The 4 styles of online poker play

Online poker play can be easily broken down into only four distinct styles of play which are normally referred to as:

Loose-Aggressive
Tight Aggressive
Loose-Passive
Tight-Passive

Loose and Tight define the number of hands the player actually plays, while Aggressive and Passive refer to the player's betting strategy.

If you recognize these players at your online poker game it will help you to combat their actions and beat them. Here's a summary of each style of play:

Loose-Aggressive
The loose-aggressive player is the one most frequently found at the online poker tables. They bet often and bet big, often going all-in. This type of player can be very hard to get a read on, if he's betting every almost hand you know he's not always got the best cards but how do you know when he's bluffing?

Tight-Aggressive
This is a player who only bets when they have a very good hand, a tight player is the opposite of a loose player who bluffs often, the tight player hardly ever or never bluffs. When the tight-aggressive player does have a hand though he bets big and will almost always get some betting action from the loose-aggressive players above.

Loose-Passive
The loose-passive player generally wants to see every hand but isn't prepared to get involved in the betting. They will check or call any small to medium bets in order to see the cards but won't force the betting by making a raise.

Tight-Passive
This guy takes so little part in the game you'd wonder why he's there at all! The tight-passive player will fold all but the best of hands, but when they do get a good hand they will only limp in rather than betting big.

For most internet tournament tables tight-aggressive is the best strategy, this style of online poker play requires patience but the pay off in prize money at the end of the game is well worth it. After the loose players and those not paying any attention to the game have gone, you'll be left with four or five players at the table who desperately want to finish in the top three to win some prize money.

Your aggressive play will win big time here as by now they will have noticed that you only play if you've got a hand so they will back down and let you have the pot as soon as you bet big, unless of course you're unlucky and they have a monster hand.