Types of Poker Play – The type of players who have different betting habits can confuse you if you don’t really understand them.
Currently, there are quite a few different schools of playing Texas Hold’em, but to make it easier to understand and concise, I will reveal 4 groups with 4 factors of tight, loose, active, and passive play.
Popular Types of Poker Play
Each Poker player tends to bet, raise money, or even bluff Poker in their own unique way.
This is understood as a style or type of Texas Hold’em player that any bettor must have.
To make it easier to distinguish them, experts have used types of Poker play including:
- Tight
- Loose
- Passive
- Aggressive
=> Guide to calculating probabilities in Poker at different betting positions.
1. Tight Passive Play (Tight Passive – Rock)
Types of Poker Players that I want to introduce to you first are tight passive players.
This group of players tends to evaluate their hole cards very strictly before deciding whether to participate or not.
However, they are often passive with check or call actions instead of raising the bet.
Besides the nickname Tight Passive, this group of players is also known as Call Station due to their high frequency of calling bets.
This creates a good condition for opponents to predict the next action of this player, whether they are waiting for a strong hand or not.
Typically, playing tight passive is quite difficult to win with a large pot.
2. Tight Aggressive Play (Tight Aggressive – Tag)
In contrast to passive, tight aggressive refers to players who are extremely safe but still combative, ready to “fight” with opponents when they have a good enough hand.
Specifically, they play as follows:
- Choose to play if they have a strong hand.
- Continuously raise and bet more, putting pressure on opponents instead of calling or checking.
This play style is receiving a lot of attention and high praise from many bettors in the Vietnamese community.
The reason for this success is that Tight Aggressive always helps you achieve significant victories after a long day of play.
3. Loose Passive Play (Loose Passive – Calling Station)
Next, we must mention the ways to play Poker in a loose passive style with a very wide hand range.
Typically, they will choose to call or check instead of making additional bet commands during the game.
Even when a player holds a strong hand with a high chance of winning, due to habit, they will still only issue a call command against their opponent.
From the perspective of a Loose passive player, this is a safe playing style, whether the hand is weak or strong, leading to a dilemma and difficulty in decision-making in practice.
4. Loose aggressive play (Loose aggressive – Lag, Maniac)
Types of Poker players that we must finally mention are the group of loose aggressive players with an extremely wide hand range of 25 – 30%.
They do not often make small commands like check or call but tend to play actively with bets and raises.
Sometimes, Loose aggressive players even intentionally follow the hand just to see the Flop.
Competing with this betting group makes opponents very confused, unsure whether their hand is really good or just bluffing each other.
A typical example in the world of Poker gambling for this betting style is Tom Dawn or Phil Ivey.
Don’t play Poker in one style, be diverse
After learning about the types of Poker players, you must be amazed to realize that you also fall into one of the four extremely common cases above.
However, according to advice from experts, you don’t need to stick to one or multiple specific styles, but rather adapt and combine them logically.
Playing in a diverse and colorful manner is always better than playing in a monotonous way that makes it easy for opponents to guess your hand.
Additionally, don’t forget to choose the right betting table with opponents of equal skill; don’t rush to compete with experts when you don’t have enough experience or skills.
2 Basic Tips to Win at Poker
Below are 2 basic tips to help you win more easily when playing Poker online and offline that any player should remember:
Build your image
First, we must mention building your image in the eyes of your opponents.
Creating this playing style does not require you to stick to it rigidly, and you can still change it as needed based on the situation.
However, before participating, you must understand your habits, and from there, find ways to improve them as quickly as possible.
Recognize your opponents
Knowing yourself and knowing your opponents will lead to victory in every battle. If in the first tip you have built a playing style for yourself, then in the second tip, it is to observe and recognize your opponents.
Based on the special signs of the 4 groups of players shared above, I am confident that this is no longer a difficult issue for newcomers.
After meeting both factors, the next thing you need to do is nothing but build a response strategy as follows:
- For loose aggressive players, you should choose to check or call when you are lucky enough to have a strong hand to let your opponents fall into the trap themselves.
- In the case of facing tight passive players, continuously bet or raise the basic amount to make them quickly deplete their chips, falling into a difficult decision situation.
- If playing against passive loose players, you absolutely should not bluff because you may be called until you run out of chips.
- When facing tight aggressive players, it will be very difficult to win, so you should only play if you have a medium hand like a pair of Aces, a pair of Kings, or a pair of Queens.
What types of Poker should newcomers follow?
So what will be the perfect choice for newcomers when playing Poker to avoid losses and being caught by experienced players?
The answer is to play in a tight aggressive style, ready to bet or raise when you have a good hand.
To make gambling more effective, you should always apply the following formula:
- Only choose to participate with strong hands.
- Play according to the position at the betting table you are sitting at.
- Play in an “aggressive” style, actively attacking other opponents.
- Use betting and raising to create pressure on your opponents.
Thus, the more you try to create head-up situations, the higher your chances of winning. Especially when there are only 2 people competing against each other, the opportunity to get rich is even greater compared to a situation with 5 people in the pot.
See more professional Poker betting terms & techniques:
- What is Downswing Poker? How to handle the Downswing phenomenon
- What is Expected Value? How to calculate Expected Value Poker according to QTf rules
Conclusion
The types of Poker mentioned above will certainly appear frequently throughout your betting time at online bookmakers or casinos.
And of course, it is not random that players need to shape their own playing style and trends, but there are many reasons explaining this.
If you are a new bettor with little experience, do not overlook the advice from experts and apply the tight aggressive strategy today.
Finally, I invite you to visit the reputable online Poker sites recommended by Vaobo88 below to test your skills.
