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View Full Version : Do most winning players start out weak-tight?


checkmate36
11-28-2005, 06:11 PM
Im rereading "The Psychology of Poker" by Dr. Schoonmaker (great book) and I have the tight/passive style (PT has me rated as a mouse /images/graemlins/blush.gif).

He talks about players who are weak-tight have taken the first step towards winning by playing tight. I just need to get more aggressive. The other point that hit home was I need to call more on the river. PT shows I go to showdown 27.22% and I win 59.46% when I get to showdown. I think Im probably folding some winners along the way. I have only played 15k hands so far so I have much to learn.

Did any of you advanced players start out with a similar style? I try not to give free cards and I also don't really bluff very often since at lower limits bluffing is usually wrong vs calling stations and fish that I seek out.

Thanks for sharing any thoughts.

11-28-2005, 06:17 PM
Hmm, I don't know that most players start out weak/tight, but I did.

As PoP says, TAG is not a natural style. I think it's probably easier to go from TPP to TAG than say from Loose Aggressive to Tight Agressive. LAGs tend to be indiscriminantly aggresive as opposed to TAGs which are/should be selectively so.

My small sample of 5K hands has me at 19.6/10/1.98. I was reviewing some of my hands from Aug and Sept when a started and man were they ugly. I wanted to shoot myself for playing so poorly. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

11-28-2005, 06:19 PM
I did, when I first started reading more material on poker (the section of the Hellmuth book on LHE is atrociously weak-tight), and have since moved on to the LAG stage pushing more marginal hands for value, stealing, and so on. Am just now learning to slow it down a bit.

I am not, however, anywhere near an 'advanced player', but most people seem to go through the same three-odd stages.

checkmate36
11-28-2005, 06:26 PM
I probably shouldn't have used the word "advanced" in my OP.

Blunderfull1
11-28-2005, 06:26 PM
I saw an article relating to this one time. I cant remember where it was, but the first thing people figure out is the tight part of poker. You cant just be playing every hand and expect to win, long term. The next part people learn is the aggressive side. Ed Miller talks about this all the time. How he created a bunch of LAGs because people dont understand when to be aggressive. The last thing is to be tight and aggressive. Which is what most of us want to be.

gronmo
11-28-2005, 07:05 PM
this article seem to fit the bill
http://www.twoplustwo.com/zee2.html

Most players also find that they take a huge leap forward in their 10 handed games after they have learned to play short handed.

Greg J
11-28-2005, 07:08 PM
[ QUOTE ]
this article seem to fit the bill
http://www.twoplustwo.com/zee2.html

Most players also find that they take a huge leap forward in their 10 handed games after they have learned to play short handed.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nice find! I was looking for that and could not find it. You guys should read it -- great article.