Tight or Loose?

I like to think I am a skilled poker player although my wife and the casino might sing a different toon. When playing HOLDEM tournaments real money I tend to play extremely tight (which works for me 9/10). I have been reading a lot of threads about Freeroll tournaments and most if not all are saying you have to play extremely loose to get anywhere in a freeroll.

Any truth to this?

Every game is different

In my opinion, it depends on many things, like the mood on the table, how big is the tournament (how many tables in total), what kind of players are on the table, what ist the bankroll at start (500 or 5000 chips)...
At the end it is necessary that you find a way that fits to your style, and that works for you to gain wins...
Sometimes I switch style of playing on the same table several times to avoid being read by the others...

Hope my English isn't as bad, and I could help or make you think about your style of playing 😇

Good luck for upcoming hands

Your English was perfect. I have been on betonline recently and they have there daily freeroll. I have played in 3 this week, and it seemed like ever table i went to everyone just went all in, all in, all in. And every time they showed their cards they had nothing at all. It just makes it hard to play good poker unless you push all in only for my pocket aces getting beat by 7-2.

Tight is the way to go, especially in freerolls

The whole point of playing loose in tournaments is so if you run good you can build a big stack playing alot of hands. You can also get people to fold hands as well which adds chips to your stack.

At some point though you gotta slow down otherwise your going to lose your entire stack back. I build a stack earlier today to 1000 big blinds in the first hour and then just played tight aggressive rather than loose aggressive. Ended up min cashing instead of going deep since i missed my draws in a couple of spots and didn't win a flip pre against a stack that was as big as mine.

If I happened to win that flip I would of had a monster stack and probably would of being chip leader at the final table. I could of just called pre rather than 4 bet but I'm playing to win rather than finish 10th or something. Getting QQ in all day long even 100BB+ deep.

lmersfelder said:

Your English was perfect. I have been on betonline recently and they have there daily freeroll. I have played in 3 this week, and it seemed like ever table i went to everyone just went all in, all in, all in. And every time they showed their cards they had nothing at all. It just makes it hard to play good poker unless you push all in only for my pocket aces getting beat by 7-2.

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That is when you want to play tight and wait for the good hands, so you have a higher probability of taking their chips with your good cards. A's getting beat by the 72 is part of the 20% chance they have of losing, nothing you can do about it. Freerolls are tough, but I think they provide a great learning environment.

This should all depend on what others are doing as you will should play tighter or looser from your "normal" depending on what your opponents are doing. In general though I believe it is true that is less worse to play super tight than to play super loose. Some can achieve success being super loose but usually they can only do it for so long. Same as being super tight since players should pick up on it and not call you down.

Freerolls are a little different since no one has money in the game but only trying to take money out of the game so most will play loose since they are not looking to fold and play what they consider boring poker. In freerolls no doubt it is best to pay tight and take advantage of the normal freeroll player who just cant find the fold button as often as they should.

I think its like the Bruce Lee saying -"Be like water". You need to adapt to your opponents.

Tight

I am a true believer that tight play is the best way to play.

Playing tight at the MTT (even a freeroll) at early stages is a mistake. This is a "waste of time". You should look at very good MTT players. They play extremely loose at the early stages. I mean like crazy. They want a high volume, a high profit. I saw one person, a very good player, calling All in vs two players at early stage with 88, 150 blinds., bounty tournament, $200. And the commentator is like "What are you doing, you fish". And he even can't understand, he start to explain some other hand, with QTs. And then he says "Oh, the 88, pretty easy call, I even don't think about this".

Tight or lose

My opinion is to play tight in the early stages, and tight-aggressive in the middle and late stages.

lmersfelder said:

I like to think I am a skilled poker player although my wife and the casino might sing a different toon. When playing HOLDEM tournaments real money I tend to play extremely tight (which works for me 9/10). I have been reading a lot of threads about Freeroll tournaments and most if not all are saying you have to play extremely loose to get anywhere in a freeroll.

Any truth to this?

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Very loose early in the tournament, medium loose and tight late. But if you add up your stack at all stages 100-150 big blinds +, then it's loose.

in general I also like to play tight but I do not hesitate to change for a more aggressive game. to adapt to the style of play of my opponents or when I have a good stack that allows me to see more spots.

Middle ground. Have to adjust according to table size. Ranges widen when there’s is less players at the table. I see too many preflop folds when players leave the table that’s the antes and blinds are good for stealing ( in tournament play). In cash play too but I don’t have the incentive to raise as large preflop to steal, more to play HU

Tight agressive is best.

