What does a tight poker player mean? Poker strategy at tight tables

At the top of poker strategy is the tight-aggressive style that the vast majority of successful players use. All you need to do is wait for a favorable situation and play strong hands as actively as possible. Let's take a closer look at the two components of a tight-aggressive style.

Tight style

The two-card combinations that are dealt by the dealer at the beginning of the game are called starting hands. A tight style is based on a limited number of starting hands that are more likely to be victorious. Good tight players use only about 20% of the 169 possible combinations to enter the game preflop, choosing only the strongest ones. Premium hands such as AA, KK or AK will rarely come across to you, but a lot of weak starting hands, on the contrary, will make up the majority. Please be patient and always strictly adhere to the rules, which will be detailed in the article "Preflop Basics". Remember that the starting hand charts in this article have been tested by professionals over the years and have proven to be unshakable.

Each player has many temptations that lead him to play too many hands. If you succumb to these temptations, chances are your poker career will be over before it even starts. By playing weak hands preflop, you too often put yourself in a situation where, far behind your opponent, you cannot win chips. Therefore, we will learn to play only decent hands and not allow ourselves to play weak preflop.

Aggressive play

Dan Harrington in his book "Cash by Harrington" formulated one of the fundamental principles of Texas Hold'em.

Generally, aggression (bets and raises) is better than passivity (check or call).

Aggressive poker is undoubtedly one of the ingredients for success. Don't be afraid to bet and raise and try to avoid checking and calling if you think you are ahead. Be especially wary of preflop calls as with this move, you personally give the initiative into the hands of your opponent and put yourself in a difficult situation at the very beginning of the rally.

Aggression will allow you to control the course of the game throughout the entire rally. Plus, playing aggressively gives you two chances to win. First, you can win immediately if your opponent folds. Second, you can win at showdown if your hand is stronger. But passive play can only allow you to win at showdown, if your combination is victorious.

Another advantage of being aggressive is the constant pressure on the opponent. After all, forcing your opponent to play under the onslaught of bets and raises, you can force him to make less balanced or obviously wrong decisions. And this is exactly what you need!

The tight aggressive style of poker is the basic, basic and most popular style of poker. Tight means playing a certain, small range of strong starting hands that are most likely to win. And aggression means the frequent use of big bets and raises in the drawing, and only occasionally the call is made. This strategy is best suited for a full table with 7-10 players. This style of play makes the best use of your opponents' mistakes at mid and low limits.

Tight play

Of all the 169 recommended starting hands for Texas Hold'em, the strongest are, and yet they don't come as often as we would like. Senior suited cards, for example, also often bring winnings to their owner, but they are also rarely seen in their hands. In the vast majority of cases, weak hands come, such as, or - the weakest hand in poker.

All such and other weak hands must be folded by a player who has chosen a tight-aggressive strategy even before the flop opens, otherwise there is a high risk of knowingly being in a disadvantageous position relative to opponents and losing money. Similar actions in most cases allow you to avoid difficult situations and decisions.

Thus, tightness means that the starting hand is chosen very carefully, so only 15-20% of hands are played on average, and sometimes even less, which limits the annoying losses and gives a great chance to succeed in the long term.

Aggressive prank

Aggressive play means using the principle: "Better to be the first to bet or raise than to just call a bet or check." Such a game is characterized by big bets and raises, only sometimes by calls, which makes it possible to put pressure on opponents, forcing them to make mistakes. This is why many successful players use an aggressive playstyle. In view of this fact, aggression in poker is one of the fundamental factors in winning.

The aggressive style of play does not allow opponents to strengthen their combination for free (by checking), since your pressure makes them fold their hands, or significantly replenish the pot, answering a high bet, which is exactly what you need, because you have a strong hand and a chance take the pot higher than the opponent's.

Example:

Let's say our opponent has a flop and the pot is $ 10. We hit the flop and got a strong pair, but our opponent has the opportunity to make a straight if the jack comes up on the turn or river. If you don't bet, your opponent will most likely check and have the opportunity to see the turn for free. Therefore, the best solution in this situation will be our rate, at least half the pot (more is possible).

By such actions, we will put him in a difficult situation when he needs to make an ambiguous decision - to fold or respond to our bet, replenishing the bank and increasing our winnings. In both cases, our opponent's actions are beneficial to us: if he folds, then we will take the pot without risk; if he answers us, he will increase the bank and our profit, since he has little chance of collecting a straight.

Using bluffs

More experienced and skilled players are adept at using a tight aggressive bluffing style. After all, the image of a player who only plays strong hands makes opponents respect your high bets and raises, and in most cases they will fold weak or even moderate strength hands. It is bluffing that makes the game of poker the most interesting game, and the players who skillfully use it, the most skillful and successful.

