All else being equal, it’s nice to have an aggressive image in a poker tournament. This increases the value of your strong starting hands as players will be more likely to pay you off thinking you’re full of it. So how do you go about building an aggressive image? There are good ways and bad ways to do it. A bad way would be raising a lot of pots willy-nilly in hopes of looking crazy. When you do that, you don’t look crazy, you are crazy. The best way to go about building an aggressive image is to do so selectively. The idea is to be not only aggressive, but smart as well.
So, practically speaking, how can this be accomplished? Well, there are a few shortcuts to building an aggressive image despite not really risking a whole lot:
Raise a lot in late position
The fewer people you have behind you, the higher the chance you have of being able to steal the blinds. This is especially the case when it folds to you in the small blind. From that spot, I like to raise with a very wide range of hands. Same goes for when it folds to you on the button. Be careful with button raises though. That is such a transparent play. In other words, most people almost expect you to raise the button with a very wide range, so sometimes it’s smart to actually only raise the button with a tight range. The “new button” is the “hijack”, which is two positions to the right of the button. From here, you can make a lot of raises but still get credit for probably having a decent hand.
Bet at a lot of flops in un-raised pots
If one or two players limp into the pot while I am on the big blind, I like to bet out at most flops regardless of whether it helped my hand. In pots like that, players will almost always give up if they miss the flop. And more often than not, players miss the flop. So take advantage of the fact that you are first to act and lead out for a small bet.
Continuation bet almost always
When you raise preflop and get a caller from the blinds, you should almost always bet after they check it to you on the flop. I’d recommend “continuation betting” (they call it that because you are continuing your role as the aggressor) about 80% of the time. Don’t give players free cards. Screw ‘em. By continuation betting frequently, you set up an aggressive image at the table that will induce people to playing back at you.
Re-raise preflop when the stacks are deep
A very strong play to make when the stacks are fairly deep (say, 50 big blinds or more) is to re-raise preflop with a wide range of hands against the right opponents. The “right” opponents in this case are players who aren’t too tight and aren’t too loose. Look for guys that are sort of active, but will roll over easily as well. Re-raise them preflop sometimes with air. This will give your legitimate re-raises more credibility down the road.