Poker Players

By Wagercomms

Tight, Loose and Aggressive Players

Poker players are evaluated on play characteristics rather than betting levels, hence player classifications are done very differently than for instance casino players. On one hand natural, as poker players don't hold any risk to the operators, while casino players do, whereas casino operators apply risk management to their business in identifying casino player as risk levels. Identifying poker players as tight, loose or aggressive is not of high interest to operators, even though good business and part of management. Player levels in poker is mainly of interest to the players themselves, know your opponents and identify player characteristics of those looking to build their bankroll with your chip stack.

Poker Players

In brief there are three (four) player types, tight, loose and aggressive players, and commonly one divide players as tight-passive, loose-passive, tight-aggressive and loose-aggressive. However as a player one don't wish to be categorised, as one's play strategy can reveal and allow other players to read one's play. Hence a good player will change playing style from time to time to mislead other players.

Tight and Passive

A tight and passive player is considered one that don't raise or call unless they have a very strong hand, and this type of player is commonly well suited  for limit Texas Hold'em, and very seldom do they take a risk on their hand. Hence if a tight and passive player calls your raise be sure of your hand and be ready to backup your bet.

Loose and Passive

Loose and passive players are also known as call players, as they call any bet you place. They seldom fold once they've seen the flop, and it's best to avoid bluffing these players.

Tight and Aggressive

Tight and aggressive players will only bluff occasionally and they only play good hands and once they have a strong hand they will bet aggressively. Stay alert, when tight and aggressive players raises they are likely to take a huge stack of your chips.

Loose and Aggressive

Players often seen going "all-in" and to that several famous poker players are loose and aggressive. However the best loose and aggressive players will make it hard to read their play, as they go all-in with a pair of aces or just a 6, 2 hand. Often playing high limit Texas Hold'em.

Player Patterns

While player styles are not an exact science it is identified by all players and learning how to read and play correctly against various players do depend upon their play style, and foremost how quickly you are able to analyse and read an opponent. Taking opponents player styles in count and proper bankroll management, you are likely to be surprised of the impact it will have on your play profit.

Knowing the various player styles is one thing, identifying player styles another, and adding some guidance in the area some key factors to look for is how many starting hands a player typically enters, and to that the player's betting patterns.

Quickly identifying play styles, a player that enters into relatively few hands is considered a tight player, whereas a player who frequently plays starting hands is a loose player.

Taking a look at betting patterns one can identify the various player styles on whether they tend to be more passive and frequently check and call, and more seldom do they place a bet or raise, or they are instead more aggressive in where they frequently bet and raise, and seldom check or call.

Hence in short we can reach the conclusion that a combination of the number of hands played and the betting style is used to categorise a player into one of the player styles, and watching your opponents closely during play and you will be able to detect a pattern in their overall strategy and play, and in time this will improve your own game in taking better decisions.

Player Styles

Commonly most players go through the various styles before picking up a style suitable to their mental game approach, still recall that premium players change play style from time to time, and adjust their game to the table. Analysing the various player styles per experience we can allow ourselves to be somewhat prejudiced, even with supporting facts to some extent.

Loose and Passive (Beginners)

This is the typical play style of beginners and amateurs, since these players want in on the action and just want to play and have fun, hence playing almost any hand that is remotely playable. These players are commonly referred to as "fish", where reference is small fish, i.e. easy to "catch" and defeat. Very often they just check or call, regardless of hands, i.e. Ace-nothing, low to medium pairs and they call just about any hand, thinking that something may come up. Another reference to "fish" is "calling stations", as this player style calls almost anything.

Playing these players the guidance is to bet whenever you have a decent hand. However go easy as betting too much is likely to scare them out of the hand, simply bet enough to keep them in the hand, contributing to building the pot through the flop turn and river. However be careful, loose and passive can sometimes backfire, bluffing them do so effectively and aggressively with a significant bet or raise.

Tight and Passive (Intermediate)

The intermediate players are said to be fairly easy to beat. In short they are looking for great starting hands and flops, recognised as they all of a sudden appear to have a strong hand, and start to throw significant bets into the game, and unless you have a strong hand, get out of their way, since they are likely to have at least a good, possible to win hand, foremost a tight and passive player don't like to take risks.

Commonly these players can stay in the game for a long time since their chip stack is not at risk through their play style. Further as they play by no-risk they can often be easy to bluff out of a pot, unless they have a really strong hand. Also they tend to bet in proportion to the actual strength of their hand, hence identifying this makes them easier to read.

Loose and Aggressive (Wild)

The player style know as "wild" since they will bet or raise aggressively with almost anything, and they come out playing way too many starting hands, using the aggressive style to cover less-good hands.

They are harder to read, hence go easy when you encounter this play style. The difficulty is not identifying the play style, the difficulty is that they play too many hands, hence you never really know when they have a weak or strong hand. Encountering these players stay cool, and give it time to find their "tells" and then trigger their aggressive play when you're holding a strong hand. Loose and aggressive players are to that found in the higher rankings on the poker world tours.

Tight and Aggressive (Rock)

They choose their starting hands carefully, very seldom do they check or call to see the flop, they rather fold their hand, hence when betting they often do so aggressively with a significant bet or raise. It's a playing style one commonly encounter in no-limit Texas Hold'em.

Hitting their hand on the turn and river, they usually make aggressive bets or raises. Typically they only risk their chips if holding a strong hand, and when they do bet they do so heavily and can build a significant chip stack with just a few winning hands.

The upside, or downside, is that it's a style easily identified, in which you will quickly read opponents using this style, and so will they. The key to success is thereto to change playing style in order to confuse other players, go wild, play too many starting hands to alter your game and style. Raise smart with strong hands, bluff, semi bluff, steal some blinds and make it difficult for opponents to read you and they don't know what to expect from you.

Understanding these poker player styles, in-depth, is essential to winning in poker, and know your own style and learn how to change it as part of your game. Poker is about winning the most money, not the most pots.

With perspective poker operations, understanding players is understanding operations.