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In our poker playing experience we have seen players who are ready to play every hand, even aggressively raising pre-flop with the statistically worst starting hand a 2-7 off suit. We have also witnessed the players who sit patiently, always folding every hand until they can raise with a high pocket pair. Comprehending these extremes of loose and tight play can help construct your personal strategy by mixing up your approach ensuring you don’t become predictable at the table.

The ability to signal what you want is the key to an effective table image. By balancing your approach between a combination of aggression and selective loose play you can keep your opponents in the dark. Having the right cards, combined with a lucky streak is vital to all players, being able to use marginal cards and good tactical play to outsmart your opponents can move you from a average to a winning player in less time.

Poker is a mathematical game, and adjusting your table image can help skew the probability in your direction. According to David Sklansky, a leading poker player and poker theorist, the fundamental theorem of poker states that making your opponents play differently than they would if he or she could see your cards puts your hand in positive expected value territory. Therefore, mixing up slow play, bluffing and outright aggression can help improve your ability to make your opponents misread your hand.

When to Implement Aggressive Play

Aggression can be a useful tactic at the poker table, especially when you want to extract maximum value from a good hand or want to appear strong when bluffing. Aggressive play can help you put your opponents off guard, putting you into control of the action so you can maximum the expected value of any given hand. Importantly, there are different types of aggressive play including subtle aggression where you check and raise after you opponent bets, as well as passive aggression where you let your opponent raise in early rounds and then increase the stakes on the turn and river when bet sizes double.

A careful use of aggressive play at the poker table can lead to a major difference when it comes to getting the best out of your better hands and assist in successfully bluffing when you feel you have a weak opponent. Those players who are successful at poker understand the delicate art of bluffing, as well as the necessity of careful signaling.

Using Loose Play

We’ve all seen players who are seemingly random and reckless with their betting, playing any two cards or entering a pre-flop raise with suited connectors. Carefully done this strategy can deliver impressive results when you hit your straight or flush, or when you want to establish yourself as a loose player.

Mixing your table image utilizing loose play will have the effect of encouraging more players to enter pots when you actually have a strong hand. Allowing yourself to loose a bit on high risk loose play early on can really be a semi-bluff with high returns when you get a full set of callers with pocket aces later in the game. The objective is to keep your opponents off guard and playing loose throughout the game can provide the table image that accomplishes that.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Fat Bet Poker Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Minted Poker.

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