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Tools of the trade – evaluating the best plays for tight and loose aggressive styles in no limit tournament play

In Texas Hold’em MTTs, we find two types of players which have demonstrated success on the tournament circuit – loose-aggressive players (LAGs) and tight-aggressive players (TAGs). Representing the better known LAGs are players such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Gus Hanson and Daniel Negraneau (depending on what style Daniel is proclaiming he plays for a given year). The TAG heavy-hitters include Dan Harrington, Chris Ferguson, and Phil Hellmuth. While few are as loose as Hanson and even fewer as seemingly tight as Harrington, the majority of players fall somewhere in the middle.

Several books written on poker will give you a far better definition than I can provide about table image, but as a player, I’m certain you know the type of image you’ve projected to the table about your loose/tight tendencies. I’m more of a TAG player, but the majority of players I both associate with and play against seem to have more LAGish qualities and I’ll be the first to admit – LAGs have more fun. They play more pots, raise more, and find their chips in the center of the table far more often then I will. As a result of giving more action, they tend to receive more action. Their bigger hands will get paid off better than mine will, and they will take down more pots in the course of a game, through sheer aggression.

The success of both styles leads me to believe that neither is superior to the other, given the style is executed to perfection. However, the impetus of this article is (in part) to a friend’s complaint about how his steal moved failed – he called it a squeeze, I told him why it wasn’t considered a squeeze – regardless, this move didn’t work and in large part, the move didn’t work because of his image.

Let’s look at the various plays (tools, for my purposes) that are available for a player’s use.

Tools – incomplete list:

Re-raise

Value bet

Check/raise (trap)

Steal

Squeeze

Small-bet bluff (“post oak bluff”)

Given you have established a table image, certain tools are going to be more effective for TAG players and others more effective for LAG players. You will rarely see a carpenter using a monkey wrench, and your local mechanic has no use for a plumb bob (go GOOGLE it). Regardless, many players use tools that aren’t as effective for their trade.

Re-raise – a way of life for the LAG player, they swing this tool as readily as a carpenter swings a hammer. As strictly a move, it’s unlikely to work, given an established table image. For the TAG, a re-raise scares any player with half a brain and usually gets all but the strongest hands (or the most LAGish) players to fold.

Value bet – You most likely have the best hand and are looking to get more money in a pot. Both LAGs and TAGs should/do value bet their hands, but LAGs have a far better chance of getting a hand paid off, given their image. Too often when I put a bet in on the river, even not an overly large one, my opponents fold L

Check/raise – These are scary regardless who they come from. A LAG may be check/raising with 2nd pair (or less), depending on how tight (or how weak) they sense the opponent is. Also, they could have the monster hand, but will get action based on their image. A check/raise from a TAG will often take down a pot, especially if they follow-up with firing on the turn/river.

Steal (preflop) – A LAG is often raising or re-raising, so this immediately drops the percentage for success when this play is executed. However, a faked-steal (making it look like steal with a monster hand) is more likely to get paid off. The TAG’s steal attempts should have a much higher chance of success, given the TAG image is maintained.

Steal (postflop) – Both TAGs and LAGs can make good use of this move. For the LAG, a smallish, connected flop (likely to have missed the opponent) is a good chance to pick off the continuation bet of a pre-flop raiser, as it is likely the flop may be in the LAGish player’s neighborhood. From the TAG perspective, if I smooth-called a raise preflop, I can represent a set, top pair or an overpair on the flop.

Squeeze – The best example I have found is in Harrington on Hold’em and the success of Dan’s move was based solely on his image and his observations. He knew that the EP raise came from a LAGish opponent, and the call behind wasn’t an overly strong hand. The same arguments apply as they do for the steal.

Small-bet bluff – An overly small bet into a larger pot, this is designed to look like a “suck bet”, just made to increase pot-size when you hold a nuts (or near nuts) hand. Quite often a LAG is betting every street if trying to take down a pot, so a smaller bet may be viewed as merely another pot attempt. An opponent facing is TAG is going to wonder “why such a small bet?” and may concede the hand.

In conclusion, make sure the tools you are using are appropriate for the image you’ve built. And then you may not wonder why your steal, squeeze or re-raise bluff was called by QTo … or maybe you still will wonder, as I do.

View Shane’s occasionally updated blog at: http://blog.myspace.com/loonbat

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