Passive vs. Aggro Case Study

[mojoyoyo]

We had been talking in the thread "Let's discuss and fix weak-tight" about passive vs. aggro thinking.

Very recently I was heads-up with a winning player who gets auto-rated into tight-aggro (remember I am auto-rated into tight-passive). There are two events that I think demonstrate with crystal clarity the difference *in thinking* between aggressive post-flop and passive post-flop.

Here is how the hand goes down:

Aggro man raises for the blinds in late position, I call his bet in the BB with K9. Not my favorite hand to defend with, but let's give it a try.

The flop comes 9 high. I hit top pair, good kicker. My money says he has a big ace. I bet into him, he raises, and I call. The rest of the hand does not matter for the purpose of this discussion.

Now I am going to turn over his cards and explain how an aggressive player thinks (him) compared to a player who is aggressively-challenged (I am beginning to resent the term "weak").

He has AKs. He had flopped a 4FL with 2 big overcards. Notice the following:

Notice the outs. He has in reality 13 (spades, 1K, 3A). He might have estimated as high as 15 or as low as 12. With 2 cards to come, he is about 50-50.

Point 1: I bet into him respresenting *something* and he raises with (as yet) nothing. As an aggressively-challenged player, I would have called here.

Aggro-thinking: I am 50-50. He might have something. He might have me beat badly. But there are going to be times where my raise here will cause a check-fold on the turn if a scare card comes, even if it is not one of mine (where he will fold a small 1 pair). This has got to, over the long run, make me about 60-40 in these situations.

Passive-thinking: I am about 50-50. I don't have anything yet. I am going to call and see what the turn brings.

Point 2- I read him a big ace and missing. My read was dead-on. I bet into him and he raises me-

Passive-thinking: My read might be wrong, so I will call it back and see what the turn brings.

Aggro-thinking: My reads are usually right. He has *so* missed the flop. I am going to 3-bet his weak attempt to push me around and properly punish him for drawing to whatever it is he is drawing to.

So, in summary:
1. In his shoes, I make the wrong play (call vs. raise)
2. In my shoes, I make the wrong play (call back vs. re-raise)

I suspect this how a lot of the weak-tight issues crop up.

BTW- aggro man spikes an ace and takes the pot. But he leaves me with an image and path worth more than 1 small HU pot.