|
Texas Holdem Player Categories
Wes Young
A useful thought process or tool you should familiarize yourself
with is placing opponents into categories, both for your current
playing session as well as any future sessions against the same
player. There are four broad categories of playing styles. By
playing against an opponent and learning his or her tendencies,
you can place them in a category and adjust your style when
contesting a pot with them. I find that by putting names with
categories it helps me remember how each opponent plays. Here is
a list of different playing styles followed by a suggested name
for each. Feel free to use your own names if they are easier for
you to remember. One note of caution, just because a player has
been included in one category in the past does not mean that he
or she cannot be in a different one today. Players play
differently at different times for many reasons. Some
tight/aggressive players change to loose/aggressive when
drinking while others will tighten up after a bad beat. Always
take a little time to reevaluate players you have experience
with to make sure they haven't changed their style.
Tight/Aggressive - Being this type of player should be your
goal. This player doesn't play many hands, but when they do,
they play very aggressively. The tight/aggressive player will
often enter the pot with a raise and bet and raise until they
win or are clearly beaten. Every time that a player bets or
raises, it forces other players to make decisions and whenever a
player must make a decision, he/she may make a mistake. The
tight/aggressive player capitalizes on this by providing
opportunities for his/her opponents to make these mistakes. The
name I assign to these players is Solid. You must respect their
bets and raises because they seldom enter a pot with a poor
hand. Solid players maximize their intake with winning hands and
minimize it with second best hands. When choosing a game, if I
see too many solid players in it, I will usually find another
game if one is available.
Loose/Aggressive - The loose/aggressive player plays too many
hands, usually raises and is very hard to bluff. When playing
against them it is important to keep your starting hand
requirements tight so that you are often in the hand with better
cards than them. Most loose/aggressive players are trying to
play the correct way, which is tight/aggressive, but simply play
too many hands. In the long run, loose/aggressive players tend
to be losing players because they play too many hands. The name
I assign to the loose/aggressive player is Semi-Maniac. A player
that is at the very outer edge of loose/aggressive is the
Maniac. The Maniac plays many hands and always raises if they
are in a hand. If you find yourself against a maniac, just sit
back and wait for your very best starting hands. The maniac will
pay you a very high price when you do have a great hand so you
can afford to pass up the marginal ones.
Tight/Weak - A tight/weak player has a solid understanding of
starting hand requirements and follows them, but doesn't play
well after the flop. This player doesn't raise to protect their
best hands, which often lets drawing hands catch-up without
paying a high price. A tight/weak player much prefers checking
and calling to see what is coming next. The tight/weak player
may show a small profit in games full of poor players because of
the proper starting hand selection, but will be eaten alive by
solid players. I call the tight/weak players Sandstone, in
reference to a weak rock.
Loose/Weak - The loose/weak player plays too many hands, calls
when he or she should raise or fold and almost always will pay
you off on the river with second, third and often worse hands. I
call these players Calling Stations. These are the players that
many poker players call Fish. I know that the loose/weak player
will always pay off my good hands and I often try to isolate
him/her to take advantage of this.
About the author:
Wes Young runs a poker web site at http://www.pokermonger.com
where you can find information about poker strategy, poker room
reviews and unique poker articles. He also publishes a weekly
poker column. For information visit thepokercolumn.com
Click here to return to our article index. |
