TAGs- Understanding and Exploiting

Introduction to the Characteristics of Various Players

More like in any competitive sport, every player isn’t the same. Some come out tight- aggressive, some come out passive aggressive or some who give up. Just like that in poker, each player has his own style and game plan. Some can be intimidating. Others are a piece of cake. It’s you who guess’s the elephant in the room. But how, is the question? Is there any sort of a blue plan to figure it out? Is there any way we can find out who it is? Is it possible on online poker platforms? But before you begin to make your wild guess’s, something you should familiarise yourself with is to learn the oddity of the player. The peculiar behaviour of the player needs to be studied before you make your move. It is a skill to adopt to recognize what category your opponent’s fall into and then use that information to decide how you are going to play them.

You know exactly how to play against your opponent’s when you profile them. Once you target and find the weak player, you’re most likely having more chances to win it against him. If you target the weakest player, he will most likely give away his chips to you. If you battle a game against good player you tend to kill your profits. It is much easier to make money against weaker players. This becomes easier on online poker tournaments. That is where you must go after. You need to be peeking and observant. A check list for you to be an active observer is:

• Spot the weaker player.
• Orbit around the table and be vigilant of who is likely to be a tight player.
• Some players play it safe; you need to figure out who is the fish.

A few basic opponents have certain characteristics which are peculiar:

1. A player who doesn’t fold his weak pairs:

He rather keeps playing which eventually becomes extremely frustrating when you are holding dead cards. But you can beat them. All you need is good amount of patience and rash betting, if you are confident. Don’t worry, they will pay you off when you have a bigger hand against them.

2. A player who can’t stop betting:

Don’t you think it is really annoying to have bettors who are habitual to their annoying junk betting. Make it your advantage. Since their lack of discipline, let them bet and let them take down the small pots. You wait for your big pot. Let him check raise. You don’t do that with Tom Dwan! You better back off then.

3. A full-on pro:

You are definitely not winning a bigger pot in front of such players. You should usually avoid getting in the game with them. The thing with such players is that they are mind readers and they can easily bluff. They wouldn’t mind losing a few bucks on marginal hands because they already know they are going to win the big pot. Mind you again, make weaker players your target, not the pros.

The very prominent type of game players: 

 There are a few tendencies that players have in terms of their aggression. They are merely divided into lose and tight aggression. Tight versus loose is usually when a tight player plays, but if your hands were as a loose player, you play a lot of hands. In case of passive versus aggressive players, the former doesn’t usually raise on a preflop as often as an aggressive player would. To encapsulate and sketch a picture of such characters, there are a few characteristics which are evident among these players:

1. Loose Passive:

• They are usually called the “Calling Station”.
• They play a large number of hands.
• They Call most of the times.
• They usually stay involved in every hand.
• Don’t bluff the poor souls! They rarely bet.
• They usually have a minimal share of winnings.

2. Loose aggressive:

• The bet rash and aggressively.
• They are called the LAG’S.
• They rarely call.
• Risk takers! Big time!
• Most unpredictable players.
• Average share of winnings.

3. Tight passive:

• They are called “The Rock”.
• They take their own sweet time to decide.
• They are players of only premium hands.
• They barely bet/raise.
• They usually avoid confrontations.
• Low share of winnings.

4. Tight-Aggressive:

• They are called the TAG’S.
• Selective in nature and fold 80% of their hands.
• Rarely call a bet/raise heavily. That’s only when they have strong cards.
• If you are weaker, better fold against them.
• They play few hands.
• High share of marginal winnings.

To epitomize, TAG players are the players you’ve got to be careful of. They are in the habit of playing tag poker and using their tag poker strategy in front of weaker players. All you can do is PAY ATTENTION to these tight-aggressive players if you want to save your big bucks. For TAG’s, you are categorized as a Fish, Nit or Good. TAG’s are in better position on the table since they have earned their place on the table. They are far more experienced. They are tight-aggressive, remember! 

They have learned good hand selection and therefore this attribute helps them keep out of too many top spots. They have tight-aggressive approach. It is like giving him a clear advantage over weaker starting range of hands. They usually make money by taking advantage of players who haven’t learned the art. Once you learn the TAG style, you can address the elephant in the room. If you are on a table full of such players, you better leave your seat. You have to try to put your opponent in his position using your fundamental skills.

Usually, all you can do is, put the TAGfish person in a position where all his article that he has read or studied, misapply on his game. For a TAG fish, he feels he’s going to win the entire pot if he has the nuts. He would call his speculative hands post-flop, and when he finally makes the huge hand, he makes his opponent fold. You have to start going a notch higher. Don’t react but be proactive. A TAGfish slips into autopilot sometimes by rushing his decisions and makes a mistake.

After all!

TAG Is a curable syndrome. All you have to do is calm down, make fair decisions and don’t play rash! If you want to win more money, you need to play it cool. To beat and exploit the TAGs:

• You have to simply look at your cards and play odds in your position. But do not risk your stack. They would just glance through their cards and let go. Take advantage of the position and steal it from him.
• If they bet, you continue betting. But that is respective to the cards you have in hand. Don’t make a mistake of unconnecting your cards. Pre-calculate your moves and pre-calculate his. It is not as tough as it looks. Sometimes overestimate your implied odds.

Are you a TAG yourself?

The real question to yourself is that, how would you judge yourself whether you are a TAG or not?

Everybody knows that you are here to play. You want to be tight-aggressive to intimidate your players. You know you want to play a tag poker strategy in ways people would never imagine. The one thing about TAG’s is, they play small games every day no matter what they are marginal winning is. They eventually break even on the face of earth. If you play proactively, it’s positive. If you start asking yourself questions like why am I sitting in the spot? Why am I here? It eventually starts showing on your game. Like I said it is a syndrome, a curable one.

 Remember things like, not exaggerating, because a professional TAG player will catch you on your raising and betting. They might start calling you down by counteracting and causing bluffs. If you are seated to the right of a TAG player, you can definitely bag the blinds more than you would normally do. Yes, there will be a change in your continued bets, flop and turn, but that would be optimal. In case of online poker, it is easier to understand by the raise that a person makes. rather than exploiting a player, exploit the game. That’s where your deal cracks. The actual goal is to take the money off the table and how to exploit the TAG by taking his money. How much better of a feeling that would be?

 Playing online poker is an advantage. You get to study the table statistics that most poker websites provide. Spartan Poker is an online poker website with a high average and high percentage table. You know you can be a TAG player when you’re playing online. Use your tag poker strategies in place. Online poker helps you practice your skills to be a tag poker artist or any other variant. Spartan Poker offers you the best platform to practice from being a newbie to a pro.