Aggressive Online Poker Styles

The large playing field that exists within online poker brings about an abundance of playing styles. Aggressive play can be both good and bad depending on the situation. Players that are aggressive tend to be either tight/aggressive or loose/aggressive. They may also play outside their norm from time to time depending on the situation. For example, a loose/aggressive player may tighten up during the early stages of a multi-table tournament and return to their normal self as players begin to get eliminated.

Tight/Aggressive

Solid, consistent players in majority tend to be tight/aggressive players. This playing style involves players that have a tight hand selection, play position poker and usually are only aggressive when they have the best hand. The downside to this is that most players will realize who the tight players are and back down from the action when they raise with their pocket kings, aces or big/slick (AK).

Players that are tight/aggressive will do well with value bets against a few loose/passive players sitting to their right. In multi-table tournaments, tight/aggressive players will do well in the early stages of the tournament and last longer than the bulk of the extremely aggressive players.

As the tournament progresses, blinds will get kind of high and player chip stacks start to play a factor almost worth more than the cards. Low stacked players will become extremely aggressive because the blinds are so high and they feel the need to make a move and deep stacked players will push around with weaker hands because they can.

Loose/Aggressive

Loose/Aggressive players are probably the most dangerous players. They are unpredictable and they take huge chip stack swings. The aggressiveness and probability of making a bad read can diminish a player's chips rather quickly. Players that are overly aggressive have an advantage in that they usually control the pace of the game. However, if they are called out and noticed as being a big fish early on, the aggressive advantage is lost. It will only be a matter of time before a tight player calls them with the nuts and lets the loose/aggressive player just waste away some hefty continuation bets.

Being aggressive is part of poker but it has to be done correctly. Players have to utilize proper hand selection, play their position and make reads based on recognized opponent tendencies. Some players play generally tight/aggressive but may switch it up for a hand or two playing a little loose after they've been thoroughly recognized for playing solid, tight poker. The same is true for loose/aggressive players. They may tighten up and fire away holding the nuts after a few bluffs to throw the table off and catch somebody. However, loose/aggressive players in large part, tend to be inexperienced. Most professionals would recommend that players looking to be successful adopt a tight/aggressive style of play.