Winning poker players use different playing styles. It's one of the beauties of poker that players with very different styles can be winning. Nevertheless, for beginning poker players, the tight aggressive style is recommended. Let's see what this means. 

 

How to describe poker playing styles

 

The playing style of a poker player is often described using two parameters: looseness and aggressiveness. Players can be very loose or very tight, very aggressive or very passive, or somewhere in between. Any combination of the two parameters is possible. Some players are loose-passive, others are tight-passive. Today, the loose-aggressive style is very popular. But the right place to begin is in the tight aggressive style. Your looseness is how many hands you play. If you see almost every flop, you're playing a loose game. If, on the other hand, you fold everything but the very best starting hands, then you're a very tight player. Aggression has to do with how often you bet and raise in the hands that you play. Calling is not considered an aggressive action. Each time you call another player's bet or raise, you get a point for passivity. When you bet or raise, you gather aggression points.

How to play tight-aggressive poker 

So, being tight-aggressive means that you choose your starting hands carefully, folding all bad hands, but when you enter a pot you come in betting and raising like there's no tomorrow.This is the playing style that every beginner should try to master. Even if long time winners use different playing styles, the tight aggressive style is the safe point of departure when you start out in poker. Why is that? The reasons are simple. By choosing your starting hands selectively, you will enter the pots with decent holdings. You will often be in a dominating position against your opponents who play more hands and therefore have a worse hand on average. 

Protecting your hand

 

When you hit something on the flop or later in the hand, it's important to protect your hand. You'll almost never hit the absolute nuts, so there's usually a chance that the opposition can improve their hands and beat you on a later street. To prevent them from hitting their winning cards, or at least make them pay for the privilege, you need to put in sizeable bets. 

Let opponents fold their hands