LAG players are winners. Not all of them, of course, but if you watch $5/$10 or $10/$20 No-Limit games you will see that most of the best players, at least sometimes, play LAG.
Loose-aggressive, or LAG, is characterized by playing a lot of hands, including some bad ones, and then betting frequently post-flop. At many tables and in many scenarios this style of play wins, and more quickly than any other style.
However, it is not the perfect style. In fact, if you tailor your strategy to play against this type of player, it is actually quite easy to beat them. The reason LAG is so successful is because it exploits the way most “solid” players have learned to play No-Limit.
Post-flop aggression from winning LAGs
The key to the LAG style is not the loose part, but the aggressive part. A successful LAG could play very tight preflop and still be quite profitable.
But this does not mean that aggression should occur for free and in all circumstances. A good LAG player knows how to use aggression on boards with textures that are commonly played incorrectly by most players.
The biggest mistake to exploit as a LAG player is how players value their hands in No-Limit. For example, a regular player would see a hand like AT on an 885 board as ace-high, but an A5 hand as two pair. However, AT is a one-pair hand and A5 is obviously a two-pair hand. When a LAG player is betting over you, both hands tend to be similarly valued, making them good hands to catch bluffs with. It is a mistake to play each hand differently just because they occupy a different place on the hand chart.
Most players also draw a line between top pair hands and non-top pair hands. On a JT4 flop, QJ has top pair, but QT does not. This is, of course, a given. However, in many scenarios, when playing against a LAG, both hands are very similar in value.
LAG players take advantage of these mistakes by playing in a way that creates situations where their opponents value these hands differently than they should value them. They then count on their opponents to fold lower-ranked hands more often than they call them.
These are the most common hands where LAG players make a big profit. They 3-bet preflop, then bet half the pot on the flop and again on the turn (when the board texture is good for it), and thus make their opponents fold anything but top pair. On a flop like 885, for example, LAGs know that most opponents will often be stuck with an ace-low hand, king-high or queen-high, which are hands that they usually fold to the turn just because of their low position on the hand chart.
Image on the table
Winning LAGs can play looser preflop simply because they win so many hands with turn and river bets. They don't need to build good hands as often if their opponents are willing to fold frequently and predictably on many types of boards.
Another bonus for this type of player is that because they are loose preflop, other players often create a specific image in their minds. This image causes players to try to catch LAGs bluffing on boards where they don't actually bluff very often.
For example, let's say a LAG opens with a bet of $30 in a $5/$10 game from middle position and is called by the button and the big blind. The pot is $95 and the players are all behind $2000. The flop comes A 7 4 and everyone checks to the LAG, who bets $90. The button folds and the big blind calls. The turn comes 8, the big blind bets $150 into a pot of $275 and the LAG raises to $450. The big blind calls. The river comes 4. The big blind checks and the LAG shoves $1460 into a pot of $1175.
Most LAGs who are used to recreational players at stakes like $5/$10 will not be bluffing in this situation. The big blind is marked with an ace due to the check-call on the ace-high board and the donk bet and call to the turn raise.
Furthermore, the typical recreational player will make the decision to fold with an ace after being raised. After betting the turn and getting raised, with a hand like AJ, for example, the player will think, “This guy won’t stop betting, if I call this raise I’ll have to be ready to call a shove on the river as well.”
LAG is familiar with this dynamic, so it's possible that he may occasionally be bluffing with this bet, but usually his hand is good enough to even beat something like AQ. Overall, it would be a bad call for the big blind holding AJ.
How to beat LAGs
As I stated at the beginning of this article, beating a LAG player can be trivial if you tailor your strategies accordingly. The first step is to be tight preflop. As you play stronger hands than the LAGs, you will have the advantage throughout most pots.
The second step is to pay attention to bet sizes. In cash games, LAGs will usually try to use smaller bets when they are bluffing the flop or turn. However, if they are trying to use their image to get paid off, they will switch to larger bets.
The third step is to think about how the LAG sees the hand you are holding. Most of these players will have to think that you have a weak hand in order to try to bluff you. For example, let's say the flop comes K76 and you check-call. The turn comes a 9 and you check-call again. The LAG player will know that you may have the K, but there is also a good chance that you have hands with an 8 or T, or perhaps a pair of 9s, 7s or 6s.
So if the river comes a Q and the LAG player bets, you can consider calling even if you only have a pair of 9s, 7s or 6s. He would probably check if he was holding a queen, since it loses to a king but beats most pairs that most players tend to fold. A bet on the river, therefore, means that he can either beat a pair of kings or that he is bluffing. Since it is difficult to beat a pair of kings, and since you have the odds to call, this becomes a good spot to try to catch him on his bluff.
Final considerations – it is possible to beat winners
LAGs rely on winning a high percentage of pots to make a profit. They need their opponents to fold hands incorrectly due to a misread of the board texture. They also benefit when their opponents give bet-sizing tells while simultaneously ignoring those tells from LAG players.
If you want to beat a LAG, the recipe is simple. Play tight. Don't fold easily to small bets. Don't try to "fight back", just check and wait for the LAG to bet so you can take all of their stacks and show who the real winners are!
Article translated and adapted from the original: Poker Strategy With Ed Miller: Why LAGs Win
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