Today I would like to talk about different types of poker players. Knowing what kind of player your opponent is, allows you to play better against them.

Types of players in Poker

What types of players do we distinguish in Poker Hold’em? Generally, we have four types of players in Poker. If you’d ask for example, what is a tight player in poker?

Well first we need to look at two factors:

  1. how many hands they play – if a player plays a lot of hands, we tag him as a loose player. When he plays a few hands we tag him as a tight player
  2. how they play their hands – a player may play his hands aggressively which means that he bets and raises most of the time and rarely just calls and checks. A player who plays his hand passively, he rarely bets or raises but most of the time he checks and calls.

Four basic poker playing styles

When we combine these two factors together we can distinguish four basic poker playing styles. That is four basic types of Poker players.

It is simply combining betting patterns (tight or loose) with starting hands (passive or aggressive). So that we have:

  • Loose-passive
  • Loose-aggressive
  • Tight-passive
  • Tight-aggressive

Loose-Passive style of playing poker

This style is called THE CALLING STATION. This type of player plays a lot of starting hands, but he rarely raises or bets. He never makes profit when playing online Poker.

Loose-Passive player is called the worst kind of poker players. Many beginning players use this style. When they hit the flop, they will not bet because they are afraid that the opponent will fold. Very easy to play against. He plays almost any two cards and almost always checks or just calls.

When playing against, you have to be careful when they raise you – it’ll mean mostly that they hit the hand (??). You should never bluff this player because he might call all your bets with just a high card or a third pair. What you wanna do is have a solid hand and bet big on every street.

If you face resistance and your hand isn’t strong – just fold. You could also take advantage of their passiveness and when you hit a weak hand like a second pair you could bet small to get some value for it. They will often call small bets with weaker hands like overcards or draws.

Loose-Aggressive style of playing poker

Also called LAG, is known to be one of the most difficult players to combat. Loose aggressive poker players online play more hands than usual and most of the hands are played aggressively. The term “Loose” is only a relative term used in comparison with all the other players at the table.

When it comes to the types of players in poker, LAG style in not for everyone. Good LAG focuses on playing tons of hands. If you play against LAG, you should play tight as his range is very wide. It is good to play passively against this type, keeping the pot small unless your hand is really strong. He loves aggression and most of the time he just doesn’t hit anything and you want him to keep on trying to push you off the hand.

If you’re only holding the top pair and you let the pot get big, you will be facing a very tough decision on the river when he makes a big bet or shoves all in. LAGs are also the players that you don’t want to bluff often as it will be almost impossible to get them to fold with just one bet and they will fight hard for every pot.

Tight-passive style of playing poker

A tight-passive player doesn’t usually play many pots and mostly he will pre-flop when he finds a hand he likes. When that kind of player plays, he plays tight, So tight that everyone else will fold, and when a tight-passive player has a good hand, he cannot make any money. Sometimes a player like this is labeled as rock or a nit.

His playing style may also be referred to as weak-passive, Easy to bluff, frequently folds as he is afraid to take shots. He tends to play being scared to lose. He will mostly fold to aggression. Really easy player to play against! You wanna play aggressively against that kind of player. You wanna play a wide range of cards because you are looking to hit a good hand on the flop and make him pay you off.

Often take initiative and bet. If you encounter resistance, consider giving up on it. Beware when they raise you – it is often a sign of a very strong hand. On the other hand, if you hit big, you wanna bet big on every street and never slow play.

Tight-aggressive style of playing poker

Also known as TAG. For many experienced players, it is the style they choose as an aggressive style can be very profitable. In the tight-aggressive style, you just make your move and don’t look at the opponents. If you feel that you have the best hand, you bet and raise instead of waiting for your opponent to bet out and call it down.

If you play against TAG, you better have a position over him. Preflop when he opens the pot from middle or late positions. You seldom just want to call his raise. Most of the time you want to 3bet him – which means reraise. He will fold a lot of his range to a 3bet and when he calls or raises you will be able to put him on the very accurate range of hands as he will only do that with the top of his range.

On the flop most of the time he will put a continuation bet if he was a preflop aggressor. A good way to counter that is to often raise him on the flop. You want to play only strong hands against TAG, but if the price is right it is often profitable to try and hit the flop with small pocket pairs or suited connectors.

 suited connectors – two cards of the same suit in sequential order, i.e. 45 of hearts or 78 of spades

You are looking to hit straight or a set or a flush so that you may take all his money when he hits his top pair or has an overpair to the board.

How to recognize the player types

We got to know the types of players in poker and you should be able to recognize which type a specific player is.

  • You pay attention to how many hands a player plays or how loose or tight they are.
  • You also pay attention to how they play their hands or how passive or aggressive they are.

It’s a simple classification but it allows you to optimize your play against your opponent.

The word “hit” in poker terms means to get the card that either makes or helps to make a player’s hand.