The clothing, language and lifestyle of poker is, naturally, subject to fashion. Giant rhinestone hats give way to hoodies. The Wynn becomes more desirable than the Bellagio. "I got screwed in the comp" becomes "lol donkaments". Big side action on golf looms large in the 1970s, wanes out of style, then slams back in again.
But there are also fashions in the actual playing of the game. When I learned poker, if you called out of position and hit the flop big, it was absolutely mandatory to check. If you flopped a straight, a flush, a set, two pair, you would automatically check to the raiser.
When he bet, you would call or raise depending on the stack sizes, the opponent and the size of the trap you wanted to set.
More recently, it has been modish to bet out on your big hands. It is inevitable, in a game which is all about the counter-intuitive, that players will watch what everyone's doing and then do the opposite. So, if everyone is trap-checking their big hands, the smart people start betting right out with them, looking to get raised. And that works for a while, so everyone starts doing it.
Now, I feel the trend creeping back the other way. I am still playing lots of online heads-up and I'm losing count of the people who check top pair. It's exasperating to play against. Either I hit the free card I'm given and can't pass, or hit nothing but can't resist trying to steal in the face of this apparent weakness.
You might think, therefore, that I'd advise trying this strategy for yourself. Actually no. You will hit top pair so rarely that it's not worth it. Fashion be damned! In heads up I still say: aggression, aggression, aggression.
