Today, we are going to take an in-depth look at the various poker playing styles and talk about which playing style works best for a private club on the PokerBros application.
The reason poker is such a great game is that there is more than one way to win. You should choose the playing style that you are most comfortable with. However, I believe that one of them is the best choice specifically for playing on the PokerBros application.
The Most Common Poker Playing Styles
It is widely accepted that the common games such as No Limit Texas Hold’Em and Pot Limit Omaha have four main playing styles. These are Loose Passive, Tight Passive, Loose Aggressive, and Tight Aggressive.
In general, being passive is a negative trait, while being aggressive is positive. Whether or not you should play loose or tight is a matter of personal preference. Let’s take a closer look at each playing style.
Loose Passive
A loose passive player is, in my opinion, the worst possible playing style in poker. This type of play usually stems from a bad understanding of poker. A loose passive player plays a lot of hands, but resorts to mainly checking and calling. You may have heard these types of players being referred to as “calling stations”.
This type of play usually results from impatience. A loose passive player believes that they can hit the flop with any two cards. They are afraid that if they fold, they might miss out on hitting the nuts.
However, they don’t have a good grasp on bluffing or value betting. They mostly try to survive until the river, hoping that their hand holds or improves. If luck is on their side, they will win the money in the middle.
This type of play can easily be countered by utilizing aggressive value bets. If you are playing against a loose passive player, make them pay a lot of money to see the river.
Tight Passive
A tight passive player is another example of poor play. This type of player only plays good cards, but rarely raises or bets. People refer to these types of players as “Nits” or “Rocks”. Players like this are usually playing at stakes that are too high for them. They are scared of losing money.
If they do not have the absolute nuts, they are afraid of raising because their opponent might have a better hand than them. On the other hand, when they do have the best possible hand, they often try to “trap” because they are afraid of looking suspicious.
You can beat this type of player by playing very aggressively and bluffing a lot. If they fear losing money, you rarely run the risk of getting put in a tough position when you get raised. However, when they do check-raise you, watch out!
Loose Aggressive
Any type of aggressive play is generally considered better than being passive. A loose aggressive player plays with a very wide range. They utilize a lot of bluffs and raises. This type of playing style can be a double-edged sword.
If you make any mistakes, or get unlucky, you can lose your money very fast.
However, if you play this well, you can make your opponents call you with subpar hands. The benefit of this playing style is that you don’t have to sit around and wait for good hands.
Tight Aggressive
Based on the other explanations, you can probably figure out how a tight aggressive player plays. They wait for good hands, and then play them aggressively. This playing style is all about patience and a good understanding of poker.
By waiting for a good hand, you give yourself better odds against the rest of the table. Then you utilize your poker knowledge to maximize the value you get from each hand. This is the “safest” playing style, and it is great for players that are beginners but want to get serious about poker.
This style is also often utilized by advanced players who are playing many tables at the same time. By using this playing style, you don’t need to pay as much attention to your opponents, and therefore you can quickly make fundamental decisions even across 10+ tables.
Which Poker Playing Style is Best for PokerBros?
If you want to dominate and win a ton of money in your private club on PokerBros, then there is one style that stands out. This is the loose aggressive playing style.
Benefits of Loose Aggressive Playing Style
PokerBros has built-in stats which you can see for all your opponents. If you don’t play a lot of hands, this will be obvious to everyone else at your table, and it will be easy for them to play against you.
There are many players on PokerBros that play loose aggressive, but they don’t play this style in the correct way. These players are just hungry for action and blow all their money. These types of players are targets for the more experienced players. You can “blend in” with this crowd of fish, and everyone will simply think you are getting lucky.
This will put them on tilt and they will lose even more money to you. You might also get the bad players to flex their ego and try to show that they are more aggressive than you.
In certain private clubs on PokerBros, there are tables with VPIP restrictions. For example, if you don’t play more than 40% of your hands, you can’t sit at the table. These tables are where all the money is. If you are loose enough to play at these tables, you can take money from all the action hungry suckers.
One of the downsides to Loose Aggressive playing style is that it is heavily dependent on variance. However, since you are playing online, you go through more hands per hour than you would in a live game, and therefore the variance is reduced.
If your poker skills are better than the rest of the players at your table (which is likely for the PokerBros app), you can win money by simply making better decisions. You don’t have to sit around and wait for good cards to come. This playing style constantly forces you to make tough decisions and improve your game.
Choosing Your Style
As I said earlier, you should choose whichever playing style you are most comfortable with. The purpose of this article was to dispel the bad stereotype associated with Loose Aggressive players. Not everyone with this playing style is a “crazy” player. However, you do want to make your opponents think that! Get out on the battlefield and see what works best for you. Let us know which playing style is your favorite!
Remember, if you are looking for a private club to join on PokerBros, please visit our clubs page or reach out to us. We’ll get you set up in no time. Thanks for reading!