An old piece of strategy from poker is that you should always pay attention at the table so you can identify different players. But even if you do follow this advice, it can be hard to identify the tight players because they don’t make a whole lot of waves at the table. Instead, they sit back and wait until they have a great hand, then take advantage of those great hands by betting and raising as much as possible.
They’re not trying to steal pots and blinds by playing overly aggressive with marginal hands. Instead, they hope to trap those who haven’t been paying close attention into betting wars. Here’s how to avoid falling into those traps, and beat the tight players.
Putting Tight Players on a Range
Most tight players fall into the tight-aggressive category in that they won’t play many hands, but when the cards do come, they bet and raise like crazy. With this being the case, identifying the tight player allows you to put them on a small range of hands. Generally speaking, tight players aren’t going to play many hands which means they’ll only bet with big pocket pairs or two face cards.
Post-Flop Play
You’re not going to beat a tight player before the flop with second rate cards. So if they’re more than willing to raise before the flop, you can pretty much tell when they are holding a premium hand. That’s why you need to limp in before the flop when isolated with tight players, and wait for the flop to land. Once the flop is on the board, tight players will let you know if their hand has hit or not through betting patterns. If their cards didn’t hit the board, there’s a good chance the pot is yours if you bet aggressively.
Show Good Hands
It’s true that you’ll be able to pull off a lot of bluffs on tight players when they don’t hold premium cards. That’s because they will be very likely to fold to any raise or bet in this situation. However, they’re not going to fold superior cards if they think you are bluffing every time. With this being the case, you need to convince them that you hold better cards in most situations.
For instance, anytime you force the tight player to fold while you’re holding better cards, show them the cards. This will create the mindset that you only play premium cards as well.
When most players have pocket jacks in late position, they’re willing to at least make a call. And why not since pocket jacks is one of the best hands you can have before the flop is turned over. But there are times when this decision doesn’t turn out to be the best one as a raise, and re-raise hit the table.
Let’s say you’ve just made it through a good size field to get to the money. Now let’s say you’re a medium stack. How should you play that stack? Under what circumstances should you click your chips to the middle of the table?
This isn’t the early 2000’s – or even the mid-2000’s. You can’t just jump onto any online poker table, and start dominating the competition like you could several years ago.
If you’re like most of the poker world then you spend a lot of time playing Texas Hold’em. And like most of the poker world, you probably light up when you have pocket aces in a Hold’em game. However, pocket aces don’t play as big of a part in other poker variations. So it is definitely worth taking a look at how having two pocket aces plays in other poker games.
The flush draw is one of the most exciting drawing hands you can get in Hold’em. That’s because hitting a flush could potentially give you a nut hand, and allow you to take down a huge pot. However, just because you’ve got a flush draw doesn’t mean you should play it every time. You have to look at a number of factors first to determine if playing a flush draw is the right move for you.
When we hear of the concept of playing poker with a partner, the word cheating immediately comes to mind. That’s because some people who play with a partner engage in the practice of colluding. But the truth is that you can have a partner in poker without cheating; you just have to know all of the details of playing with a partner first.
