strategy against an aggressive player?

[Lord Ben 0]

Okay, I play a lot of homegames and one thing I notice is that I seem to vary in success based on who I'm playing against. I played against my "normal" group of players who are all very good (I think) and do well against them. I'm an aggressive player and they don't like to read draws so I've learned I can steal a lot of pots from them and do well enough even if I get crappy cards all night long.However last friday I was in a local tourney with 43 people and everyone on the table was playing like me? Some of them were quite drunk and were obviously very aggressive. I'd call a few but the flop would always turn up crap and they'd raise 500 chips (started with 4000) and if I had a semidecent hand and called they'd do 1000 then 2000, etc. I can't afford to call just to see, and my hands were never good enough to go all in against them (I think). I'm pretty sure I played crappy in retrospect, but I don't have much experience playing against people who are good. My best bet, I think, was to catch good cards, let them jack up the pot and take it all home with me. But I never caught the cards and was slowly drained out by the huge pre-flop bet amounts. I went all in on two pair, A and T and the other guy was slow playing his full house (the only non-aggressive player on the table).So what kind of strategies work good playing against someone aggressive? Was I doing okay waiting until I caught good cards and then raking up the aggressive players money? Should I have tried to out-bluff them and steal pots risking everything? Should I have tightened up and only played the very best of hands? A combo?

[jonnyhockey 0]

I think the best way to play is super-tight. When you get a hand, limp with it, or smooth call and try to trap the agressive buggers. Could lead to getting blinded out though, so it's risky, but I'd say a lot less risky than calling big raises with mediocrity, and being forced to face big bets on the flop with a middle pair or something.

[Lord Ben 0]

Another bit of info, it was a 43 person tourney that was supposed to last about 5 hours. So the blinds were doubling every 20 minutes after the first few 30 minute ones. Playing tight would have hurt pretty bad because I'd have gotten blinded out in about an hour, probably less.

[jonnyhockey 0]

Another bit of info, it was a 43 person tourney that was supposed to last about 5 hours. So the blinds were doubling every 20 minutes after the first few 30 minute ones. Playing tight would have hurt pretty bad because I'd have gotten blinded out in about an hour, probably less.

Well, this doesn't seem like a very fast blind structure, but i guess it depends on what they were compared to starting stacks.But if the problem is blind structure, then THAT'S your main concern, not agressive players. You gotta go in swinging if you want to compete in a tourny with fast/high blinds.

[Lord Ben 0]

Yeah, normally I do and win okay. But that's against the more timid people. This was my first time against really aggressive players.

[jonnyhockey 0]

Well, with fast blinds, and aggressive players, it's a real crapshoot. Almost allin with any high PP, or AK, or AQ, and pray to jeebus it holds.Those can't be all that enjoyable. Hope it isn't too much to enter...