The Four Styles of Poker Players

Players can be easily put into four categories. These distinct styles are: • Loose Aggressive • Tight Aggressive • Loose Passive • Tight Passive

You can determine the Loose or Tight aspect by watching how many hands they play. A loose player will play many more hands and a tight player will wait and pick their spots. Passive players tend to just call a lot more than anything else while aggressive players will bet and raise.

Loose Aggressive The most common player you can find online is loose aggressive. They bet big and often and will often over bet, going all-in. This player is harder to read because they are betting constantly big and although you know that they cannot have good cards every hand, there is little to indicate when they are bluffing.

Tight Aggressive This player bets when they have a good hand and would rarely bluff. They will also bet big and live of the Loose Aggressive who will call these bets.

Loose Passive Sometimes known as “Calling Stations” as they want to play every hand and will generally only call and never bet. They would seldom every raise and will call most bets that are medium or smaller.

Tight Passive This player waits for only the best of hands and then will only call.

The recommended style of play is tight aggressive but you will need to watch the table and see what everyone else’s style of play is. If everyone else is Tight Aggressive then it’s better to be Loose Aggressive and steal the blinds and pots but when a tight aggressive starts betting, you best re-evaluate your hand.

A great poker player will adapt to the table and change their styles when appropriate. Also, they will change their style (known as “Changing Gears”) to throw off other players. So, if a player has them pegged as tight aggressive, now they can switch to loose aggressive and steal some pots.