Playing Tight Poker
CAN YOU PLAY TOO TIGHT?
by: Lou Krieger©
"How can you play too tight?" Those were the exact
words a reader put in a letter to me recently. It's an interesting
question; so much so that's it's worth a column all by itself.
Playing too tight is not a problem common to most players, especially
beginning and low limit players. Their major sin is loose
play. In the higher limit games, players do tighten up quite
a bit, but they are usually anything but weak-tight; if they've
managed to survive and thrive in high limit games they may be tight,
but they are usually very aggressive too.
Many lower limit players have a hard time comprehending how a player
can be tight and aggressive at the same time. They don't realize
that many good players will refuse to play poor and sometimes even
marginal hands. But when they choose to get involved they
do so with both guns blazing. Players like this usually come
in for a raise if they came in at all. If there is a bet and
a raise in front of them, they will seldom cold call, preferring
to either fold or make it three bets. Players like this are
not what I'd ever call too tight.
But weak-tight players are. A weak-tight player will enter
the pot only with good hands. When he plays, especially when
he raises, his hand is generally no mystery to those opponents who've
taken the time to get a read on him. At lower limit games
it often doesn't matter; since many players at those limits tend
to act obliviously to the holdings of their opponents. But
if you pay attention to your opponents, and clock them when you
are at the table, you'll know which of them will always have a hand
when they bet or raise.
One characteristic of a player that's too tight is that he does
not ever vary his play. Because of that, he is easy to avoid.
Unless you have a very big hand, it is an easy matter to get rid
of any lesser quality hands when bet into, or raised, by an overly
tight player.
Because overly tight players are easier to read, they will win
less money with their good hands. Why? A player like
me, who might call a bet or a raise against most players when I
have a good hand - but not a great one - will throw it away when
an overly tight player bets or raises. By doing this, I am
giving that overly tight player a golden opportunity to steal a
pot by bluffing me, but I'm not putting too much at risk, since
he seldom, if ever, will do it.
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Overly tight players also hurt themselves by not taking advantage
of small edges and opportunities. Suppose you are holding
Ad-9d and the flop is Qd-Jc-6d. You're in next-to-last position,
and there's a bet and four callers. This is a situation where
overly tight players will call, thinking "I've got a draw to
the nut flush, but I haven't made it yet. I'll try to
get there as inexpensively as I can."
For an aggressive player, this is a must raise situation. Why?
Even without considering all money you'll make on subsequent betting
rounds if you turn a diamond, there are already four players committed
to seeing the turn. Presuming each of them will call your
raise, you are getting 4-to-1 on your money, when the odds against
making your hand are only 1.86-to-1. Anytime the money you
will win if you make your hand exceeds the odds against catching
the card you need, you should consider raising. I realize
that most of the time you will not make your flush. That's
not important. What is important is that if you were able
to repeat this scenario 100 or 1,000 times, over the long haul you'd
win more money by raising than you would by calling.
Too-tight player also lose money when they fail to bet the river
when they hold very strong hands, but not necessarily the nuts.
Suppose you hold Ah-9h and the board shows As-Jd-9c-5h-4s.
An overly tight player will not bet this hand on the river.
Why? He does not have the nuts. But you don't need the
nuts to bet on the river. You only need to have the best hand
if you are called. In this situation there is no possibility
of a flush, and no straight to worry about. What could beat
our hero. A set could. But the chances of a set are
small. If someone made a set on the flop or turn they probably
would have raised on the turn. Sure, some dummy could have
stuck around with a pair of fours and caught a miracle card on the
river, but the chances of that are very scant. Once again,
looking at the long run, a player would show a lot more profit betting
that hand and getting called by a two smaller pair, or aces, or
even someone else with a hand as weak as K-J who is calling "...to
keep you honest," while occasionally losing to a miracle set,
than he would by checking down top two pair on the river - particularly
when there is no possibility of a straight or flush. I'll
even bet top two pair, or top and middle pair, against one opponent
even when a straight or flush is possible. Against multiple opponents,
I frequently bet top two pair against the possibilities of a backdoor
flush. And if I'm last to act, I'll frequently bet if there's
a front-door flush possible, since I'll usually assume that anyone
who drew to a flush and made it on the river would bet their hand.
Sure, sometimes I lose to someone with a very small flush, but those
losses have been more than offset by the additional bets I've won
when my top two pair have held up.
Can you play too tight? Of course you can. If not,
the biggest winners would be those who never played a hand other
than a pocket pair of aces. They'd be in action about once
every 221 hands. But no one would call when they bet, and
their winnings won't pay their time charges.
There's a fine line that consistently winning players have to tread.
Most players lean too far into the direction of overly loose play.
But others - and it's really just a few - play too tightly.
Not many, mind you, but they are out there. And it's probably
easier for them to loosen up a bit than it is for overly loose players
to tighten down. If you've been playing too tightly, take heed -
but take a well-calculated risk every now and then.
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