Types of Poker Players
There are four main different types of poker players. The better you understand what they are the sooner you can understand what type of player your friends and opponents are which will help you make decisions about betting. The two main ways to sort payers is into aggressive or passive and then further into loose or tight. That means we can have aggressive-loose, aggressive-tight, passive-loose, and passive-tight. Many people understand what passive and aggressive are, but don’t know what loose and tight players are.
A loose player is a form of an aggressive player. They play aggressively and take a lot of risks to try and chase big rewards. They enjoy playing a lot of hands and are less likely to fold a hand when challenge with a raise or bet. As mentioned before there are two types of loose players, passive-loose and aggressive-loose.
Passive-loose players enjoy playing aggressively and consider pot odds as suggestions. They will call no matter what they feel the strength of their hand or the possible strength of their opponents hand. They are optimists who think that they could have a dynamite hand if a good flop, turn, or river came up, no matter what the odds of that are. The reason they are classified as passive players is that they always call and rarely raise. These passive-loose players tend to slowly but surely loose their stack, but rarely go out early in the game.
Aggressive-loose players are the daredevils and stuntmen of the poker world. They throw caution to the wind and play super aggressive. They seem to think that raising is a sport. Aggressive-loose players will raise pre-flop and after the flop and generally try to be chip bullies. These players tend to win a lot of blinds and small pots, but can be easily taken out if they run into a good hand.
Tight players are ones that are passive and don’t like playing a lot of hands.
They won’t take many chances and usually fold if the pot odds aren’t in their favor. They don’t enjoy raising much, generally just a call or fold. They pick their spots to mount an offence.
A passive-tight player is allergic to risk taking. They are not going to call even if they are looking at pocket rockets. They practically never bluff and fold easily. They play the pots odds and rarely go all-in, unless they are low in chips.
An aggressive-tight player lives by the military idea “choosing the hill you want to die on”. If the odds aren’t in their favor they will fold. They will see the flop with decent cards and then if they find they have the nuts or best likely hand their aggressive tendencies come out.
It is important to understand which of these your opponents are so you can try to trap them or take advantage of their weakness. When it comes to your personally strategy, it is best to try and chance like a chameleon so you aren’t easily readable.