I think there are also various ways of thinking....

300HPGOD said:

This should all depend on what others are doing as you will should play tighter or looser from your "normal" depending on what your opponents are doing. In general though I believe it is true that is less worse to play super tight than to play super loose. Some can achieve success being super loose but usually they can only do it for so long. Same as being super tight since players should pick up on it and not call you down.

Freerolls are a little different since no one has money in the game but only trying to take money out of the game so most will play loose since they are not looking to fold and play what they consider boring poker. In freerolls no doubt it is best to pay tight and take advantage of the normal freeroll player who just cant find the fold button as often as they should.

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Yes; I 100% agree with this. I try to play freerolls similar to how I would with real money. The goal is to play solid poker. If everyone at the table is sliding all-in every hand (which freerolls get a bad reputation for), then you must adjust. This may mean tightening up a lot at times and other times adjusting may mean playing looser.

TeUnit said:

I think its like the Bruce Lee saying -"Be like water". You need to adapt to your opponents.

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I like this "Be like water." Also nice to recognize my fellow cardschat freerollers in the forums

in my opinion what makes all the difference in the freeroll is the beginning, I think it is time to take the maximum risk to try the biggest reward, not least because there are plenty of freerolls !!!

I'm not sure, but if I have, say, 20+BB on everyone else at the table and its the middle of the tournament, I'm playing looser and more aggressive to fold out tight players scared of the bubble.

I personally prefer to play tight/aggressive poker. My hand selection tends to keep my VPIP right at 20%. My overall win rate tends to be just under 70% and my win at showdown is usually over 80%. So for me, it's less important to try to win every hand I'm dealt and more important to win the hands that I do play.

That's not to say that I haven't seen players who do very well playing a much looser style. The ones that do tend to be good at taking advantage of the fact that it is often very hard to put them on a hand. They also tend to be pretty good at figuring out where they are in a hand and knowing when to be aggressive and when to pull the ripcord and let a hand go.

In truth, though, it's hard to say one is always better than the other. A really good player will attempt to master both styles and know when to employ each. For example, you can take advantage of a particularly tight table by widening your range. And if you're at a loose table you might want to tighten up and pick your spots to punish the looser players. Whether you play loose or tight, I think aggression goes a long way towards taking down pots. I think the worst thing you can do is to play loose/passive poker.

Tight or Loose doesn't matter as much as aggression, be aggressive in the right spots and you should b e fine. Freerolls aren't really a learning tool to play real poker and may steer you in the wrong direction since many players don't take them seriously.

The lower stakes draws in players that will call anything. I was playing a freeroll yesterday that had 4 of us go all in. I had watched the players and thought my JJ was in good stead. Preflop I had the best hand. We had an atm that came in with 10 6. He ended up winning with 2 pair. The only reason I went all in is that the first player was someone who was playing mildly stupid. I was 2nd. Then came the atm and a small stack. I actually came in with the side pot because the other 2 had small pairs. Read the table and see what people are doing, which is why I was not really worried.

Hmmmm I wouldn't agree on that. I often play extremely tight and I've been cashing out between 70-80% of the freerolls I play.
The less hands you play might be the best way to reach those cashout positions. (Provided you know how to properly play those few hands and you get value from them)

lmersfelder said:

I like to think I am a skilled poker player although my wife and the casino might sing a different toon. When playing HOLDEM tournaments real money I tend to play extremely tight (which works for me 9/10). I have been reading a lot of threads about Freeroll tournaments and most if not all are saying you have to play extremely loose to get anywhere in a freeroll.

Any truth to this?

Click to expand...

You should not be entering any tournament with a pre-defined strategy. You should adapt to the players at your table and their tendencies. That said, a loose strategy at the start of a freeroll is a high risk strategy because a lot of players are playing wide ranges in the first few levels, meaning that you are going to be playing a lot of pots against a lot of players with little or no range advantage. I tend to play a little bit looser than normal, but not too much. This means you get to take advantage of your opponents incredibly wide ranges without being a maniac yourself and double up against these types of players.

Since I'm still trying to build my bankroll from scratch (mostly playing in freerolls whenever I can), I try to be tight-aggressive but no luck so far. That's why I started to go deep on theory and I'm trying to study the game

My theory is to play 100% hands HU
2x ratio 1/number of player at the table
So six players at the table. 2x 1/6= 33%
Full ring 10 players. 2x 1/10. = 20%