You should be especially careful with bluffing: use it extremely rarely and exclusively in late positions, provided that no one has made a high bet or raise before you, and a maximum of two limpers have entered the game (players who made the minimum bet are the big blind). Without a lot of experience playing, it is best to fold your weak hand and wait for a strong one.

But even the style of play described above cannot insure you against variance - a series of hands in which a correctly played hand can lose, and a wrongly played win. We'll cover variance in poker in more detail in our next tutorial.

What exactly is the style of the game itself? This is a collection of proven skills that regular players use. For poker, everything is exactly the same - each player follows his own tactics of the game, if the action takes place according to familiar rules. Why is it important to play in a certain manner, and not play, relying on luck, constantly changing your tactics of the game?

It is worth noting that in order to obtain results over a sufficiently long distance, you must constantly monitor your dynamics and only in this way draw certain conclusions for yourself. If you have decided to play not according to the system, then you will not be able to understand exactly where you made the right step, and where not. Your actions are worth analyzing and drawing certain conclusions for yourself to improve efficiency.

This is not at all an option to constantly play within certain limits, because this is the possibility of losing. All your playing manners and especially tactics need to be selected only for yourself, taking into account all factors, the opponent's methods, the place at the table, the distance of the stack, and more.

The ability to act the same way, repeating everything the same way from distribution to distribution, reduces your winnings to almost zero. After all, it will not be difficult for an experienced opponent to calculate your combinations. This is why you need to stick to a reliable style in poker, but remember to change it according to the circumstances of the game itself.

The essence of the tight style of poker

The tight style of poker has proven to be more prevalent in relation to others. Observations show that the loose-aggressive style and its direction are inherent in many players. Often, it is the tight one that is advised by more experienced and professional masters to beginners.

A characteristic of a tight game in poker is caution not only at the poker table itself, but also an accurate choice of played hands, and a rather rare entry into the hands. This style of poker minimizes the scale of hands, which means that preflop players will only enter the hand with reputable pocket hands, regardless of location.

In fact, every tight player has his own tactics and methods, foreseen by a reliable range, but such actions are easy enough to qualify, it follows: a tight player enters preflop from an earlier or middle position in the distribution with a pair above ten and aces with high cards. At later positions, the player gets the opportunity to take part in this action, but already in pairs from 77 and one-color connectors.

Usually, a tight poker game can be divided into two flavors: passive and aggressive. The passive version is more suitable for completely inexperienced, that is, for beginners, the property actually does not accept activity, just go with the flow and be content with little. Typically, he keeps track of the flop, betting small bets and hoping to be lucky by coincidence. But no matter how strong the post-flop bet is, it turns out to be a loser and this is a common reinsurance.

The opportunity to catch luck on the flop, the tight passive player is reinsured and does not make any special aspirations. Making small bets, worrying that more experienced players have already found the right combination. That is why such a method in poker does not have a chance to be effective enough. It is worth noting that the costs of buying the blinds are not at all covered by very rare victories, and also the opponents, feeling passive play, make bets with junk hands, and this leads to rejection until their strong hands are folded.

And now the aggressive style is meant as a cautious pre-flop game, but with definitely aggressive behavior with a strong hand. A picky choice of played hands and well-thought-out actions to a large bet, in the presence of strong cards, only such a position is considered a win-win.

And even if he catches random coincidences post-flop with the effort of his hand, he does it aggressively, increasing the pot and placing bets. Only such a tight approach can bring you constant income and cover all your expenses in the game.

There are, unfortunately, minor drawbacks of this particular style, if the binder rises in rather late phases, accordingly, the costs increase and do not have time to be covered by the winnings. That is why this style is easy for players to read, and if you don’t make another bet or don’t raise it at all, it’s easier to fold.

After the lapse of time, the rivals adapt and no longer invest in the bank so recklessly, and only then their selection of cards is weaker.

Features of the use of the tight method and the fight against it

• Long table... If you apply a tight style against eight people, then it is considered promising to do it at the expense of a large table: you are less likely to face a competitor, which means you play less in the blinds, and lose less chips on compulsory bets. The growth of the pot in your hand depends only on the availability of players and you will have a huge chance if you get a strong combination of cards.
• Short tables the exact opposite of the tight style of poker. Due to which you take the blind position more often, while simply losing your money. Professional poker players accurately calculate the tactics of beginners and simply do not invest in the bank, while knowing that you have a stronger hand.
• One on one... The range of hands absolutely for any poker player in heads-up is forced to constantly expand, unless of course a tight player expects hole cards, just like in a game at a long table. Due to this, you simply lose in the blinds and the probability of winning is very low. This is why you need to play more loosely.

The tight style of poker is practiced more effectively when aggressive opponents are at the table. It makes sense, because aggressive poker players often enter the hand, regardless of their strong or weak hands. Playing only in their style, the opportunity to get good luck on the multitop, because you don't need any special skill. And if you collect all your knowledge and select cards, then you will have a real opportunity to get a significant win.

