Drumgower1
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Styles of Play"UNDERSTANDING AND LEVERAGING PLAYER STYLES"
Learn Texas Holdem poker and how to quickly read a poker player's "style" and you'll be
amazed at how it massively boosts your profits. There are basically four different poker playing styles,
which can be determined by observing:
How many starting hands a player typically plays, and the player's betting pattern.
Let's start out by understanding the diagram shown in Figure 1.1 below, which shows how to determine
a player's style of play.
First, a player who plays relatively few (typically only premium) starting
hands is termed "tight", whereas
a player who plays many more starting hands is termed "loose".
The second factor to consider is their betting style; that is, whether they tend to be more "passive" and
just check/call a lot and rarely bet or raise, or they're instead much more "aggressive", tending to
bet and raise quite often.
As we can see here, the combination of the number of hands played and betting style is used to "type" a
player. Watch players closely and you'll typically see a pattern emerge in their overall play and be able to
type them fairly quickly.
Figure 1.1 - Poker Player Styles
Figure 1.1 shows a "target play zone", the overall area that good players should strive to maintain their
play. Most pros will play Tight-Aggressive, with occasional forays into the other quadrants to mix things up
and keep everyone off balance, guessing about what they'll do next.
Let's discuss each of these styles in a bit more detail, ensuring you can recognize the styles of play
(including your own style, or "table image").
Loose-Passive (Amateur)
This is the typical "amateur" play style, since these players like the action and just want to play and have
fun, playing just about anything that's remotely playable. These players are sometimes referred to as
"fish", since they're easy to defeat. They'll often just Check or Call with even marginal hands like Ace-trash,
low to medium pairs and they'll call just about everything, hoping to pull something out of thin air. These
players are also sometimes termed "calling stations", since they'll call most anything.
Bet into these players whenever you have a decent hand. If you bet too much, you'll probably scare them
out, so bet just enough to keep them in the hand, contributing to the pot size and "milking" them for whatever
chips you can get them to put in at each stage (flop. turn, river).
Be careful trying to bluff these players, though, as their "calling station" tendency could backfire - if you
do bluff them, attack them very aggressively with a significant Bet / Raise in order to effectively bluff them.
Tight-Passive (Tight)
These "weak" players are typically fairly easily beaten. They just hang out waiting for great starting hands
and big flops, and then they come after everyone all of a sudden. When these players seem to suddenly
"wake up" and start betting significantly, get out of their way, unless you have a strong hand, since they
probably have a good-to-great hand (that's about all they'll play, since they don't like risk-taking).
These players can "survive" a long time since they don't risk many chips at all. These players are very
easy to bluff out of a pot, since they're highly risk-averse (avoids risk-taking unless they have a real,
strong hand). These players tend to play "honest" - betting roughly in proportion to the strength of their
actual hands, making them easier to read.
Loose-Aggressive (Maniac)
This style is typically referred to as the "maniac", since they'll aggressively bet or raise with just
about anything and they play far too many starting hands, using their aggressive betting style to make
up for their lack of good hands.
Be very careful when you encounter these types, as they can quickly injure you. Since they play so
many hands, you never really know when they have a trash hand, a real hand, a draw or a monster. Players
like Gus Hansen use this style very effectively, yet can be beaten several different ways, as we'll discuss in a
lot more detail in the "Beating Aggressive Players" lesson. Basically, remain patient and figure out how
to get under these players' skin and trigger their aggressive response systems, doing so when you're
holding a great hand, and they'll often bet heavily into you, exposing most or all of their chips to you!
Tight-Aggressive (Solid)
So, now it's time to discuss our preferred style of no-limit Texas Holdem play: Tight-Aggressive. These
players choose their starting hands carefully, and instead of "limping in" (check/call) to see a flop, they'll
either Bet or Raise significantly if they do play or just Fold without seeing a flop at all.
On the Turn and River, they'll usually make aggressive Bets/Raises when they hit their hand. These players
are typically only risking their chips when they have a strong hand. When they do bet, they bet heavily and
quickly build a significant size stack by winning just a few key hands.
This style is easy to spot, so you'll quickly get typed by the other players using this style. To address this,
you must occasionally shift quadrants (as shown in Figure 1.1) to throw players off, and deliberately playing
as if you're a "maniac".
By raising smartly with strong hands, and then mixing it up occasionally with nicely-timed bluffs, semi-bluffs
and blind-stealing, you'll be able to keep your opponents off balance, never knowing what to expect from you.
Truly understanding these poker player styles is essential to winning.
Knowing your own style and "table image" is important, as it'll help you predict your opponents' moves, and
ensure you profit and win bigger every time that you play.
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