Is there such a thing as too tight?

I was wondering if there was such a thing as too tight? If I sat in a tourney and waited for say A's down to 10's and maybe AKos/s. Would this be unprofitable?

Not one to talk strategy, but I'm a very tight player. It depends on how you look at it I usually ITM in MTT's if I play my tight game, but never win. If I loosen up a bit and play a few hands that are borderline, I see a little more cash and deeper in the tourny towards higher $$$.

No.

But then again, it depends on what type of tournament you are playing.

In a 45 player, turbo SnG - then this type of play would be ok. Within 30 minutes, your probably going to be down to around 20 players, and the blinds will be at a good level to start stealing. So waiting around for the big cards here would be viable. Just make sure you play them well when you do get them.

In a big tournament - say 180+ - I can't see it being viable, you are going to get idiotic players doubling/trebling/quadrupling up within the first 10 minutes, so you need to be seeing flops with cards such as JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 65s etc...and small pairs for as cheap as possible - in hope of catching someone holding a big pair. You can't afford to sit around all day cuddling your chips, see plenty of flops early on with GOOD cards (NOT rags) and aim to hit, if you don't - then fold. Once the blinds start increasing, then's your chance to start building your stack.

Controlled aggressiveness pays.

BF

I love your quote! It is the best.

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I hit Quads and four people died...

In a cash game--no

In a tournament--absolutely.

In Harrington on Hold 'em, your strategy is controlled by the strong force and the weak force: Magriel's M and Harrington's Q.

Q=Your stack/Avg. stack in a tournament
M=Your stack/(blinds+antes) opening pot

Once your M is low enough you're suppose to open up your range considerably, as well as become much more aggressive.

I'm not even going to try to explain any more, haha, as I'll just confuse you.

All I can say is--GO BUY HARRINGTON ON HOLD 'EM!!

[quote=Emperor IX;738527]
Once your M is low enough you're suppose to open up your range considerably, as well as become much more aggressive.
quote]

That's some of the best advise I've heard!

I have a tendancy to keep my range very tight when my M is low. I've started to open up my range and it seems to be working.

I also have (had!) a tendancy to keep my range tight when I;m below 10BBs, another mistake.

My opinion, after 8 months of poker!, is that you must vary your play. Nothing better that having, say 88, and a very tight player goes all in. I fold, a loose player calls and the TAG has AA!

This is something that Harrington suggests. I've read a few books and I'm on Harrington on Hold 'em, vol 1 and it's a fantastic book. You must read this book!

Ya you can play to tight. I think Online It doesnt affect you as much as it will in Live play. Cause you will be pegged as a rock a lot faster and wont make any money unless you catch a few lucky hands right off the bat before people see. If you play really tight trying playing Aggressive also than and keep switching gears and you will notice your profits will go up.

Does Harrington have a good section on cash games? I find myself playing too tight in both cash AND tournaments :-\

As a matter of fact, there's a new series being released this very month called "Harrington on Cash Games"

ANd much of Harrington on Hold'em Part one can be applied to cash games.

There is such a thing as too tight. This is the reason for the blinds. I can't answer whether your particular strategy is too tight or not as it depends on so many other factors. But there is such a thing as too tight and I'm leaning towards no on the answer as to whether yours is too tight.

lol! Well I've heard nothing but good things so far about his book, so I'll most likely be picking at least one of them up this week/month.

Back on the topic... I find myself playing pretty tight in cash games. It then seems when I do get a hand, if I'm in the pot at all rarely anyone tries to bluff me out (and i never get a call on a decent bet).

I'm starting to worry that it is my tight appearance that is causing this to happen. (Incase anyone is interested the RNG game i'm talking about here is most 10$NL and some 25$NL)

I have learned that playing too tight wil get you no were, although i am talking about MTT's. Blinds go up and waiting for a hand all the time could kill you and you will be blinded out. Sometimes switch gears make a move, make a bluff, even gamble, I havent gotten far in an MTT without doing all of this.....be tight but also pick your spots, you dig?

I deflationary agree in tournaments! You can't play extremely tight

I was just curious about people saying "you can never play too tight in a rng game"

In a tournament, definitely, because before you know it, the blinds will have eating you up to the point where you will find yourself on the short stack and even if you were to wake up with one of Hellmuth's top 10 hands, you would not have enough chips to deter anyone from calling with almost any two cards.

It really depends on the cash game that you are playing in. If you are playing at a wild table, then no. You actually stand to do quite well playing tight in a really loose game. But usually playing tight in a cash game can be detrimental. The other players know that when you come in raising that you only have a premium hand and will give you no action. Of course, you can use this to your advantage.

In tournaments yes being too tight is very bad in the middle or especially late stages. In the early stages I think playing only AA-10 10 and AK is fine, definetly not the best preflop strategy though. In the later stages of a MTT you'll have no chance if you don't start playing more hands.

Pretty much depends on the structure of your game - you don't wanna go like Broomcorn's uncle

So in tournament play and ring games, is it best to mix the suited connectors in -in the sb, bb, and on the button? Or does it really matter where you sit?

All sorts of things will influence it. Just a few of them are:

- Your position for the hand (early, cutoff, button, etc)
- The number of players at the table (you can't play real tight at a four-handed table)
- The tournament situation (you might want to play more loose on the bubble, for example)
- The size of the blinds and antes in relation to your stack (if you're getting short, you probably need to open up your starting requirements)
- Reads on your opponents (if they're tight-passive, your cards sometimes don't even matter)

Players who play too tight are easier to beat than players who play too loose, at least in my opinion and here's why:

1. It's easy to pick off their blinds. You know you can raise and they won't defend unless they have a really strong hand.

2. They're easy to push out of a pot. Let's say an extremely tight player bets pre-flop with poket jacks. If an over card comes and someone bets, they throw the hand away - which of course is proper if they think they're beat - the problem is I know how tight they are and I'm gonna bet whether I hit one of those high cards or not.

3. When they enter a pot, people know they have strong hands, so the tight player tends not to get paid off.

There is definitely such a thing as too tight. While playing very tight may still be profitable for you, it may not be as profitable as playing looser. If you play only aces, you're going to have a huge edge when you play. But that's only once every 221 hands on average. Even if you do make up more than the lost blinds during those other 220 hands, you'll be missing out on a lot of other decent edges those other 220 hands.

Poker is a game played against the clock (or the number of hands which is directly related to the clock). I don't care if you always have a 4:1 advantage when you get your money in once every 221 hands. If I can get the same amount in 100 times every 221 hands with a 5.5:4.5 advantage, I'm coming out on top. I win 10 for every 0.8 you win in the same amount of time.

A Buddy of mine folded pocket Aces 2 days ago preflop.

It was last spot in the satellite tourney though. With 26 advancing and there being 27 players left he felt it best not to chance it. Especially considering he had 3rd chip stack.

I have attempted this sort of play only to find that i end up going all in with 5 big blinds left with a marginal hand like J10 or JQ just because the cards have been running cold for the whole tournament .
I stopped playing so tight and started to play loose agressive at the start of a tournament, then supertight in the middle till just before the bubble then agression again, tightening up again just before the final table if i was lucky enough to get there.