What is the right way to play against tight players?

If you have drawn conclusions for yourself, then an aggressive approach is likely to be your choice. After all, this is the only way it is a completely logical tact of actions and more than appropriate. All methods are quite effective and accurately work in the game even against each other. The advantage in the game is given only by a quick identification of the enemy in order to calculate his experience and skills. In this case, you can use the usual bluff, because a sufficient number of players and their hands will simply be folded.

You can use a raise when playing with a tight opponent, in which case his combination can be calculated freely, you just have to be especially careful. Calling is considered a good pocket card. Putting it all together, a tight player gives a lot of tips and often professional poker players use it all the time.

Playing tight in poker will definitely suit inept players and avoid the difficult circumstances of playing post-flop. After all, in the distribution you should not rely only on luck, playing tight you only solve the problem - to fold or take part in the deal. If you do decide to deal, you are the owner of a strong hand and you have absolutely every opportunity for a huge prize postflop.

Poker is not just a card game, it is a game between people in which cards are involved. As you progress and acquire poker skills, you will be faced with situations in which you will really understand how convincing this statement is. In this article, we will look at the main existing styles of poker and how to identify them.

Whether you are playing online poker or playing live, observing opponents' decisions you can pick up on tendencies, both psychologically and emotionally, which will ultimately help you determine the best way to play against them.

You must have come across such a thing as LAG or TAG in poker more than once. This refers to determining the style of play of the person at the table. But, even having figured out that LAG is a loose-aggressive player, TAG is a tight-aggressive player, and also that there are still tight- and loose-passive players, it does not mean that you fully understand what it means, and how it can play into your hands. In this article, we will not only help you understand who a TAG is in poker, but also how to play against it as effectively as possible.

Defining Poker Styles

Poker is a game of observation. Therefore, the first step towards defining a player's style is to observe their general tendencies. This is the key to your poker success. Studying the tendencies of your opponents is considered a must, especially if you are planning to become a winning player. Every action that your opponent takes already means something. Why did the player x-raise from that position or did he just call? It should be emphasized again and again that you need to always monitor the game, especially when you are not participating in the hand (which can be in most cases), in order to understand what your opponents are thinking and how they will act.

Poker players can be divided into two main categories, which will determine their style of playing poker. These are categories such as tight versus loose, and passive versus aggressive.

• A tight player usually plays a small number of only the best hands.
• A loose player plays a wide range of hands.

The name "tight" or "loose" refers to the choice of starting hands, not the manner in which they are played. It all depends on whether the poker player will play with a narrow (tight) or wide (loose) range of hands. A tight style of poker is usually chosen by cautious poker players who are afraid of losing their stack. Loose poker is more creative.

The passivity or aggressiveness of the players is reflected in their willingness to take risks.

• Passive players try to avoid confrontation and play with fear of losing.
• Aggressive players raise more often than they call and are not afraid to put their chips at risk.

Also, the passivity or aggressiveness of opponents depends on how you play against them.

How to determine the style of a poker player?

By observing your opponents, you will be able to classify them based on what you see.

The first thing to do is to determine if this player is tight or loose. If villain folds most of his hands, then consider him a tight category. If he tends to play a lot of hands, then the player has chosen a loose style of poker.

The next step is to determine his passivity or aggressiveness. Does he call and check more often than raise and bet? Then class it as a passive player. If he bets and raises a lot, then he is an aggressive player.

4 basic styles of poker

Based on the above categories, there are 4 main styles of play:

• Tight passive.
• Loose-passive.
• Tight Aggressive (TAG).
• Loose-aggressive (LAS).

Knowing these general characteristics will help you understand your opponent and what cards he is holding. If a loose-aggressive player bets and raises, this does not mean that he has a strong hand, as opposed to a tight-passive player. He rarely raises or re-raises, but with good hands.

Let's take a closer look at the 4 main play styles:

Tight passive style

The typical tight-passive player usually doesn't play many pots and calls pre-flop when he gets a good hand.

If attentive opponents spot him at the table, no one will enter the game on his initiative, so a tight-passive player will not be able to make money when he has a good hand. This type of player is sometimes referred to, and the general style of play can also be considered “weak-passive”.

It's easy to bluff them. Often, they fold weak and even medium-strength combinations on a disputable board, and also rarely place bets themselves, fearing a loss.

Players who have identified weak and predictable opponents will always look out for situations in which they can be exploited simply because tight passive players fold to aggression too often.

Loose-passive style

Loose passive players like to limp to a lot of pots. They'll call raises just to see the flop and stay in the hand whenever they hit something, however small. They rarely take risks or become aggressive, being more like “autocollars”. Their approach to play is to simply observe and let others take risks. Especially often such players can be found among beginners, as well as at micro stakes.

