Learn Texas Hold Em Poker – Understand Players

Texas Hold Em Poker is so complex. There are so many facets to the game you need to incorporate and play together to be successful. First I think it is important to make a few clarifications, which time and time again get people confused.

Aggressive: This is a descriptive word for a players betting style. It specifically relates to how to player bets. Aggressive players always raise and will often further re-raise a bet/re-raise. Aggressive players don't often check or call. Aggressive players that always raise heavy on practically every hand are called a loose cannon. I'll explain what loose means down below.

Passive: Another descriptive word for a players betting, again only relating to how the player bets. Passive players don't often raise. They prefer to check or call. They will call another players raise but don't often re-raise. A passive player that continually calls is called a calling-station. Passive players are more often then not very tight.

Next I want to clarify the following point. Tight and loose; these words essentially describe the types of cards or hands a player will actually bother playing.
 
Tight players only play the best hands, like good pocket pairs or premium cards (A,K,Q). They much prefer suited cards or high connectors as well. Tight players will fold if they don't have extremely good cards. You can tell a tight player because they don't often go to the flop. Another way to tell is to watch when they do go to the flop and if the flop isn't full of highcards then you will usually see them fold.

Loose players on the other hand will play much worse cards. They are more likely to play middle cards, like middle pairs and middle suited connectors. They may even play lower pairs or complete dunce cards, depending on how loose they get and if they are incorporating a bluff or other strategy. You can tell a loose player because he is constantly playing pots. Seriously, no one can really get great cards every single hand unless they are on some kind of outta-this-world lucky streak, which usually doesn't happen. The way they can play most hands is because they are playing when they have plain cards. This is an effective strategy because if the flop comes and its mostly low cards, all the people who only played with premium cards have nothing, but the loose player who has the low/middle cards suddenly has a two pair or trips etc.

The ability to understand other players is imperative for a good grounding when you are trying to learn Texas Hold em Poker. Just understanding the types isn't good enough, you need to be able to watch people and pin them on a type and style. When you can do this you will be able to play better poker.

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