“Stay far from timid.”
Biggie Smalls
I read a few lines in Cory Doctorow’s Red Team Blues and put the book down. Blue team defends a system. Red team breaks in.
“That’s the problem with blue teaming it—you need to be perfect, while—”
“The red team only has to find a single error,” Cory Doctorow, Red Team Blues
Aggression has value at the poker table apart from your cards. A bet can win the pot outright whatever you hold.
The winning style has a name, tight-aggressive.
Fold most hands. Bet hard on the few you play.
The passive player is the defender, playing not to lose.
The defender can only win at showdown. The aggressor can win at showdown too or take the pot whenever the defender folds.
Each fold bleeds chips. When a timid player finally bets, opponents step aside because the raise screams strength. Chips leak on defense and the rare big hand pays almost nothing.
In chess the threat is stronger than its execution. A standing threat forces the defender to answer it on each move while the attacker keeps his options open.
Answer each move correctly and you have still spent the game solving problems someone else set.
Back at the poker table, both errors have a name.
One player only plays the top ten starting hands and folds when anyone pushes back. Phil Hellmuth named him the mouse in Play Poker Like the Pros.
Another pushes money in with any two cards and never looks at who he is up against.
The table calls him the maniac.
Good players make money off the maniac. They stop bluffing him with weak cards and let him do the betting when they are strong.
The maniac attacks everyone equally. That is the same as aiming at nobody.
In chess, overextending an attack leaves pieces exposed. You create targets instead of threats.
Unaimed aggression hands the advantage back.
Timid loses slowly. Maniac loses fast. Aim your aggression and you choose when the fight happens.
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What opportunity could you create instead of waiting for one?
