An important aspect of poker tactic that many participants do not seem to understand is that the decisions are usually based on ‘common sense’. If one has good hands, one should raise or bet, and if one has an awful hand, one should fold or check. Confidence is normally not a perfect quality when settling on whether to play specific poker hand or not.

Loose play Verses Tight play

A way to find out an individual’s abilities in poker play is to determine how many ‘hands’ one can play. The player, who plays many hands, is said to be a ‘loose player’, while the one who plays a few ‘hands’ is known as ‘tight player’. There is popular poker sermon that says ‘tight is right’. If one gets into the pot with much better cards in starting, one will certainly win more dollars than one can lose.

Passive Verses Aggressive Play

Another way can be to examine how usually the participant bets or raises, as opposed to how frequently one can call or check. The participant who bets more often is referred to as an aggressive player, while the participant who calls and checks often is known as passive player. Here, the terms ‘passive’ and ‘aggressive’ have no relation with how many games a player takes part in, but they only concern with calling, checking, betting and raising tendencies.

‘Aggressive play’ is tactically better than ‘passive play’. By raising or betting on strong hand, players give their opponents a chance to ‘fold’, which improves their chances to receive the pot outright, and reduces the odds that the opponent will draw-out, or receive extra card which will give opponents the winning-hand.

Categorize yourself and your combater’s play

• Maniacs: Maniacs are aggressive and loose. Any beginning hand can do, and almost any beginning hand can warrant bet. In many games, they play profitably by taking antes and blinds.
• Rocks: These players are aggressive and loose, and do not play several hands. However, when they take part in hands, they often call or check. ‘Rocks’ players usually play timorous game and ‘fold’ unexpectedly at the time they do not have best possible hands.
• Calling Station: They are the most lucrative category of participants to enjoy game with. Passive and loose, they take part in many hands, but do not bet with them. Usually, they call bets in an anticipation that their hands will ‘improve’ and finally win.
• Killer: One should always aspire to become ‘Killers’ player. Aggressive and tight, ‘killers’ is winner poker playing style.

It is good to play with ‘calling stations’ whenever possible.

If you are strong-minded that the player is ‘rock’ and you have ‘J-J pre-flop’ in Texas Holdem game with that player, you can change your decision-making process. Assuming that you raise pre-flop with J-J, and rock player raises you ‘all-in’, then, you will want to ‘fold’.

The situations may vary to a greater degree, but it is apparent that having at least minor comprehension of opponent’s poker abilities can immensely influence your ‘win loss’ rate.