In this lesson we’re going to focus our attention on how to play against tight poker players. Being tight or loose doesn’t necessarily refer to how somebody plays their hand, but merely the selection of hands that they play. Tight poker players tend to be very selective with the starting hands they choose to play and unless they have learned how to change gears, these players are often predictable to play against. But ultimately it’s their level of aggression that is going to dictate how you play against them.

• Tight Passive Poker Strategy Games
• Tight Passive Poker Strategy Rules
• Tight Passive Poker Strategy Cheat
• Tight Passive Poker Strategy
• Tight Passive Poker Strategy Tactics

Poker Games with Tight and Loose Players This is the type of environment in which the ability to change gears will help you the most. You can play one style versus one opponent at the table and yet completely different against another. Your ability to change gears at the drop of a hat will make you a formidable opponent. If you have read Texas Hold'em strategy articles or overheard discussions between poker players, you may have come across certain combinations of words to describe how someone plays at the poker table. The typical playing styles attributed to players are: Tight-Aggressive (TAG) Loose-Aggressive (LAG) Tight-Passive; Loose-Passive.

In our earlier lesson on poker playing styles we discussed the two main types of tight players you will encounter, which were:

• This is a discussion on Tight-passive pro within the online poker forums, in the Learning Poker section; I want to ask you guys if u know any pro/streamer/youtuber that describes his style of.
• A tight passive player is a one-trick pony Hold'em player who has learned just enough about the game to understand the wisdom of being highly selective about what hands he chooses to see the flop with, but doesn't understand very much at all beyond that.

• Tight-passive (weak-passive)
• Tight aggressive.

We’re not going to focus on the tight-aggressive players in this lesson, since you should generally stay out of their way unless you have a strong hand. They are capable of being bluffed, but it is infrequent enough where trying to look them up isn’t profitable.

Instead, we’re going to focus on the tight-passive players, who are much easier to play against.

Playing Against Tight-Passive Players

Tight-passive players don’t play many pots and will often just call pre-flop. If they do raise pre-flop, they often check it down if they missed with over cards, such as when they’re holding a hand like Ace-King. They will often raise the minimum with marginal hands for fear of losing chips if they get beat and will frequently fold to scare cards. Above all, they play with a fear of losing and will only stay in a pot if they have a strong hand.

Let’s examine some strategies for those times when you’re involved in a hand with a tight-passive player.

If They’ve Not Been Aggressive, Then Bluff

You can bluff them at will – because weak-passive players are the easiest players to bluff. As mentioned, they play with a fear of losing. If they limp pre-flop, or even when they bet a small amount, you can raise with a wide variety of hands.

Bet Scare Cards and Represent Monsters

If there’s an Ace on the board then you can bet it, and they’ll fold if they haven’t made a hand. Likewise, you can bet scary boards like made flushes – and you can also use scary bet sizes that represent monsters – this could be overly small or big bets. Of course, it will depend on the individual tendencies of your particular opponent.

Call and Outplay them on the Flop

You can even call raises from weak-passive players when you are in the blinds, and subsequently bet at the flop. Let’s take a look at an example hand to illustrate.

• No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
• Blinds: 100/200
• You and your opponent both have 4,500 in chips.

Your opponent sitting four seats to your right hasn’t played many pots, but in the ones he has played he has usually folded to a bet. In two others he raised pre-flop and when someone did call them, he checked all streets when he didn’t pair his AK and AQ. Your table image is pretty solid and there is no reason for him to think you are playing overly aggressive.

Pre-Flop

It folds to your opponent in the cut-off seat who raises to 600. Since you know he is a tight player, he likely raising with a narrow range of hands here. The button and small blind fold and you are in the big blind with XX (XX = any two cards). Should you play this pot?

Figure 1

On the surface, it might look like the answer is an obvious no. Why would you want to get into a pot with someone who is only playing premium cards? But let’s look at the hand again. It folds to a player who has been tight, but has also played passively. We can use his passive tendencies as an opportunity to bluff him out of the pot. Just because he’s raising doesn’t mean he has AA or KK. He is in late position, so his range of raising hands probably includes AT – AK, KQ (maybe KJ) and pocket pairs from 66 – AA.

So if you are going to play this pot, should you re-raise or call? Re-raising is certainly an option since we would be representing a big hand, but we don’t really have enough chips to make that play without committing ourselves on the flop and we aren’t short enough to push all-in pre-flop without it being an overbet (meaning it is high risk for little reward – we are risking our whole stack to win 900 chips). It’s best to play small ball, risk less chips and look to outplay them on the flop. In this situation, calling is also better because we know he likes his hand now, but he plays the flop passively and that will give us the best opportunity to take the pot away.

The Flop

Tight Passive Poker Strategy Games

The flop comes . After your call there is 1,300 in the pot and our opponent has 3,900 left. Against this type of player, that Ace represents a good opportunity to bluff:

Figure 2

Since our image is tight it is going be easy for us to represent having an Ace and we should know if he has an Ace or not depending on how he plays the flop. I would bet about 800-1,000 chips. Not only does that introduce doubt in our opponent’s mind, it is also a tough bet for him to call because it represents about 25% of his stack. He can’t stand another bet on the turn and he would have to commit most of his stack to raise you here, forcing him to take a huge risk for all his chips.

If we were playing a more aggressive player I wouldn’t suggest a “probe bet” like this. It can look weak like we are trying to see where we stand and an aggressive player will often raise on a bluff here. But against a tight/passive player it would be really hard for them to make a play unless they did have a strong Ace like AQ or AK. You bet 900 and your opponent folds showing .

