Playing
Against Tight Aggressive Poker Players
Tight-aggressive (or TAG)
poker players are the worst people to play
against. They study poker strategy, know the
rules inside-out and know when to fold weak
hands. It’s not easy to extract money from TAGs
because they have a solid foundation of poker
strategy. Even worse, the TAGs compete against
you to take money from the weak players at the
table.
The best way to play against
TAG players is to avoid them whenever possible.
There’s just no good reason to play at a table
full of TAGs. The games are tight, the players
are tricky and you’re less likely to win money.
As bad as it may be, it is sometimes unavoidable
to play against TAGs. In that case, here are
several measures you can take to try to extract
money from the TAGs.
Find their
Discomfort
Zones
Every tight-aggressive player
has a discomfort zone. Some players don’t like
to play in re-raised pots; others don’t know how
to play from out of position. Some TAGs can’t
call bets on the turn without a strong hand;
others never bluff the river. No matter who it
is, every TAG has a discomfort zone somewhere.
Pay close attention to your
TAG opponents and note how they react to each
situation. If you study them closely, you’ll
eventually find a weak spot. In small and medium
stake games, one of the biggest weaknesses of
TAGs is they know how to place continuation bets
but they don’t know what to do if you call those
bets and then steal the pot on the turn. That
tactic is called “floating” and it works wonders
on TAGs.
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Other TAGs play poorly on the
turn or river. They get scared of the bigger
bets so they play passively on the turn and
river by either calling or folding too often.
Use that to your advantage by either bluffing
them out of the pot or value-betting your strong
hands more.
It takes work to find their
discomfort zones but it is possible. Look at the
players who win in high stakes cash games. They
play against extremely skilled players but are
still able to find weaknesses in their games. If
you play in small and medium stakes games, you
can bet your booty that your TAG opponents have
weaknesses. You just have to keep an eye open
for those weaknesses.
Adopt a Loose-Aggressive
Style
Think twice before you adopt a
loose-aggressive style in a TAG game. It’s not
easy to play a profitable loose-aggressive game
and it can cause you to lose a lot of money in a
short time. If you do it right, though, you can
use a loose-aggressive style to throw your TAG
opponents off kilter.
Start by raising more hands
than usual and bluffing / semi-bluffing more
often. Many TAGs simply won’t know what to do.
Some will hunker down and tighten up and others
will adopt a loose style as well. In either
case, you can then change your play to match the
style your opponent takes on.
If you turn into a LAG and
your opponents tighten up, just keep doing what
you’re doing. Steal pots, make raises and bluff
after the flop. You won’t win many huge pots but
you’ll be able to win lots of small ones. Just
be careful, because if you get over aggressive,
your opponents will slowplay strong hands and
let you hang yourself with aggression.
Other times, your LAG play
will cause your opponents to loosen up. They’ll
be frustrated with your antics and want to teach
you a lesson or shut you up. This is a great
time for you to switch to tight-aggressive mode
and wait for a strong hand. Use a little table
talk to get under their skin. Your goal here is
to bait them into making emotional decisions
rather than rational decisions.
Find a New Table
Some tables are just
plain bad.
Don’t stay at a bad table if you can help it.
Look around for looser, softer tables. Your goal
in poker is to make money, not to test your
skill against TAGs all day long. You’ll get
plenty of practice by playing against the fish
and slowly moving up in stakes according to your
bankroll. There are simply no good reasons to
play against TAG players.
