players were a lot less aggressive than they are now, and Wachovia at PocketFives tends to agree with me. His article, What a Drastic Change, takes a look at the changes he has noticed in the internet poker game just in the last nine months. I have a feeling you’ll be able to relate to this article.For those of you that have played on the internet over the past few years, I think you understand what I’m talking about when I say that I raise 6-10X the BB early in a tournament because I know even with the monster raise, I will still get callers 9 out of 10 times.

You know what I’m talking about when I put my whole stack, 1500, when the pot is only 700, into a flop where I hit top pair and there is a flush draw on board.

It’s easy to justify any move you make in poker, and it seems like there are more ways to justify the aggressive moves than there are to justify passive moves. It seems that giving yourself a chance to double up is always better than folding a strong hand in hopes that a better opportunity will come along.

I’m not saying any of this is bad, in fact, it may be a good thing that players are willing to put more money in the pot than they should. As a poker player, you must be able to adapt to all situations, and with the abundance of aggressive players out there, you will sure as hell have an opportunity to adjust your game accordingly and find a successful strategy to counter these players.

What is that strategy? Well, that I really can’t tell you, and here’s why: let’s assume you’re a baseball player - if I tell you that you must stand like Albert Pujols in the batters box, you probably won’t be successful because you don’t feel comfortable with his stance. If that was the key to hitting, everyone would stand like him at the plate. You are more successful at the plate with a stance that you feel comfortable with. Such is poker - you must find a strategy that you feel comfortable with - stay within yourself and hopefully success will follow.