Playing poker online means that we have the chance to take on international players from all over the world. When the pros take their seats at the virtual felt, they immediately begin to gather info on their opponents. This means collecting information on their playing styles as well as their strategic game.
This should also be the case for beginners and intermediate players who want to be successful in amateur games. The better your understanding of what you are up against at a table, the easier it will be to predict your competitors’ hand ranges and betting pattern behaviours. This way, you are able to put your own effective strategies in place and play exploitative poker.
If you don’t properly dissect and process your opponents’ playing personalities, you are effectively betting blindly in the dark, basing your play on your own hands and not on what everyone else is potentially holding.
Because players are only able to see their own hand and the community cards that are later laid out on the table, every player begins a poker game on a level playing field. But by gathering as much information as possible from your competitors, you will be giving yourself a much better chance of success.
Knowing how your opponents respond in certain situations and react to hand ranges and whether they are likely to bet aggressively or fold regularly is what separates the amateurs from professionals. For this reason, it is extremely useful to know about the different types of poker player you are going to be coming up against at the tables.
The Four Different Types Of Poker Players
It is traditionally said that there are four different types of poker players. These are the Loose Aggressive poker player, the Loose Passive poker player, the Tight Aggressive poker player and finally the Tight Passive poker player.
By putting your opponents in to their respective categories, you are able to figure out their strengths and weaknesses and base your game around them. Utilising that knowledge will help you become more economical in strategy which in turn will give you a far better chance reaching the game’s latter stages.
Exploiting A Loose Aggressive Poker Player
Players that take on many hands and are not afraid to bet or raise on their turn are labelled as being Loose Aggressive. However, they rarely call when faced with another player’s raise. This strategy is very popular among the professional players. This allows them to expose themselves to high risk plays meaning that they become aggressive with weak ranges and call the pre flop a lot of the time.
So long as you have a strong enough hand, you can exploit this tac tic by letting the Loose Aggressive player to do the betting for you. If you check them, you are showing negative interest so they will consider you to have a weak hand and will be trying to exploit you.
In this case, allow them to do the betting during the flop and turn to maximise the pot before raising on the river. Depending on the board texture, this type of player is known to either call or fold meaning you win the hand.
Exploiting A Loose Passive Poker Player
A Loose Passive player is the type of player you want to target. They get involved in a lot of starting hands and are likely to go the distance in a betting round so long as they have any kind of made hand even including bottom pairs. However, they would rather check and call than make raises.
Such a strategy leaves these types of poker players the most vulnerable and thus the easiest to exploit. This is because they are prone to making a lot of mistakes because they have stayed in rounds for far too long than they should have often disregarding hand ranges completely.
By raising on the flop experienced players will normally fold, leaving only Loose Passive players left in the round. As soon as you have them on their own, you can start raising each round and build the pot nicely. While this is an effective strategy, it is not recommended to raise it sky high as sometimes even these guys can fold. Spotting the weak players from the stronger ones is another key element to conquer while playing poker. It is what allows you to master exploitative poker at the correct moments in a game.
Exploiting A Tight Aggressive Poker Player
Next up, is the Tight Aggressive poker player who is considered to be more of an all rounder. These players are generally more tactical and aggressive when playing a round but will play less hands. This type of poker player will frequently bet and raise but will rarely make calls within the game.
Typically speaking, Tight Aggressive players are the hardest to play against as they are the most spontaneous, which makes it far harder to predict their hand. Do not take these on unless you are holding a strong hand otherwise look to avoid attempting to exploit these players as they will often be looking to do the same.
In this case, keep a low profile and get them to do the betting. That being said, if you are holding the nut hand do not be afraid to re raise as these players are well known to call when holding high value cards. If you are not holding the best possible hand available only continue if you happen to be holding a strong kicker otherwise you risk losing big to a high card.
Exploiting A Tight Passive Poker Player
Finally, we have the Tight Passive poker players. Often, it can be quite easy to predict who these players are as they rarely bluff and will only bet if they are holding a strong hand. This means that if you are going head to head against a player such as this it might be better to be prepared to fold as it is almost guaranteed that they will have a strong hand.
On the other hand, if it’s you that is holding the nut hand then you are in an excellent position to play exploitative poker and build up the value of the pot. When playing in a round, Tight Passive players are desperate to win big and will try and make that happen by calling big bets or staking them. So, if it is you that has the strongest hand of the round, make sure to raise their bets on the turn and river.