Tight/Loose and Aggressive/Passive

When describing players' tendencies, two traits jump forward as the most important to deduce early on. They are best described as scales which everyone falls on: the Tight/Loose scale and the Aggressive/Passive scale. Most players will tend towards one of the first and one of the second in their style.

The Tight/Loose Scale This describes a player's initial decision as to whether they should play a hand, as well as their willingness to continue in a hand after the flop, turn, and river. Tight players generally fold more often than the average players, whereas loose players will not, and may play significantly more hands than an average player. When a player is tight, you must be prepared to either push them out of the pot or show down a quality hand yourself, because if they make it to the final card, you know they will have SOMETHING decent. Loose players, on the other hand, will often have marginal holdings, so calling their bets or value betting your marginal hands becomes a viable strategy.

The Aggressive/Passive Scale The first scale answers the question "how often does a player continue?" This scale answers the question "HOW do they continue once they've made that decision?" Aggression refers to a tendency to bet and raise rather than check and call, while passive play, obviously, would be to check and call rather than bet and raise. Passive players are far easier to deal with, since they rarely force you to make a decision. Aggressive players, even bad ones, will constantly pressure you to make decisions and ultimately can force you off the best hand if you aren't careful.

Once you decide where someone falls on each scale, you can choose a strategy that is tailored to counter their tendencies. The four basic types of player are the tight/passive player, the tight/aggressive player, the loose/passive player, and the loose/aggressive player.

Tight/Passive This player, often described as "weak" rarely enters a hand. When they do, they usually have something big, like aces, kings, queens, or AK. Knowing they have one of these hands actually makes it profitable to play against them, with the intention of hitting a straight, flush, or two pair and getting them to overplay their overpair. In general, though, the best strategy is to steal their blinds when you can, and to push them around. If they show resistance, get out fast because they have a monster.

Tight/Aggressive This player, known as "solid", is very very dangerous, and many professionals can be described more or less as this type of player. They adhere to relatively strict starting hand requirements, so they don't play junk hands like Q6 or 94 suited very often. Once they DO enter a hand, though, they put maximum pressure on their opponent, betting and raising if they think their opponent is weak, and giving themselves multiple ways to win the pot(either making the best hand or pushing the opponent out). Beating this type of player requires the use of various poker deceptions such as bluffing, check-raising, and slowplaying. Also, playing hands such as 56 suited or 44 can work well against them, since you'll either make a big hand and get paid off, or miss your hand entirely on the flop and simply fold with little risk.

Loose/Passive The "calling station", this person rarely folds and rarely raises. He'll limp with Q5 off, flop a queen, and call every single bet all the way down. The number one rule about playing against this type of player? NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER BLUFF! EVER! They simply don't understand they're supposed to fold when they have J4 and the board is 89TJ8 with 3 hearts. Their thought process gets as far as "Hey! I have top pair!" and simply stops. To beat this player, value bet for every penny you can get when you have a decent hand, and feel free to play strong hands in a straightforward way. Slowplaying and check-raising won't work either, since they're unlikely to do the betting.

Loose/Aggressive Last but not least, we have "the maniac". Money doesn't seem to be valuable to this player, and outrageous bluffs make them happy people. It is actually good to sometimes play passively against this player, just calling when you would otherwise raise. This gives them the opportunity to hang themselves by bluffing big later on in the hand. Professional poker player Layne Flack likes to say, "Why do the pushin' when the donkey will do the pullin'?" Not surprisingly, "donkey" is now an accepted term for a bad poker player.