Most poker players have heard of the term “TAG”. To be a TAG means that you are a tight aggressive player. You play a small percentage of hands and you are very active towards building the pot with these hands. Right now the best style to play in online poker is a tight aggressive style.

Why Tight Aggressive Poker (TAG)?

In poker you want to play in the opposite style that your opponents are playing. If your opponent is playing tight then it is correct to loosen up. If they are loose then you should tighten up and wait for a good hand against them. This is the most profitable way to play poker because it counteracts what your opponent is doing.

Ever since poker has become televised the scene as a whole has exploded with new poker players. There has been a sort of internet poker craze where people who see poker on TV begin to play online poker. These poker players base their play style on what they see on poker television shows. Since the televised events only show the big bluffs and huge all in moments with big hands these players think that every hand should be played like they have seen. Since they see so many bluffs run on TV they tend to bluff much more than normal and think that this loose style is correct when it is in fact the opposite.

Because these players are running so many bluffs it is normally correct to play very tight poker, only playing premium hands that you can normally guarantee will beat your opponent’s random holdings that they are bluffing with.

Why Aggressive?

When you are playing a TAG style of poker you are only playing around one fifth of your hands. Since you are limited to playing so few hands you have to make the hands you do play pay off for you. This is achieved by value betting a building pots yourself to extract every last penny you can from your opponents when you have one of those poker hands.

Another big factor in why playing TAG is best would be the loose passive players. A loose passive player is a player who plays a large variety of hands and likes to get to the river as cheap as they can to see if they have won the hand. They don’t see putting money in the pot as something they can win, but see it more as something they could lose.

Since you cannot count on these players to build the pot when you have a big hand you have to be very aggressive and do so yourself. The poker player who wins the most money and loses the least money is the better player overall at poker.

Make Things Easier

One of the main reasons to play tight aggressive poker is because it is the easiest style to play. You will normally be playing better hands than that of your opponent so the decision making will be much simpler. The stronger the hand you are playing the easier your decisions will be to make. The reason that pro level players can play so many more hands is because they are much more skilled and far better educated at poker than the average or even above average poker player. As you start to develop your skill more you can then increase the range of hands that you play.

When you are the aggressor in poker, things are also much easier for you because you have more ability in the hand. You can not only win by playing tight and having the best hand as showdown, but your bets can also take down the pot by forcing your opponent to fold. Since you have more ability of winning the hand just because you are the one who is being aggressive you will win more when you are betting. This too makes winning the pot a lot easier.