Texas Holdem Player Categories
By Wes Young, Sat Dec 10th

A useful thought process or tool you should familiarize yourselfwith is placing opponents into categories, both for your currentplaying session as well as any future sessions against the sameplayer. There are four broad categories of playing styles. Byplaying against an opponent and learning his or her tendencies,you can place them in a category and adjust your style whencontesting a pot with them. I find that by putting names withcategories it helps me remember how each opponent plays. Here isa list of different playing styles followed by a suggested namefor each. Feel free to use your own names if they are easier foryou to remember. One note of caution, just because a player hasbeen included in one category in the past does not mean that heor she cannot be in a different one today. Players playdifferently at different times for many reasons. Sometight/aggressive players change to loose/aggressive whendrinking while others will tighten up after a bad beat. Alwaystake a little time to reevaluate players you have experiencewith to make sure they haven't changed their style.

Tight/Aggressive - Being this type of player should be yourgoal. This player doesn't play many hands, but when they do,they play very aggressively. The tight/aggressive player willoften enter the pot with a raise and bet and raise until theywin or are clearly beaten. Every time that a player bets orraises, it forces other players to make decisions and whenever aplayer must make a decision, he/she may make a mistake. Thetight/aggressive player capitalizes on this by providingopportunities for his/her opponents to make these mistakes. Thename I assign to these players is Solid. You must respect theirbets and raises because they seldom enter a pot with a poorhand. Solid players maximize their intake with winning hands andminimize it with second best hands. When choosing a game, if Isee too many solid players in it, I will usually find anothergame if one is available.

Loose/Aggressive - The loose/aggressive player plays too manyhands, usually raises and is very hard to bluff. When playingagainst them it is important to keep your starting handrequirements tight so that you are often in the hand with bettercards than them. Most loose/aggressive players are trying toplay the correct way, which is tight/aggressive, but simply playtoo many hands. In the long run, loose/aggressive players tendto be losing players because they play too many hands. The nameI assign to the loose/aggressive player is Semi-Maniac. A playerthat is at the very outer edge of loose/aggressive is theManiac. The Maniac plays many hands and always raises if theyare in a hand. If you find yourself against a maniac, just sitback and wait for your very best starting hands. The maniac willpay you a very high price when you do have a great hand so youcan afford to pass up the marginal ones.

Tight/Weak - A tight/weak player has a solid understanding ofstarting hand requirements and follows them, but doesn't playwell after the flop. This player doesn't raise to protect theirbest hands, which often lets drawing hands catch-up withoutpaying a high price. A tight/weak player much prefers checkingand calling to see what is coming next. The tight/weak playermay show a small profit in games full

of poor players because ofthe proper starting hand selection, but will be eaten alive bysolid players. I call the tight/weak players Sandstone, inreference to a weak rock.

Loose/Weak - The loose/weak player plays too many hands, callswhen he or she should raise or fold and almost always will payyou off on the river with second, third and often worse hands. Icall these players Calling Stations. These are the players thatmany players call Fish. I know that the loose/weak playerwill always pay off my good hands and I often try to isolatehim/her to take advantage of this.

About the author:Wes Young runs a web site at http://www.pokermonger.comwhere you can find information about strategy, roomreviews and unique articles. He also publishes a weeklypoker column. For information visit thepokercolumn.com