Conclusion

Our example hand is just one method of how you can take advantage of a tight-passive player – and although it was a tournament example, the same strategy can be used in a cash game to good effect. Remember that timid players are often paralyzed with fear and won’t take shots because they tend to play with a fear of losing. If you’re an observant player, which you should be, then be on the lookout for these weak, predictable players. And when you find them – lookout for the situations within the game that can be exploited.

Let’s finish with a note of caution about all these poker strategies – and that is to stay out of their way if they show strength in hand. If they are betting or raising strongly then you should steer well clear unless you have a very strong hand yourself. Also, while you should be bluffing more often against these types of players, make sure that you are mixing up your game enough so that your aggression does not become predictable.

By Donovan Panone

Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.

If you have read Texas Hold'em strategy articles or overheard discussions between poker players, you may have come across certain combinations of words to describe how someone plays at the poker table.

The typical playing styles attributed to players are:

• Tight-Aggressive (TAG)
• Loose-Aggressive (LAG)
• Tight-Passive
• Loose-Passive

But what exactly does it mean to be Tight, Loose, Aggressive or Passive in Texas Hold'em? And which playing style is the best?

Poker playing styles explained.

The first word - tight and loose.

The first word of each playing style describes how many hands a player is perceived to be playing, and they will either be describes as being 'tight' or 'loose'.

• A tight player will play very few hands, and only play premium hands that have a good chance of winning.
• A loose player will play a wide variety of hands and enter numerous pots with both strong starting hands a few weaker ones.

The more hands a player enters pots with, the 'looser' they are.

The second word - aggressive and passive.

The second part of each playing style describes how the particular players bet on each betting round, and this is described as being either 'aggressive' or 'passive'.

• An aggressive player will frequently bet or raise and give a lot of action by making strong bets.
• A passive player will be more inclined to check and call, and will rarely bet out or raise an opponent's bet.

So as you can see, by combining these two sections together with the two descriptions in each, we can make 4 different playing styles to describe how many hands an opponent plays, and how they play their hands by the way they bet or check.

This sort of information can be very useful when talking about strategy, as bluffing against a Loose-Passive player who plays lots of hands and calls frequently, is not going to be as profitable as making a bluff against a Tight-Aggressive player who only plays the best hands and will only bet or raise with a strong hand.

Playing styles table.

Here is a quick table to show how you would normally describe a player combining each of the various loose, tight, passive and aggressive attributes:

Check out the section starting at 24:32 of the Common Full Ring Mistakes pt. 1 video for an overview of how to beat each of these players types.

Which out of these 4 playing styles is the best?

To play good poker you have to be able to play aggressively, as highlighted in the article on the importance of aggression. Therefore as you can expect, the best playing style is going to be a toss-up between playing Tight-Aggressive or Loose-Aggressive.

Playing aggressively is always better than playing passively, no question about it.

Many winning players will say that Tight-Aggressive is the best way to play as you are always entering pots with great hands and you are playing them strongly to maximize your winnings. This is very true, and it is often the style of play that many developing players aspire to use correctly.

In spite of this however, it is perfectly possible to play Loose-Aggressive just as profitably or even more profitably than the Tight-Aggressive style, but this is quite difficult to master.

Tight Passive Poker Strategy Rules

The Loose aggressive style can be profitable, but it is dangerous if you do not know what you are doing.

Playing Loose-Aggressive means that you are seeing a lot of flops and getting money into the pot when you are often not totally sure of how strong your hand is, so it is not something that is recommended for beginner players to try. However, the rewards can be high, as your opponents will often pay you off when you hit monster hands as they will not give you credit for them because of the way you have been playing up to that point.

Passive poker is never profitable.

The passive style of play is often unprofitable, and so it is advised that anyone looking to become a winning poker player should try to bet and raise more frequently rather than just checking and calling. The reason why passive play is often unprofitable is because you are removing one of you options to win a hand.

You can either win by having the best hand, or by betting your opponent out of the pot. By playing passively, you are reduced to only ever winning when you have the best hand, which is what any old player can do.

So for the majority of players learning the game, it is recommended that you try and adopt a Tight-Aggressive style because of the fact that it is profitable and safe to play. If after you gain experience in playing solid, profitable poker, there is no reason why you shouldn't try and venture out into the realms of Loose-Aggressive play to see how it works out for you.

Veteran players like the Loose-Aggressive style because it allows them to get involved in a lot of hands and see a lot of pots, which will save them from the boredom of waiting for premium hands all the time before they see any action. However, it is far safer to stick with the trusted Tight-Aggressive play at first, rather than throwing yourself into the deep end with a complex playing style that you are unfamiliar with.

For strategy and tips on how to beat each of these different playing styles (and a couple more), watch the Player Types concept video by SplitSuit.

Playing styles evaluation.

Tight Passive Poker Strategy Cheat

In general, the playing style you adopt should be the one that allows you to play most profitably. If you feel that playing Tight-Aggressive works better for you than any other style, then there is no reason why you should consider forcing yourself to change.

Similarly, if you are a recreational player and enjoy playing passively rather than aggressively, then that is perfectly fine and you should be comfortable with the way you play. However, you should be aware that if you want to maximize your winnings, an aggressive style of play would allow you to do so rather than a passive style of play.

If I had to rank the playing styles in order of how profitable they can be, I would rank them as follows:

Tight Passive Poker Strategy

1. Tight-Aggressive
2. Loose-Aggressive
3. Tight-Passive
4. Loose-Passive

The top two are interchangeable, as the loose-aggressive playing style can be very profitable for some. However, the TAG style is best for newer players to the game, as LAG can be a very dangerous style if you do not know what you are doing.

For more information on playing styles, check out my friend's poker player types article on his blog. It provides more in-depth explanations of the 4 different player types outlined above with some real-life examples.

Check out the article on changing gears in poker to find out how to profitably switch between tight-aggressive and loose-aggressive poker.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

Tight Passive Poker Strategy Tactics

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