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Playing Tight Aggressive (TAG) Poker

If everyone played poker the same way then it is very likely that the game would become boring and lose its luster very quickly, not to mention that it would be extremely unprofitable.

Fortunately, not everyone plays poker the same way. In fact, several common player types frequently grace the felt: passive, loose aggressive and tight aggressive, with each of these player types bringing their own strategy that enables them to be profitable in their own way.

Now, this probably leads you to wonder, which playing style is best for me? In other words, which playing style will prove to be the most profitable?

Well, that answer will vary from player to player, as each playing style can easily be a disaster for one player while bringing nothing but success to another; it is simply a matter of trying each one until you feel comfortable. However, if you are looking for a recommendation on which one to try first, a good playing style to try is the tight aggressive style of play as this focuses on solid starting hands, aggressive betting and is profitable to those who use this style and relating strategy correctly.

For those of you that would like to learn more about playing tight aggressive poker, please read on further as we have gone into detail on this playing style below.

TAG Poker

Starting Hands:

Playing tight aggressive poker, otherwise known as TAG, has to be one of the best playing styles because its focus is heavily on the starting hands that a player chooses to play as well as the betting action that takes place after the flop. This is ideal for all players but especially newer players since they have a hard time straying from garbage hands such as low aces, suited connectors and miscellaneous broadway cards.

To put this into better perspective, here are the following starting hands for TAG poker.

• Early Position: AA thru JJ, AK, AQs
• Middle Position: AA-1010, AK, AQ, some smaller pocket pairs
• Late Position: AA-99, AK, AQ, AJ, A10

While these hand requirements may seem very tight, there is very good reason for this. Too often hands are dominated in a race situation and it is purely because a player could not bring him or herself to muck a trashy hand such as A-3, A-8 or K-6 and so forth. (Dominated simply means that your opponent has you outkicked leaving you to draw very slim if not completely dead.)

And in most cases, these players are actually stacking off with these hands which is absolutely crazy. Why would you risk your stack of chips on a mediocre hand? It just makes no sense. But that is what TAG poker will prevent you from doing and will keep you on track as you play a tighter range of hands.

Betting:

Another important aspect of the tight aggressive playing style is how a player goes about betting. Since this style of play requires players to be extremely tight in what hands they choose to play, this means that they will be entering the pot less often thus not having tons of opportunities to accumulate chips. So when a TAG player does enter the pot, they must be raising their strong hands both pre-flop and post-flop.

A solid rule of thumb for betting is about 2 to 4 times the size of the big blind pre-flop depending on the game you are playing the current blinds and any hand you choose to enter the pot with first should be raised and not limped. This will help you in several ways.

• By being an extremely tight player you have (or should have) gained some fold equity. This means that the other players are much more likely to fold when you enter the hand.
• You build a pot for the hand you already have or the one you hope to hit on the flop.

Betting post flop will ultimately depend on what action takes place. If you miss the flop which is likely to be the case many times, then a continuation bet of about 1/2 to 2/3 the pot should be your next line of attack. The few times that you will not fire a c-bet is when the flop is heavily coordinated and/or there are multiple players in the pot with you. Aside from that, you should just about always be firing into the pot because it is very likely that you will take it down uncontested.

If you manage to connect with the flop squarely, say top pair-top kicker or higher, then a 2/3 the pot sized bet is ideal. This size of bet will accomplish a couple things.

• Discourage any kinds of draws from your opponents.
• Get more money in the pot when you are ahead.

It is important to keep in mind that you do not want to bet more than necessary but at the same time, you do not want to bet less than half the pot or so since that will more than likely give your opponents the odds needed for them to call and draw to hands such as flushes and open-ended straight draws.

Lastly, it is important to point out that if you are not planning on raising, then you should be planning to fold. This of course can and will vary on situation, but if you have a hand and are slow playing it, you are not getting the value you need to make your overall playing style profitable. Furthermore, slow playing a hand only gives your opponents free shots to draw to hands to beat you. Either way, you can end up out plenty of money.

Also, playing passively by slow playing a hand or by limping in tends to invite several other players to come along for cheap as well making your hand less valuable and you will be given less respect after the flop even if you do connect only because you didn’t show any pre-flop aggression.

In short, when it comes to tight aggressive poker, you should always be raising or folding simply because these options will prove to be more profitable in relation to your playing style in the long run.

Tight Aggressive Poker

While this is only one of many different kinds of playing styles, it happens to be the most commonly used and from personal experience, the most effective. Playing tight aggressive poker will help players avoid being dominated by better kickers, help them gain fold equity and will help make their decisions much easier to make on any street that they are on. And in poker, when players avoid being dominated and have easier decisions to make, this will generally result in more money saved and/or more money made.

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