If you consider yourself a tight passive player, it may not be in your nature to play aggressively more often. That is okay, so long as you recognize where your game fits in amongst others. Similarly, if you are a loose aggressive player, provided you benefit from the fun and roller coaster ride which that style brings to the game, then continue doing what you enjoy best. If however you stand firmly in the far reaches of any corner, you may find the need to adapt your thinking.

Loose Aggressive

Loose aggressive players can change a quiet table into a challenging one full of ups and downs in fortune. To compete with and hopefully beat a loose aggressive player, you should be willing to call or raise with weaker hands than normal. Ace high on the river may be good enough to take a pot against this style of player. Recognize and use their aggression against them. Do not be afraid to check raise them with your good hands. If the loose aggressive player hits a rich vein you could find yourself facing some losses during the session; but hang in there, do not go on tilt and you should get back in shape in quick time.

Loose aggressive players in short handed games can be problematic unless you have a good sized stack to fall back on if things do not go your way.

A few times you will meet a super aggressive, recklessly loose player betting and raising with no concern for their cards, the board cards or your betting. While aggression is a good characteristic to have for a successful poker player, if un-tempered their aspiration to gamble is usually their downfall. They will win some large pots at times, but will usually lose more in the long term.

A loose aggressive player will often fair well against a tight passive player especially with smaller player numbers and high blinds. If you are a loose aggressive player, you have huge potential; control the inclination to gamble and reap the rewards.

Tight Aggressive

A tight aggressive player style is typified by patience and aggression. Tight aggressive players will only bluff occasionally, preferring to wait for starting hands that give an advantage and then play them aggressively (typically about 20% of the hands that are dealt).

Be aware that when this type of player raises or check raises they could make a large dent in your stack.

The only slight weakness for a tight aggressive player is if a table becomes short handed; unless they loosen their starting hand requirements, they may not get enough good hands to maintain their stack.

Tight aggressive players are said to be the sharks of the poker room. Most long term poker winners, play a tight aggressive style and will know when to loosen their game in a tournament if the blind/stack ratio begins to compromise them.

Loose Passive

A loose passive player is the opposite of a tight aggressive one. Poker is a game of patience and aggression; a loose passive player is lacking in both areas. When you lose to one (we all do) don’t even blink, they are ATMs for all other styles; you will win back more and in quick time too.

Loose passive players are often said to be ‘calling stations’. Generally they play too many hands and will check and call to stay in them beyond the point that another player would. It is best not to try bluffing these players as they rarely fold a hand once they have seen the flop. They are the ones who go to the river with a rag Ace or an unlikely gut shot draw.

A good poker strategy against a loose passive player is not to bother being too tricky. Bet when you believe you are in front and check when the board cards suggest you may have been overtaken, because sure as eggs is eggs, as long as a loose passive player has not hit a monster they will check/call throughout.

If you think that you are playing too loose and too passive when reading this, then it is likely a few table comments have been directed at some of your chosen plays. You win a few large pots but soon see your stack dwindling because of too many looks at the flop and unsuccessful chases. It is not the end of the road for you. Do some homework, there is plenty of material on the Internet and in books, tighten up your starting hand requirements and be more selective in the draws you chase. We all began somewhere.

Some say it is the loose aggressive style that becomes the best players once they tame their over aggressiveness, but equally I have seen some loose passive players develop a sound game plan once they gain more knowledge of starting hands and hands that are worth continuing with post-flop.

If tight aggressive players are the poker room sharks, then the extreme loose passive players would define the fish.

Tight Passive

A tight passive player will fold a reasonable hand from a good position pre-flop, if there has been a raise before them or fold a marginal hand even when all others fold to them pre-flop in a late seat. They may also check later in the hand where a bet is appropriate and call when a raise is the better poker strategy.

Being a tight passive player is not bad, but as my school reports often said, ‘must try harder.’ It is easier for a loose aggressive player to calm their play, than for a tight passive player to add risk; because it is our attitude to risk that directs us all. Most tight passive players will not be losing chips at great speed, but the temptation is there for them to go the wrong way into loose passive rather than the right way into tight aggressive.

A tight passive player’s patience is too often countered by their lack of aggression meaning, when they get a premium hand they do not receive compensation for all the hands they passed on.

Tight passive play can at times be a winning style and is often useful early in a tournament, but I recommend tight passive play as a ‘fall back’ not as a standard.

A workable poker strategy against a tight passive player is straight forward. Bet and raise as much as you can get away with. If they start calling, raising or even re-raising it is time to put your thinking cap on.

Finally

You will find your own play falls into one of these areas and apart from playing in a style which is the extreme of any of them, none are a bad place to be, as long as you understand where your game is at.