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Playing Tight Poker Players

In the previous lesson we talked about the different types of aggressive poker players, and how to play against them. In this lesson, we will now switch our attention to how to play the different types of tight poker players. Tight players, if you remember, tend to be very selective with the starting hands they choose to play. Unless they have learned how to change gears, these players are often predictable to play against depending on how aggressive they are.

While every player is different, the following represents the two general types of tight players you will encounter at the table and how to play against them:

Tight Passive (aka Weak Passive):

How to Recognize Them Strategies for Playing Them
  • Doesn’t play many pots and will often just call pre-flop.
  • If they do raise pre-flop, they often check it down if they missed with over cards (i.e. AK).
  • Often raises the minimum with marginal hands for fear of losing chips if they get beat.
  • Will often fold to scare cards.
  • Plays with fear of losing.
  • Will only stay in a pot if they have a strong hand.
  • If they have not shown aggression, bluff them at will.
  • If they limp pre-flop or bet small, raise with a wide variety of hands.
  • Stay out of the pot if they are betting strong or raising unless you have a very strong hand yourself.
  • Bet scare cards (i.e. Ace on board or made flush).
  • Use scary bet sizes that represent monsters (this could be overly small or big bets).
  • If you are in the blinds, you can call a raise if they are in late position and bet any flop. You will know immediately where you stand and can often bluff them out of the pot.
  • While you should be bluffing more often against these types of players, make sure that you are mixing up your game enough so that your aggression does not become predictable.

Tight Aggressive (TAG):

How to Recognize Them Strategies for Playing Them
  • Doesn’t play many pots, but they will play aggressively if they do.
  • It’s usually best to stay out of their way unless you have a strong hand yourself or have a hand with good implied odds.
  • Is capable of bluffing, but it is infrequent enough where trying to look them up isn’t profitable.

Hand Example – Call and Outplay on the Flop

  • No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
  • Blinds: 100/200
  • You and your opponent both have 4,500 in chips.

Reads

Your opponent sitting four seats to your right hasn’t played many pots, but in the ones he has played he has usually folded to a bet. In two others he raised pre-flop and when someone did call them, he checked all streets when he didn’t pair his AK and AQ. Your image is pretty solid and there is no reason for him to think you are playing overly aggressive.

Pre-Flop

It folds to your opponent in the cut-off seat who raises to 600. Since you know he is a tight player, he likely raising with a narrow range of hands here. The button and small blind fold and you are in the big blind with XX (XX = any two cards). Should you play this pot?

Figure 1
Playing Tight Players - Figure 1

On the surface, it might look like the answer is an obvious no. Why would you want to get into a pot with someone who is only playing premium cards? But let’s look at the hand again. It folds to a player who has been tight, but has also played passively. We can use his passive tendencies as an opportunity to bluff him out of the pot. Just because he’s raising doesn’t mean he has AA or KK. He is in late position, so his range of raising hands probably includes AT – AK, KQ (maybe KJ) and pocket pairs from 66 – AA.

So if you are going to play this pot, should you re-raise or call? Re-raising is certainly an option since we would be representing a big hand, but we don’t really have enough chips to make that play without committing ourselves on the flop and we aren’t short enough to push all-in pre-flop without it being an overbet (meaning it is high risk for little reward – we are risking our whole stack to win 900 chips). It’s best to play small ball, risk less chips and look to outplay them on the flop. In this situation, calling is also better because we know he likes his hand now, but he plays the flop passively and that will give us the best opportunity to take the pot away.

The Flop

The flop comes Ac9h3d. After your call there is 1,300 in the pot and our opponent has 3,900 left. Against this type of player, that Ace represents a good opportunity to bluff:

Figure 2
Playing Tight Players - Figure 2

Since our image is tight it is going be easy for us to represent having an Ace and we should know if he has an Ace or not depending on how he plays the flop. I would bet about 800-1,000 chips. Not only does that introduce doubt in our opponent’s mind, it is also a tough bet for him to call because it represents about 25% of his stack. He can’t stand another bet on the turn and he would have to commit most of his stack to raise you here, forcing him to take a huge risk for all his chips. Now, if we were playing a more aggressive player I wouldn’t suggest a “probe bet” like this. It can look weak like we are trying to see where we stand and an aggressive player will often raise on a bluff here. But against a tight/passive player it would be really hard for them to make a play unless they did have a strong Ace like AQ or AK. You bet 900 and your opponent folds showing 8d8c.

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