Online Poker: The Four Styles of Play

Analyzing the way online poker is played across the globe, it can be concluded that there are four basic playing styles: loose-aggressive, tight-aggressive, loose-passive, and tight-passive. Here, loose and tight refers to how many times a poker player plays his hand during a game or poker tournament, while aggressive and passive refers to how the poker player bets and what strategy he/she use to outwit the opponents. We'll see each of these in detail now.

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Loose Aggressive: This is the most seen style of poker gaming in online casinos. Such players, who play loose-aggressive, style of poker bets often and they do it big. It'll be really difficult to predict the hands of such players because since they are betting every single hand, none can say if they really got the right cards or are simply bluffing. So, if you are a player pitted opposite a 'loose-aggressive' competitor, it would be better not to read too much about your opponent's hands to plan your poker game. Overt guessing can be detrimental.

Tight Aggressive: Roughly, it is just the opposite of the loose-aggressive playing style. A tight-aggressive player won't bet too often. In fact, he does not even place a bet unless he is so sure about the strength of his hand. In other words, if a tight-aggressive player gets a good hand, he'll bet big or else will keep his mouth shut. If playing against a loose-aggressive player, a tight-aggressive player is in an advantageous position as the former will bet even when his hand is not conducive to placing higher bets.

Loose Passive: Poker Players with this playing style prefer to play it safe. They won't bet high, nor would they get involved in the betting process in a big way. They place bets according to the strength of their hand, and does not really mind if somebody else ups the bet. In other words, such players don't force the bet by making huge rises. From a player perspective, it is far easier to identify players with the loose-passive playing style.

Tight Passive: If loose-passive players play it safe, tight-passive plays it even safer. Such players hardly take part actively in the ongoing game, and will fold save the best of hands. When they receive a good hand, still they only limp forward than raising the bar.

Now, in an online poker gaming scenario, if to compare the four playing styles, the best strategy to adopt will be to follow the tight-aggressive style. After the first few rounds of the game, the loose-aggressive and those who are not serious in the game would be gone, and those remaining would be competing players who want to finish at the top three desperately. Here, the tight-aggressive style player has the advantage that the other players, having been noted his playing style, won't challenge when he bets big and instead lets him to go for the pot without risking themselves. Unless the opponent is a person who is adept in all the departments of poker, the tight-aggressive player is safe in normal gaming scenarios. For professionals, tight-aggressive is the right style to adopt.