The poker industry is massive. It is incredibly prevalent nowadays, with over 100 million people worldwide playing online poker. There are many large, high-stakes poker tournaments where the best poker pros walk away with millions of dollars. One of the main reasons for this popularity is because poker is a game of people. It is one of the only casino games played against other players, not the casino itself. This makes it fun and exciting since every game is a truly unique experience. It also promotes skill-based gameplay since your cards are less important than your playstyle.
While each player has a different playstyle, poker has been around for nearly two centuries, so, over time, poker players identified common patterns and created the four main poker playstyles. These are loose-passive, tight-passive, tight-aggressive, and loose-aggressive. This poker guide will go in-depth about the tight-aggressive poker playstyle, otherwise known as the TAG style.
What does TAG mean?
TAG is a shortened version of the poker playstyle tight-aggressive. These players are tight, sticking only to the best starting hands. While they do choose their hands carefully, they are not afraid to play aggressively when their hand is good. They like betting, raising, and 3-betting more than calling and checking. This strategy uses position and initiative to get an advantage over other players. For this reason, this playstyle is often profitable and reliable. It is also one of the oldest and most well-known poker playstyles, featured in pop culture like the 1998 hit movie Rounders.
Advantages of the TAG style
The TAG style has numerous advantages that make it one of the best poker playstyles, especially for beginners. It is straightforward to play, easy to learn, and gives you a significant edge over other beginners without a good grasp of poker concepts. Playing tight also helps reduce the effects of variance and has a lot less risk than playing loose. Finally, the TAG style is well-balanced, without glaring weaknesses like the tight-passive or loose-passive styles.
Disadvantages of the TAG style
No poker playstyle is perfect. While the TAG style is harder to exploit than others, it still has a few weaknesses. It is widespread, so not only are your opponents likely to recognize your style, but it is also possible to run into others using it themselves. If you end up playing against other TAGs, it is unlikely for any of you to make a profit because of how tight everyone plays. Being a good TAG player requires a lot of patience and can feel dull over time. Finally, a good loose-aggressive player can easily exploit the TAG playstyle.
How to play the TAG style well
If you are a beginner, it is ubiquitous advice to learn the TAG playstyle since it is effective and teaches you fundamental poker concepts like position and initiative. Here are some tips to help you improve your TAG game:
Beating TAG players
Understanding how to beat TAG players is also crucial because of how popular the style is. Here are a few tips for beating them:
Practicing poker online
We hope this article taught you a lot about the TAG poker playstyle. Understanding how your opponents play and changing your playstyle accordingly is a huge part of learning how to play poker. If you want to practice and play poker, there are no better places than sites like {{GGPoker)), the world’s largest poker room.
Online poker helps you learn since you play multiple games simultaneously, meaning more experience in less time. You can even access poker trackers and heads-up displays that help tremendously when trying to identify your opponents’ playstyles. GGPoker offers this software for free to every user, so sign up today!
