Texas Holdem Player Categories | Types of Hold-em players

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Texas Holdem Player Categories | Types of Hold-em players
by NoLuckNeeded member ttwna2k for NoLuckNeeded.com

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. 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.

Fish- A fish can not spell poker. Find this type of player to increase your bankroll. Be careful, if you can not spot the fish, it may be you. Even a good player can become a fish if he swims in beer too long. Beware the faux fish. Some players are smart enough to pretend to be a fish, when they are a shark. Femal poker players are especially good at this.

How to Play Texas Holdem
By far the most popular poker game today is Texas Holdem. Here is a short tutorial explaining how to play both limit and no-limit holdem.
Holdem is played with anywhere from 2 to 10 players. Most rooms will have either 9 or 10 person tables and some run 6 person tables also. One person is designated as the "dealer or button". The dealer has the advantage of acting last on each round of betting except the first. The button rotates to the left around the table one player at a time after each hand. Before any cards are dealt, the player to the left of the button places a bet called the small blind and the player to his/her left places a bet called the big blind. The big blind is equal to the smaller of the two betting limits and the small blind is half the big blind. (In a 2/4 game the big blind is $2 and the small blind is $1.) At times each player at the table may be required to post an ante in addition to the blinds. This usually is the case in the later rounds of tournaments and is just another forced bet.
After the blinds are placed, each player receives two cards face down, called hole cards. Starting with the player to the left of the big blind, each player may fold, call the big blind or raise. In limit holdem the raise can only be the lower limit ($2 in our example) the first two betting rounds and the upper limit ($4 in our example) the last two rounds. In no-limit, the raise can be any amount, as long as it is twice the previous bet, up to the total you have in front of you. Play continues to the left until everyone has either called all bets or folded.
Three cards are placed face-up in the center of the table. These are community cards and are called the "Flop". The community cards are used by each player in combination with their hole cards to form a five-card hand. The second round of betting starts at this time with the first person to the left of the button still in the hand. Each player may either check to the next player, place a bet, or call or raise if there has been a bet. After this round of betting, a fourth card, called the "Turn" is placed in the center of the table, followed by another betting round. Remember that in this round and the last one the bets are twice the size of the first two rounds. The final card, or "River" is placed in the center and the final round of betting takes place.

When all betting action is completed, the players use one or both of their hole cards with the community cards to form their best five-card hand. The player with the best hand is awarded the pot. In the case of two hands that tie for the best hand, each of them is awarded half of the pot. Most rooms have a maximum of three raises per betting round. A few rooms waive this rule if the pot is down to two players. It is always a good idea to check the rules at the room you are playing in.

Posted:14.05.2009, 02:45

Very good article!
Thanks

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vasmad,

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