Jun 06 2008
Playing Tight Poker
Skill and deception are two skills that one must be good at to be able to win consistently at the poker tables. If a person plays it smart they will be able to lose a hand or two here and there and still be able to come out on top.
No matter what type of poker you are playing you will never run into two poker games where all the players play the same way. One type of game you may come across is one where the pot size never grows large and not many players play in each pot this would be a tight poker game.
A tight poker game basically means that whoever wins most of the hands still will not walk away with all that much money. Does this mean that if you run into a game like this that you shouldn’t play it? Of Course not. Any money that can be won should be fought tooth and nail for.
During a game such as this, there is going to be a lot of checking and smooth calling. Players do this in the hope that they will draw to a good hand and come out ahead on the showdown. When you run into this situation go on the offensive and throw a few large bets out and see if you can scare people off.
If a poker player is playing at a live card room the player will not know what type of game that they are stepping into. If a player does sit down and the style of game being played does not suit their style of play the player can ask to change tables.
When sitting at a live poker game and each hand is being raise on a regular basis feel free to stay seated as long as you have the bankroll and skills to be able to beat this kind of game. If you are more suited to a tight style of poker go ahead and ask to change tables.
Online poker rooms hold advantages for the poker player who employs a tight poker game. A player will be able to see before sitting down what type of table they are about to sit at. They will be able to pull up statistics of the average amount of money in each pot and the average percentage of players in each hand.
With the huge increase in the popularity of poker it is becoming harder and harder to be able to find a tight game to play in. It seems as if the vast majority of new players just want to gamble and have little regard for the strategy that is involved in a game of poker.
If a player does not use a tight poker strategy they will find themselves chasing hands that have virtually no chance of winning. They may win once in a great while but over the long run they will lose the majority of hands. A tight player will only be playing hands where they have a larger chance of winning so in the long run this player will win more often then not.
No matter how much skill a poker player posses they will still run into some hand that even though they played the hand right they will still lose. Poker is gambling and there will always be a bit of a luck factor involved. But a poker player who uses a tight strategy will be able to cancel out this luck factor far more then a loose player will.