Staying consistent in poker can cause some problems and it could cause some solutions to problems. There is a time to be consistent and there is a time not to be consistent. Playing poker is one of the most mind tiring games in the world. The mind is constantly thinking and just all over the place. It can be very hard to think about all these different things at once and still focus on your game. One of the important things to be thinking about is the way you are playing your hands. Not staying aggressive with strong hands is a mistake that many players new and old make way too many times.

There are a couple of simple reasons why you would want to stay aggressive with a strong hand. The first reason is because you do not want your opponents to be able to see free cards and catch a draw. This is very important to think about because it can be the difference from winning a pot and losing your entire stack.

Example:

You have AK (suited diamonds)

You have good position and you decide to raise before the flop to make it 5 times the big blind. You end up getting 2 callers and the flop comes:

A 3 9 (off suit)

Okay so this is a fairly good flop for your hand, so now what do you do?

You have a strong hand, and you played it that way before the flop. There is no reason to quit playing it strong now. There are however several reasons to keep playing this hand strong. There is no way you can know what your opponents have. The only way you can get any kind of idea is by betting your hand here and seeing what your opponents do. Stay aggressive here and see where it takes you.

Chances are you will get at least one of them to fold; maybe even all of them. Who cares if you have the best hand and you want more money. What happens when you are going up against pocket 2’s and one of your opponents catches a 2 on the turn because you did not bet your hand? A pair (even a pair of aces) is not that good of a hand. There is way too much out there to not bet your hand aggressively and take out the trash.

Aggressive poker is winning poker, and that has been said by many very good and respectable poker players. When you are being aggressive, you are putting your opponents in a tough position, which is exactly where you want them. The idea is to have each and every one of your opponents not want to play against you. They should have respect for you because of your aggressive play. Quite simply, if you stop playing your strong hand aggressive; you are letting all of your opponents off easy. Each and every one of them is saying in their heads “let’s see a free card come on!”  Staying aggressive with strong hands will make you a much better player if you don’t do that already.