More from Roy ( Playing Styles)

Hey Calvin,

There are four main poker playing "styles":

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

The first part of each style refers to which HANDS are being
played. "Loose" describes someone who plays a wide variety
of hands. "Tight" describes someone who is more selective
and only plays good hands.

The second part of each style refers to the BETTING. Someone
who's "passive" often CALLS and doesn't raise the pot much.
An "aggressive" player makes frequent bets and raises.

In general, the most effective poker style is
TIGHT-AGGRESSIVE. I'll discuss the reasons WHY in a moment.
But first, let's take a look at each style and learn the
strategies for winning against them...


LOOSE-PASSIVE

Loose-passive is the most "amateur" style of play. These
fish like to play a wide-range of starting hands and rarely
fold before the flop.

They'll check-call after the flop (and on the turn and on
the river) with hands like middle pair, ace high, or even
low pair. That's why they're often nicknamed "calling
stations".

When you spot this type of player, you want to wait for a
good hand and then bet into them consistently. But DON'T bet
too much unless you want to scare them out.

Usually, the best technique is to "milk" them for chips
before the flop, after the flop, after the turn, and after
the river.

If you're going to bluff a loose-passive player, do so
AGGRESSIVELY... otherwise they might call.

Also, be selective when you attack. The loose-passive player
might have top pair and STILL just check-call it. So be
careful.


LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE

This is the "maniac" or "manic" playing style.

A manic can empty your pockets quickly if you don't use the
proper strategy against him.

You must be PATIENT and understand how to "get under the
skin" of a manic player. Do NOT let him upset you.

For instance, a manic will often play bad starting hands...
or even RAISE with them. When he hits, no one knows what to
put him on, which is part of the reason why he's so
dangerous.

Let's say a manic calls a pre-flop raise with 2-4 offsuit
and the flop comes:

A-3-5

Jerry is holding A-K, and so he obviously thinks he has the
best hand. The turn card is a King and the river is a 10.

Jerry ends up losing a ton of chips to the manic's straight.

And THEN WHAT HAPPENS is Jerry goes on tilt and starts
calling the manic's raises and loses his composure. This is
how the manic can break you.

In order to beat a manic you must wait for a strong hand.
The manic's weakness is that he HATES being raised or
"bullied". Also, I've found that most manics feel
"pot-committed" much more easily.

When you get heads-up with a manic (and you have a strong
hand), raise him or make small bets that entice him to
bluff.

Let the manic come to you... let him make the wrong move at
the wrong time and you'll be able to take his chips. Often
all at once.


TIGHT-PASSIVE

Tight-passive players are fairly easy to beat. If they bet
or raise, get out of there. Otherwise, you can consistently
represent the flop and bluff them out of pots.

Tight-passive players will often "survive" for a long time
in a game because they never risk too many chips. But
eventually they'll get "blinded to death".

Use bluffs, semi-bluffs, and aggressive bets to take a
tight-passive player's chip stack.


TIGHT-AGGRESSIVE

OK, so now we're to the PREFERRED playing style for Texas
Holdem... and that's tight-aggressive.

Tight-aggressive players choose their starting hands wisely.
They rarely "limp-in". Instead, they usually either FOLD or
RAISE before the flop.

After the flop, they'll make aggressive bets if they've got
a hand or if they raised pre-flop.

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 you DO risk chips, you risk a LOT of them... so it
only takes a couple wins to 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".

Now, 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, your opponents won't give
you action for your big hands.

So how do you solve this problem?

The solution is to INTENTIONALLY establish a LOOSE table
image... by carefully choosing times in the game to play
like a "manic".

For example... once in awhile... show a bluff. Especially
near the beginning of the game. You'll want to do this when
you sense weakness and have good positioning-- just as you'd
do with any good bluff.

Let's say you pick up 8-7 clubs on the button and three
players limp-in. You raise 7x the big blind and everyone
folds.

That's when you flip over your suited-connectors and say,
"C'mon guys, I just KNOW someone had my eight high beat..."

A move like this is usually enough... depending on the
table... to get you action for your big hands later.

That way when you pick up K-K on the button a bit later...
and make the SAME pre-flop raise of 7x the big blind, you
get a caller or two.

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

As we discussed, "loose" is related to which hands you'll
play... and "aggressive" is related to betting.

If you raise aggressively with strong hands... and then mix
it up with the occasional well-timed bluff... you'll be able
to throw your opponents off and keep them guessing every
step of the way.

Of course, as you know, there are many "degrees" in between
these four main playing styles...

Even though you should use TIGHT-AGGRESSIVE as your main
style, you must be able "shift gears" and mix up your
approach throughout the game... that way you don't become
predictable.

More importantly, you must learn WHEN to shift gears... HOW
to vary your playing style... and special "tricks" you can
use to FOOL your opponents without risking too many chips.

When you learn skills like these, you'll be able to
CONSISTENTLY win at Texas Holdem poker-- at virtually any
level-- and immediately raise your "poker profits".

P.S. I know this is long but just copy & paste if you can use any of this.
P.S#2- I think maybe I already posted this?, if so please dis-regard.


SHERMSTICK

It's interesting that you make this post as I've been seeing more and more, what I consider general misuse of the play style acronyms. I've never bothered posting it before as everyone basically new what was meant when someone said TAG player. In fact, I've actually seen it defined that TAG means Tight AGgressive. If there is a different resource that lists it this way, that's a different discussion. But this is not correct according to "The Psychology of Poker" by Alan Schoonmaker.

The primary distinction is between ending the acronym with a "P" or a "G". P = Player as in referring to a person. G = Game as in referring to a table of people.

So, for example, a 10 person table of loyalers will, in general be TAG (a Tight Aggressive Game). However, a donkament over at 'Stars will start off with a lot more LAPs than TAPs (Loose Aggressive Players, Tight Aggressive Players).

Like I said, I never brought it up before because I didn't think it mattered all that much. But, since the article is here and the topic is at hand, I figured this would be a good time to bring it up and see if we can change anything.

1. Loose-Passive LPP, LPG
2. Loose-Aggressive LAP, LAG
3. Tight-Passive TPP, TPG
4. Tight-Aggressive TAP, TAG