We’ve all seen players who will literally play any hand, raising aggressively pre-flop with a 2-7 off suit (statistically, the worst starting hand.) At the same time we also know players who sit patiently, folding every hand until they raise with a high pocket pair. Understanding the extremes of loose and tight play can help inform your personal strategy by mixing it up so you don’t become predictable at the table.

The key to creating an effective table image is to be able to signal what you want: by balancing your strategy between aggression and selective loose play you can keep your opponents guessing. While having the right cards and going on a lucky streak is important to every player, being able to tactically outplay your opponents with marginal hands can shift you from an average to a winning player in less time.

While Poker is a mathematical game, adjusting your table image can go a long way to skewing the probability in your direction. The leading poker player and theorist David Sklansky says that the basic theorem of poker says that making your opponent play differently that they would if they were aware of your hand, puts your hand in positive expected value territory. The mixing of slow play, bluffing and aggression can assist you in the ability to make your opponents make the wrong assumption about the contents of your hand.

Using Aggressive Play

As a poker table tactic, aggression can be useful, especially when you seek to gain the greatest value from a good hand or want to give the impression of strength while bluffing. This kind of aggressive play can result in confusing your opponents, giving you control of the action so you can reap the greatest benefit from any given hand. There are different types of aggressive play. These include subtle aggression where you check and raise after your adversary bets, also passive aggression where you allow your opponent to raise in the early going then increase the stakes on the return and river when the bet sizes double.

The careful use of aggressive play at the table can yield big dividends when it comes to getting top value from your best hands and successfully bluffing when you determine you are facing a weak opponent. Experienced players comprehend the fine art of bluffing, and the import of careful signaling.

Using Loose Play

We’ve all seen players who are seemingly random and reckless with their betting, playing any two cards or entering a pre-flop raise with suited connectors. Carefully done this strategy can deliver impressive results when you hit your straight or flush, or when you want to establish yourself as a loose player.

Mixing your table image utilizing loose play will have the effect of encouraging more players to enter pots when you actually have a strong hand. Allowing yourself to loose a bit on high risk loose play early on can really be a semi-bluff with high returns when you get a full set of callers with pocket aces later in the game. The objective is to keep your opponents off guard and playing loose throughout the game can provide the table image that accomplishes that.

Share This