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Lina1020
Rock Star
I think a tight aggressive style of play is the most useful in poker because we play few hands but aggressively, so we can make the most of our hands. But it's worth changing the style of play, so you won't be able to figure out our game.
Collin Moshman
Poker Expert
I'm not sure what makes a style more efficient, that's an interesting question.
Generally tight-aggressive is the easiest style to learn and become good at. It's also one of the most effective in most low-stakes or soft games. So that probably makes it pretty efficient!
Generally tight-aggressive is the easiest style to learn and become good at. It's also one of the most effective in most low-stakes or soft games. So that probably makes it pretty efficient!
LJG23
Rock Star
In the beginning my game evolved over time from one to another before settling into more of a hybrid approach that I use now.
I was a fish who tightened up to a nit until I learned to play a good tight/aggressive strategy. Now I have added the GTO approach with exploitative tendencies in certain situations against certain types of players.
I was a fish who tightened up to a nit until I learned to play a good tight/aggressive strategy. Now I have added the GTO approach with exploitative tendencies in certain situations against certain types of players.
thatguy6793
Legend
I think rather than being off on its own, exploitative is a combination of the others. Against some v's aggressive will be the best, against others GTO will likely lead to winning more hands, some tables you might have to play really loose or really tight. You should constantly be adapting and to adapt is to exploit so exploitative is my answer but my definition of exploitative is that it is all the categories together
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Bhzrd588
Rock Star
Always aggressive if you want to build a big stack. If you risk more you win more.
Sirkiba
Enthusiast
Exploitative works pretty well for me at farming spin & gos. For 9 players SnG tight aggressive works best for me early on and then just play the end like spin & gos.
MTTs I don't quite understand yet so I either play too much like a fish or too much like a nit.
MTTs I don't quite understand yet so I either play too much like a fish or too much like a nit.
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DaHawk
Rock Star
Be a chameleon my friend. Learn to adapt to your environment, to the table, to the game. Learn to exploit, learn to be passive, learn to be aggressive, learn to be tight, and learn to play loose. Be every style you need to be in every situation you need to be it. Be water my friend. Lol
Phoenix Wright
Legend
Loyaler
There are more than just these 4 general categories, but this is a decent starting list.
I could add categories like:
5) LAG (Loose-Aggressive)
6) Maniac (Megalomaniac is the long version of this name, but this player plays much looser than a LAG and sometimes plays any two cards xD)
7) "Slider" (Specific type of Maniac which goes All-In every hand or All-In at an extremely high frequency - the name "Slider" is something Phil Hellmuth invented [I think it was in his poker book, Play Poker Like The Pros] to describe these players who "slide" all of their chips into the middle too often.)
8) Reg or "Regular" at the tables which is usually a decent player, but not always. A Reg could be any of the other categories of player, but usually a TAG (Tight-Aggressive) or a LAG.
9) "Small Ball" advanced style popularized by Daniel Negreanu in his book "Power Holdem." This style is highly read-dependent and outplaying players postflop and open-raising small sizing to steal the blinds. This playstyle also plays a lot of "smaller" cards like suited connectors (98s), one gappers (75o), or cards with postflop potential (A5s). The utopian scenario with Small Ball is to steal the blinds often (so exact cards don't matter) or two hit a Flush or Straight etc. to trap hands like Top Pair by opponents overplaying them to "exploit" your wide range of hands; luckily for the Small Ball player, the trap has been sprung and sometimes players aren't able to get away from strong hands which the Small Ball player has beat
10) "Spencer's Approach: Fire Up The Game" This was also coined by Hellmuth in Play Poker Like The Pros. Many years ago in the Bicycle Club Casino (Los Angeles), a Reg named Spencer Ouren would play $80-$160-limit hold'em and open-raise EVERY hand to the maximum (for the limit game) without even looking at his cards! This sounds like a maniac playstyle, but there is more to this approach than the traditional maniac. Spencer would do this for the entire first orbit around the table of the game, but then switch to TAG or NIT for the rest of the game. This first orbit was obviously costly to him, but he treated that orbit as an "investment" to "fire up the table" because players wouldn't catch onto the fact that he only did this craziness for the first orbit, so the table would be "fired up" for the rest of the night! Just spencer sitting down at the table sometimes got players to wider up to hands they wouldn't normally play and to also get them bluffing with situations they wouldn't usually find themselves in. While everyone is trying to combat Spencer's wild table image, he has already switched to being a TAG or NIT and Spencer would get paid the maximum when he picked up big pairs like QQ, KK or AA.
*I'll add that this "Small Ball" approach was not invented by Negreanu - just popularized (in big part by lowering the open-raising size to justify opening a wider range of hands)
There are probably a few more player types I'm forgetting too
I will note that some of these generic categories can overlap though. For example, a player could be both a good LAG player and a Reg. Similarly, someone playing "LAG" might not interfere with the same player also playing "Exploitative" (perhaps exploiting a tighter table) etc.
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Phoenix Wright
Legend
Loyaler
Oh, almost forgot to add: the most "efficient" style depends on the playstyle most comfortable with you and also the playstyle/ability of your opponents (table dynamics etc.) For example, GTO might be most efficient in the highest stakes games among pros, but against your homegames of LAG players, maybe being a TAG or NIT is going to be most profitable to you.
A style can also be like a "gear" you can switch in or out of based on how the table is playing as well
rabman50
Enthusiast
Learn GTO to understand how to be unexploitable and then use this knowledge to exploit your opponents. Look for things that your opponent is doing that is contrary to GTO and use that information to exploit them. Bottom line the most profitable type of poker is Exploitative. At times that means you are playing as a nit and other times as a maniac. You should always be playing the style best suited to exploiting the player pool.
nanida888
Rock Star
Based on personal experience and observing the players, I believe that the most optimal style in poker is tight-aggressive. Waiting for the right moment to trade, and then acting aggressively, assertively, to take the pot is not something everyone can do, but this method really helps to raise the bankroll.