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Poker is a diverse game that gives players many options in every situation and allows them many ways to adapt and change their game as they see fit. As a result, many poker styles have emerged over the years, and the game has drastically changed since its early days.
When talking about a player's playing style, there are two main things we look at, and these are how tight or loose they are and how aggressive or passive they are.
Some players like to play many hands but don’t raise or bet themselves very often, while others will play fewer hands more aggressively.
The poker community has coined several terms to refer to these poker-playing styles, and in this article, we will discuss some of the most common ones and how you can adapt to have better results against them.
Before we jump into the specifics of each poker style, let’s talk a little about what makes them up and how they differ from each other.
The first thing you will want to determine about a player when you are seated at a new poker table is whether they are playing tight or loose. A tight player is one who plays few hands overall, while a loose one likes to play as many hands as possible.
The “correct” amount of hands one should play in a particular game can depend on many things ranging from the number of players at the table to how others are playing.
However, it won't be hard to spot players who are playing extremely tight, as you will rarely see them in a hand, or those who are playing loose, as you will see them putting chips in the middle very often.
Of course, the number of hands a player is playing doesn’t tell us their skill level, although players on both extremes of this specter are typically not very good at poker. A player who plays only 7% of hands will hardly ever be a crusher, while one who plays 60% of all hands will usually not be the big winner in that game over the long run, even if he runs hot for a while.
The best players in the game will typically play a reasonable number of hands, but not too many, although this can change one way or the other depending on the playing style of other players at the table.
At the same time, while you are discovering who is tight and who is loose at your table, you will also want to think about how aggressive or passive each player is.
The aggression factor is an important part of any player's poker style and one that you should be very focused on yourself.
The more aggressive the player is playing, the more bluffs they typically have in their ranges in each situation, and the more likely they are to be betting with hands that are not very strong. On the other hand, most passive players will often not even bet some of their best hands and will instead decide to check and call whenever possible.
Again, both extremes usually signify a pretty bad poker player, although you will prefer playing against passive players to aggressive ones any day of the week.
In fact, there was a time in poker when hyper-aggressive players dominated the field with their plays before everyone discovered what they were doing.
Aggression can take you a long way at the poker table, and you should typically aim to be aggressive in more situations than not, as this approach allows you to win pots you could never win otherwise. Yet, some players take aggression to the extreme and end up missing the point of well-timed aggression.
Now, let’s talk about some actual poker playing styles, the things that characterize them, and how you should adjust your game when playing against each.
Playing poker tight and aggressively is pretty much the way to go, and most professional players have discovered this by now. Players who play this poker style try to avoid playing too many hands but play them aggressively when they get involved.
You will often see a TAG player make a 3-bet or a 4-bet with their strongest hands and some bluffs before the flop, while you will see them call raises much less frequently.
A TAG player tries to optimize his EV in every situation, will run multi-street bluffs on boards where it makes sense to do so, and will make your life very hard.
Unlike a LAG player (loose aggressive), this player will not have too many random bluffs in their range, will not fire barrels just for fun, and will generally strive to balance out their game.
Since most TAG players are professionals or strong recreational players, your best bet will be to try and play them fairly straightforwardly and not make too many fancy plays against them.
In fact, you should also try to adopt the TAG style and only deviate from it once you are extremely comfortable with your poker game and the entire poker environment.
Loose aggressive poker playing style was modernized by poker players like Gus Hansen, who typically used it in tournaments to put maximum pressure on their opponents in all situations.
A LAG player will open many hands, often more than 30% of all hands, and will play aggressively on the flop, turn, and river.
A solid LAG player does know when to give up, though, so don’t mistake their willingness to bluff with a willingness to give you all their chips every time you make a strong hand yourself.
In fact, players who play the LAG approach will know exactly when to bluff and when to stop putting chips in the middle, which makes this playing style extremely dangerous to play against.
Yet, there are many faults with the LAG approach, and it is very exploitable. Once you recognize a player as a LAG, you will want to play back at them more often, call them down more often, and set traps for them to fall into.
On the extreme end of the spectrum lies “the maniac,” a playing style that takes the LAG approach to the extreme and keeps firing at pots like there is no tomorrow. The maniac is one of the favorite opponents you will want to see at your table, along with a calling station, as these players are super exploitable.
When you find yourself playing against a maniac, you will often want to put your chips in when you have one pair or better and hope to hold on against their random two cards.
Typically speaking, maniacs tend to make games wild and often get a lot of chips in front of them by getting lucky before spewing it all away a few hands later.
If you want to be sure you will beat the maniac, adopting the TAG style against them and waiting for big hands to get involved is a smart choice. After all, there is no danger that the maniac will fold their cards, so simply make big re-raises and bets when you get your premium hands, and you will get paid big.
There are some poker players out there who sit at the poker table and rarely play any hands. They usually just call and bet themselves very infrequently when they get involved in a pot.
The poker world has coined the term “nit” for this poker style, and it is one of the easiest playing styles to be up against. With a nit at your table, you should never get involved when they raise before the flop without a strong hand and rarely call their post-flop bets.
Stealing a pot from a nit will be very easy once they miss the board. They will check, fold to small bets, and never really initiate a big bluff.
You will rarely see a nit “get a bluff through” and proudly show it, and you should not care about this simply because it’s so rare.
One thing to remember when playing against a nit is that you should be prepared to fold hands you would normally never fold to other players, such as overpairs, top pair, or even two pairs in some instances if they start raising out of nowhere.
The poker community named the loose passive poker style " calling station, although there are few players who would refer to themselves as calling stations. A calling station is a player who plays many hands, often limping into pots or making small raises, and barely ever folds to a re-raise.
Furthermore, a calling station will chase backdoor draws, call big bets with gutshot straight draws, and will rarely bluff with such hands.
All of this makes calling stations some of the easiest players to play against. Your variance against such players will also not be very high, as you will get to name the price for your hands while chasing your draws for free or very cheaply.
So the easiest adjustment to beat these players is to value bet big when you have a hand and avoid bluffing.
While this is certainly not a typical poker playing style you have grown accustomed to playing against, we are seeing more and more players go for this new brand of poker. These players try to mimic the GTO solvers in their play and do their best never to deviate from the GTO lines that a solver would put out.
In a live poker environment, such players can seem like they are a bit out of place, although their game will typically be better than most players on the field.
Playing against a strong GTO player would make it nearly impossible for you to exploit their strategy, but there is one big problem that such players must face.
Mimicking poker solvers is nearly impossible, which is exactly what makes them a great training tool but not necessarily something you want to strive towards copying in full.
What’s even more, a GTO player does not look to exploit their opponent’s tendencies, which means they often leave money on the table against NITs, calling stations, and other poker styles.
Each player you will ever play poker against plays the game a bit differently, and you will even see the same player play significantly differently on two nights, depending on their mood, bankroll situation, and other things.
However, it is important to remember that there is such a thing as a poker playing style, and most players tend to stick to one strategy or the other as their baseline. If you want to succeed in poker, recognizing different player types and adjusting to their strategies will do miracles in the long run.
What’s even more, you should consider the way you play poker as well and try to define which of the groups we just described you fall into.
If you are not in the TAG (or perhaps LAG) group, you should carefully consider your strategies and consider adapting your game to better fit the needs of the modern poker environment.
Getting some basic poker coaching will take you a long way, and doing some work with the solvers will make your game even better; just remember not to turn into a GTO bot who forgets to exploit even the most basic tendencies of their opponents.
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