Winning Style: Play tight and aggressive

Here’s another poker tip that I picked up when I started out. I was pretty predictable in those early years, playing as a tight, timid player.

Whenever I had a huge hand, I never seemed to get paid off as much as I hoped. I asked my poker pro buddy what my problem was. It was then that he told me that poker players are characterized by 4 main playing styles.

Those styles are:

1. Tight-Aggressive
2. Loose-Aggressive
3. Loose-Passive
4. Tight-Passive

He told me that without exception, the most effective poker style is tight-aggressive. For those of you who don’t know this, I will describe to you exactly what these four types mean.

For each of the styles, there are two words to describe them. The first part of the name describes the types of hands a player prefers to play.

A "loose" player is someone who plays many types of hands, whether they be pocket pairs, suited connectors, connectors of any type or any suited cards.

A "tight" player is someone who generally only plays stronger, more solid hands such as pocket pairs, big cards and suited connectors.

The second word in the description deals with the type of betting style the player has.

A “passive” player does most often checks and calls and rarely raises, even with the best hand. A person who is “aggressive”, as you might have guessed is just the opposite. This person rarely checks and calls and mostly bets out and raises the pot.

Now that we’ve defined the terms, let’s take a look at the playing styles.
 
1. Loose-Passive

A loose-passive style is the most amateur style of play and is characteristic of inexperienced players. These players play a large range of hands and will see lots of flops whether they are cheap or not.

Post-flop, they will check-call all the way down with any type of holding, whether it be a small pair or middle pair. They make more calls than AT&T and are therefore known as calling stations.

The best strategy against this type of player is to wait for good hands and keep betting at them forcing them to make bad and costly calls. Bluffs against these players must be large because they will call average bets with very moderate hands.

2. Loose-Aggressive

The loose-aggressive players are the maniacs at your table. If you are not prepared, these players can take all of your chips in a hurry. They also lose massive amounts of chips quickly.

Against these foes, you need to be patient and keep your composure. These players play and raise with bizarre holdings; hands you may not even see a flop with. This makes it tough to put them on specific hands.

This is where the danger lies. For example, let's say a maniac calls a pre-flop raise with a 2-4 offsuit and the flop comes: A-3-5. You are holding A-K, and you think you’re in good shape. The turn card is a King and the river is a 9 and you’ve been betting aggressively throughout. You will end up losing many chips to the maniac’s straight.  Once this happens, you may go on tilt and you’re in pretty bad shape. 
 
To beat this player, you absolutely must wait for a strong hand. The maniac's weakness is that he hates being raised because he perceives it as being bullied. When you get heads-up with a maniac and your hand is strong, raising him or making small bets that entice him to bluff are the way to take his chips.

If you let this player self-destruct, he’ll make the wrong move at the wrong time and you'll be able to take his chips.

3. Tight-Passive

Tight-passive players are easy to beat. If this player shows any kind of strength, get out of the way. They won’t make marginal calls so when they come out betting, they usually have you beat and you won’t be able to bluff them.

These players will often "survive" for a long time in a game because they never risk too many chips but slowly and surely, they will lose all their chips. 

4. Tight-Aggressive

The optimal playing style for no limit is tight-aggressive. Tight-aggressive players choose their starting hands wisely and they rarely "limp-in". Instead, they usually either fold or raise before the flop.

Post flop, they'll make aggressive bets if they've got a hand or if they raised pre-flop, a continuation bet.
Why is this style so effective? The reason a tight-aggressive playing style is so effective is because you only risk chips when you've got a good hand. But when this player risks chips, they risk lots of them.

A couple winning hands will build a nice-sized stack. This is the playing style used and recommended by just about every professional card player. It's often referred to as "aggressively smart" or "selective aggression".

This style is not bulletproof of course. The downside of a tight-aggressive style is that it's often easy to read. This style can often build a tight table image and when that happens, opponents won't give you action for your big hands.

How do you combat this? You must be deceptive. Early on, give the impression that you are a loose player and show that you bluff. Don’t cripple yourself doing so but give the impression.

For example, say you pick up an 8-7 hearts on the button and three players limp-in. You make a big raise and everyone folds. Flip over your suited connectors as you take the pot.

A move like this is usually enough to get you action for your big hands later. When you pick up your big pairs like Q-Q on the button a bit later and make the same pre-flop raise, you get a caller or two and can pick up lots of chips.

A huge advantage of playing tight-aggressive is that many of your opponents won't distinguish between loose and aggressive.

If you raise aggressively with strong hands and then mix it up with the occasional bluff you'll be able to keep your opponents guessing. That’s how you play tight-aggressive. I used this style to increase my earnings. You will do the same if you follow suit.

 Until next time, may the chips fall your way.