In the previous article we discussed the extreme aggressive player, but rather than just learn the basic extreme definition it is important to learn how an aggressive player might generally play. Generally means that although they may mix up their game a bit, chances are they will play aggressively most of the time.
The aggressive player is a person who most often goes for gin. They are not people who tend to knock; rather they would rather have gin or the possibility of underknocking you. If a person is 100% aggressive, they tend to suffer tremendously in situations when the score is against them. He will also suffer in the game in which the cards are running against him.
There is a time though when aggressive play is needed however. This is based primarily on the condition of the score and on the way the cards are running. If the points to be won on a given hand would mean more for you than for your opponent then the odds say to play this hand more aggressively. If however, the score is such that you stand to lose far more than you gain, such as when you are on a schneid, then it is not to your advantage to play more aggressively. You need to prevent your opponent from winning the hand, and you won’t do that by being an aggressive player. However, you cannot win consistently by being totally a defensive player, so there are times that you need to be aggressive, but you need to recognize those times before you go all out.
An aggressive player will often try to figure out what his opponent will do and then use a reverse pattern of play. For example, if they feel that their opponent is more likely to throw out a higher card due to their defensive nature of play, then the aggressive player will keep any high combinations that they have in hopes that the defensive player will throw out a high card early in the game. The aggressive player is more apt to recognize what another aggressive player early in a game because they are playing very similar in any given hand.
If you want to be an expert player, then you should not consider being an aggressive player all the time. There are going to be times where it is deemed necessary, but an aggressive player has a tendency to lose more than they win. This is because they are always more concerned with making their hand rather than winning the game. An aggressive player has a tendency not to be as concerned with the hand of the opponent, and that will inevitably allow the opponent to read him and use it to their advantage, and thus, winning more games then they should be allowed to.