When picking apart your opponents, it helps to put them in a category that describes the kind of player they are. Generally, I think it’s good to split players up into 4 different playing styles: tight, loose, passive, and aggressive. Today, we’ll be talking about the tight player. A tight player can either be passive or aggressive, and we’ll tackle the passive player first. Generally, generally, not always, the best way to beat a certain style is to play the opposite style. If the player is tight/passive, play loose/aggressive and vice versa.
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The tight-passive player is one of my favorite types of players to play against. If this player enters a hand, chances are he/she is holding a very good hand. However, even if this player is holding a very good hand, if you represent a lot of strength, this player will probably fold anything less than the nuts, or at least close to it. Your favorite position in regards to this player should be to his right, because you will have the luxury of stealing his/her blinds all day. This player just tries to blend in with the wallpaper, eek out a profit, and call it a day. While there isn’t anything really wrong with this strategy, this type of player will never be a superstar in the world of poker. In tournaments, the ever increasing blinds will simply eat up this passive player unless he/she gets an amazing string of cards throughout the tournament.
The tight aggressive player is the next type of player we will discuss. This is the player that I strive to be, and while it doesn’t suit everyone, this type of player can be extremely successful in the world of poker. This type of player plays very few hands, but really represents strength when he/she chooses to enter a hand. They are not as easy to push around as a tight/passive player, because they have a better idea of what other players at the table are trying to do. Dan Harrington and Phil Hellmuth are both world class players, and they have both adopted this style of play. Obviously, they have had much success with it.
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How do you beat the tight aggressive player? This is a little more tricky, and I don’t have a definite answer for you. Because they still do play very few hands, it is still feasible to believe that you can bully them around a little bit. However, once this player represents strength, get out of the way unless you have a monster!
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