What’s the first strategy you have learnt while playing poker? It’s “play tight but aggressive!” There is a simple logic behind the tight aggressive poker style – If you play a lot with all kinds of hands, you will lose money in the long run. But if you play less with strong hands, you will win money.
Tight Aggressive Poker Style
This simple and yet effective poker strategy tells you to play tight and be selective with your starting hands. And when you play, always raise preflop. You should raise at least 3X Big Blind on the preflop and play an aggressive style.
So, if you are playing less, you should enter the pot with a raise only with strong starting hands. You should play with the top 19% of the hands or even less.
How to Make Profits with this Style?
We are talking about how to make profits in 100 hands with this style in 6-max cash games:
1) When playing 6-max cash games, you will lose 1.5 big blinds (bb) every 6 hands, which is 1 Big Blind and 1 Small Blind combined. So, if the Small Blind is $5 and Big Blind is $10, you will lose $15 (1.5 bb) every 6 hands.
Cost of Playing Every 6 Hands = 1.5 bb
2) The cost of playing a single hand is 0.25 bb (1.5 bb/ 6 Hands = 0.25 bb).
Cost of Playing Each Hand = 0.25 bb
3) The cost of playing 100 hands is 25 bb (0.25 bb X 100 hands = 25 bb). So, if you fold every single hand on the preflop, you will eventually lose 25 bb after 100 hands. That’s the bitter truth! So, always play with a 100 bb starting stack.
Cost of Playing 100 Hands = 25 bb
4) In order to make a profit at the end of 100 hands, you need to win more than 25 bb. This is possible if you play tight with only strong hands. Whenever you play, try to win at least 9 bb. For that, raise at least 3X bb preflop and bet at least 6X bb post-flop. We are assuming you are winning 9X in a heads-up situation. If more players join, the pot will be bigger. So, depending on the situation, you can win more than 9 bb or less than 9 bb. However, for the sake of assumption, we are keeping it as a pot of 9 bb when a hand is won.
Pot Won per Winning Hand = 9 bb
5) Out of 100 hands, you need to play only three such hands to win 27 bb (9 bb X 3 Hands = 27 bb). Once the blinds costs are covered, whatever you win will be your profit. Once you start making profits, protect your profits at all cost. Play tighter with stronger starting hands to keep making profits.
6) This is hypothetical – If you win at least 10 out of 100 hands with a minimum winning pot size of 9 bb per hand, you will win 90 bb (9 bb X 10 Hands). Let us also add some losing hands where you lost 30 bb. So, the profit at the end of 100 hands will be 45 bb.
90 bb (Blinds Won in 10 Hands) – 30 bb (Cost of Losing Hands) – 25 bb (Blinds Cost of 100 Hands) = 45 bb
Now multiply 45 with the real value of Big Blinds at the tables you usually play.
45 X $ of bb = OMG!
This may sound unrealistic, but it is possible! If you play tight aggressive poker with strong starting hands by assessing your poker position and using optimal strategies, the sky is the limit! So, use this style to make maximum profit!
Also Read: Why PFR Stats is Important for Tight Aggressive Play?
What do you think of this tight aggressive poker style? Comment Below.
