Champion of Poker

Most poker books recommend a tight aggressive strategy for real money cash games. Online poker is very aggressively contested, so this type of poker strategy works there also. The tight aggressive style is playing a tight range of starting hands very aggressively and not checking or calling weakly when holding a good hand. This is a difficult poker strategy to play against successfully, which is why you are recommended to use it. When you identify a tight aggressive poker player at your table, what should you do to ensure profitability in your poker game?

Whilst you should not avoid these types of players making an effort not to engage too often with them is a wise idea. The tight aggressive player is the most difficult to beat. You will have better opportunities to defeat easier opponents so your positive expectation (+EV) move is to target weaker poker players.

Classifying a player as tight aggressive needs to be done correctly. A tight aggressive player is someone who is selective about the hands they play, but when they find a hand they like they bet hard. They are trying to maximise the amount of money they can earn from a good hand by building a large pot. Be on the look out for reckless players within this style. Over valuing hands can be a problem for any aggressive opponent. The tight player who is aggressive is a lot more dangerous than a loose aggressive player and the style you play against each type of aggressive player varies considerably.

When you tangle with a tight aggressive poker player, do so with strong hands. Their style suggests they will be betting hard so trying to get a free card or cheap draws will be difficult to achieve. Top pair top kicker is a strong hand against this type of player as most of their starting hand range is the better pocket pairs. You are likely to be ahead in this situation with this hand.

Recognise that drawing hands are not usually a major part of tight aggressive player’s game. This gives you opportunities to get them to fold hands on the turn. Their game is inherently tight, so the all-in semi bluff used so often by online stars like Isildur1 and Durrrr are less common for a tight aggressive player. This can lead to folds in a pot their aggression has built. If the board suggests a strong draw could have hit, then you can represent this hand on the turn and take them off hands like top pair. Make sure you believe they are capable of folding this sort of hand however.

When you are faced with an all-in bet from a tight aggressive player this must be respected. Call only with the nuts or a very strong hand and work out every hand that can beat you and if it fits the action so far in the hand, lay your hand down. Tight aggressive poker players do not make many bluffs, so they probably have an excellent hand if they decide to commit all of their chips into the pot.

Tight aggressive players can get trapped into a hand. Because they are aggressively betting into you there is the opportunity to slow play an excellent hand as the tight player earns many pots by betting you from the hand forcing a fold. You can call down with good hands and often a tight aggressive player will desperately keep betting trying in vain for a fold. The benefit of having a good hand against such a player is that you do not need to bet, they do that for you. Against this type of player is the only time I would suggest that you (on occasion) slow play your AA or KK.

By Malcolm Clarke