What Type of Online Poker Player are you?
When you play poker in a land based casino, your opponents' body language at the table form the basis of their poker "tells." But in an online poker room where people play miles from each other, their poker tells are based on their betting patterns. And, their betting patterns in turn, are influenced by any combination of their looseness or tightness and aggressiveness or passiveness on the online poker table. There are basically four known types of online poker players based on these traits. Your ability to recognize these types of players at your online poker game will go a long way in helping you deal with their actions and beat them at their own game.
The player that you will most commonly encounter in an online poker room is the loose - aggressive type who bets frequently, often bets big, and most of the time going all-in. It can be pretty hard to get a good read on this type of player because if he makes a bet on almost every hand even if he doesn't have good card combinations, how then would you know when he's bluffing and when he's not?
The tight - aggressive player, on the other hand, is cool and calculating and will only bet when he thinks that he has a winning hand. Unlike a loose player, who may bluff often, the tight player will almost never bluff at all. When the tight - aggressive player bets big, you can be sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that he has a real good hand. And, like a magnet that attracts its opposite pole, the tight - aggressive player will surely expect to get betting action from the loose - aggressive player.
The player who has a penchant for wanting to know every hand there is at the table but will keep an arms length away from the betting is the loose - passive player. This type will often check or call small bets just to see other players' hands, but will generally refrain from raising in order not to force the betting.
A real curiosity at the table is the tight - passive player, who comes across as a player who seems to be allergic to risk. You can expect him to fold all but his strongest hands, and when he does have a winning hand, he'll only bet an almost nominal amount as if he is still unsure of his hand.
The cool and calculating style of the tight - aggressive player requires a lot of patience, but in the end will reap its own reward. After the loose - aggressive players have been knocked off the game, other opponents will fold once this type of online poker player makes a big bet because they know that a tight - aggressive player only plays when he has a good hand.