Playing a Tight/Aggressive poker stylePlaying in a Tight/Aggressive style will not come naturally to most beginners. Most beginners don't want to fold 75% to 85% of their hands (depending on the table size) that they should be folding in order to play tight. It's more entertaining to call and see what the flop brings. It's natural to want to play too many hands, and besides, you didn't come to the game wanting to sit out. And beginners hate to fold their A5 and see an Ace come on the flop, or that their 85 hand that they almost decided to play would have flopped 55K and someone with a King wins instead. It's also difficult to play aggressively. It can seem impolite, or like you are trying to bully the other players. In board games like Scrabble or chess you use what options the board and your opponents give you but you don't challenge someone directly by raising the stakes. In backgammon you can double the stakes, but in backgammon there are no hidden cards and the whole board is directly in front of both you and your opponent. Poker has a mix of skill and chance, known and unknown, that requires a leap of confidence to be able to raise or bet when there is so much chance involved and so much unknown to you. By betting or raising you increase your risk without ever being certain of your exact chances of winning. That's not easy to do. But if you only play quality hands it makes it easier to decide what to do when the community cards are dealt. This is important for the less experienced player and will help keep you from losing more in difficult-to-play situations. And by playing aggressively with quality hands you make it inappropriate for strange, weak hands to continue to play and perhaps unexpectedly catch on a 22Q flop, or to draw to a runner-runner flush or runner-runner straight for free. Okay, but what does playing Tight/Aggressive mean at the tables? It means playing only certain hole cards in certain situations, and raising when you do decide to play. It also means betting the flop, turn and river appropriately to put pressure on your opponents to continue and to make sure that they can't draw for cheap. On the next page we will look at the Starting Hands for what and when to play preflop then you should do so. Also, watch the video to see how I might recommend a beginner choose starting hands and how to play them. Tight/Aggressive is not the only way to play. It's not even the only winning way to play poker. But it is the easiest style for a beginner to target to help them to minimize the difficult decisions and to protect their losses. |
Introduction Styles and hands - Player Style descriptions - Tight/Aggressive style - Starting Hands - Video - Playing the flop - Playing the turn and river Odds and Outs - Count your Outs - Pot Odds - Odds on the Turn and River - Using Percentages - Bet sizing, expressed versus implied odds Rules and terms - How to play a game - Poker hand rankings - Terminology and definitions For futher study - No Limit Hold’em starting hands; the Next Generation - My Aces got cracked! - Can I fold KK preflop? - How to play JJ? - Playing AK, Big Slick - Should I move up to avoid the bad players? Part I - Way ahead / Way behind - What is ABC poker? |
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