Plan your strategy when you really think you understand the basic rules of the game and also the odds related to the game. Once you are confident with the fundamentals of the game that’s when you start calculating your second step by studying and understanding your opponents and developing strategy that will help you outplay them.
If you understand the normal playing trend of any player at various stages of a game it will be either playing loose or tight, which means that they will be play lots of hands or very few hands. Some players will play exclusively loose or tight as a part of their poker strategy it can be very beneficial to spot a tendency towards one or the other. It’s found that tight players have a tendency to play fewer hands and because of a surfeit of caution open themselves to bluffing. On the other hand you see that loose players have a tendency to play too many hands as they over value poor to medium strength hands.
Players will also play hands either passively or aggressively. Whether a player is passive or aggressive is determined by the way that they make bets. A passive player believes that a cautious approach to betting is the correct poker strategy, calling rather than betting. An aggressive player believes that the correct poker strategy is to take risks and place large bets thus forcing opponents to make tough decisions.
Passive players are susceptible to folding a little easily to big bets and can be easily scared; it pays to quickly get a measure of their passivity and for the sake of your poker strategy find the level of betting that makes them either comfortable or uneasy. Aggressive players tend to bet big and bet hard, they should be tackled with caution. If you have good cards it can pay to play an aggressive player at their own game to shake their confidence or possibly take down a monster pot.
Poker players can be broadly classified into four general types. Accordingly they can be either tight passive, tight aggressive, loose passive or loose aggressive. Every way of playing has its advantage & weaknesses. For example loose aggressive players tend to throw too many chips at too many hands, if you spot a loose aggressive player your poker strategy should be to wait until you get the right cards and get them to put as many chips as possible into the pot and then lay into them with a well timed aggressive bet. By spotting a players’ particular tendencies and being alert to the changes in the way they play you can shift your poker strategy to exploit the weaknesses in the way they play.