Loose passive players are very easy to spot and also easy to target. It's best not to try to bluff autocalllers, but when you have a strong enough hand, you should bet for value and get the most out of them.

Tight Aggressive (TAG)

Tight-aggressive players usually don't play a lot of pots. They are selective and generally play the best starting hands. Unlike tight-passive players, tight-aggressive players will play their cards decisively. They are patient and waiting for the right strike opportunity, and they are also not afraid to place bets.

The best TAGs are often referred to as “sharks” because a tight-aggressive style of poker is usually effective, regardless of changes in the game or the betting structure. Most observant opponents will avoid hitting TAGs as they will think they have the best hand and will fold under pressure.

Loose-aggressive style (LAG)

A loose aggressive player will raise or re-raise with a wide variety of hands preflop and will bet most flops. They are extremely difficult to read with because they play a fairly wide range of hands. There are very experienced players in No Limit Hold'em who are very effective at using the loose-aggressive style of poker. They use chips as weapons and constantly put pressure on their opponents. They will bluff with a high percentage and are difficult to play against. However, at the very end of the loose-aggressive category there is a "maniac" who raises, apparently, unreasonably. The maniac's tendency to outplay his hands means that you are likely to show profits at a distance against this type of player.

The question that is often asked by online players is how to determine the opponent's poker style? This is quite simple to do. In order to roughly determine a player's style, you just need to know his main indicators, such as VPIP (how often he enters the game), PRF (percentage of preflop raise) and AF (aggression factor) - they are usually present in all standard HUDs. ...

For example, those who choose a tight-aggressive style of play use the starting hand chart rather narrowly and usually play premium hands. This means they rarely enter the hand, but at the same time the hands they play are aggressive. Therefore, their VPIP is not high, but the PFR is quite high.

Our simple table will help you to roughly determine your opponent's style of play in online poker:

If you have enough hands played with your opponent, you can already draw some conclusions about him.

Disguised or direct?

Once you have previously assigned players to one category or another, you are ready for the next step - determining the degree of their cunning, or vice versa, its absence.

This is not always easy, as poker players often drift between cunning and absolute directness. However, this is a very important step because from the moment you categorize them, you can begin to interpret their actions with greater precision.

For example, let's say a tight aggressive player raises preflop from early position. If this is a "straightforward" tight aggressive player then you can attribute a strong hand like premium pair to him. If you figure he is very tricky, then he can also bluff or semi-bluff by raising with two strong cards or an ace.

The main clue is observation. You really need to observe the players and pay attention to their tendencies, as well as understand what type of player your opponents are and what decisions they tend to make. This will help you to play much more profitably.

The importance of aggression

Remember, this is especially true for Hold'em. If you don't want to be aggressive, then you shouldn't play, or at least you shouldn't hope to win. Poker is full of conflicts, this game is not for weaklings. This is why an aggressive style of poker is essential to success.

This is the core of the game that we deal with every time we sit down to play. We are trying to "beat" other players and get money. As Jack Strauss once said: "I would even ruin my own grandmother if she played poker with me."

There are obvious times when cheating and simply calling preflop with a premium hand or checking-calling a strong hand postflop is good. Even aggressive players sometimes do this, but the big difference is that they mix their play, as opposed to tight-passive players who only call when they should probably raise due to fear of losing. As the well-known saying goes: "He who does not take risks does not drink champagne."

The main disadvantage of the passive style is that it only offers one way to win the pot - when you have the best hand. Aggressive poker strategy provides you with two ways to win - when you have the best hand and when you force your opponent to fold his best hand, thereby forcing him to abandon the pot.

For example, by playing aggressively preflop poker, depending on what cards are on the flop, you can continue your aggression by betting and often win the hand even if you missed the board.

What's the best style of poker?

We have already discussed the importance of aggression and why it is almost always considered the best solution. A good solid strategy for tight and aggressive play is usually rewarded with a profit. There are experienced players who have successfully adopted a loose-aggressive style of play. However, for most players, a tight-aggressive approach is usually the most profitable. This style is undoubtedly the best way for beginners as it teaches good habits such as patience and discipline. A tight-aggressive approach also works well as a default position and oftentimes players develop a strong skill base when they start playing this style.

In the end, you should choose the style that is not only the most profitable for you, but also the one that suits you best. In many ways, the style of play at the poker table is determined by your personality outside the table. Some people may play in a manner that is unusual for them in ordinary life, but most will return to their usual type. Therefore, the best advice you can give is to identify what works in your case and also gain experience.

It's important to note that the best players tailor their style to their opponents and circumstances. If you are playing at a table full of tight players then you should be free to play, and if you are playing with aggressors then playing tight will be the most effective strategy.

Always observe the play and actions of opponents, and, if necessary, adapt your playing style. This is exactly what good poker players do.

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