Play Tite or Over Power?

[NathanAK]

When you play hold em do you play really tite or do you find yourself betting more agressive?

I used to go all in alot which most of the time helped me win alot but also on other days killed me earily. Now I've been reading alot more and studying poker. I now play very tite and then use knowledge from a book I read called " Zen and the Art of Poker " and has helped me alot with not playing emotional and it's really improved my game.
In hold em the most facsinating thing i've found is that any form of play can win.
Which is yours?

[PocketKings]

I think I play tight (play higher quality cards than any of my opponents) but bluff if I think I can get away with it (e.g. my opponents respect my raises and they're not calling stations).

At the same time, I've learned that when playing short-handed games (I sometimes play at a table of 4-5 players total), I have to loosen my starting hand requirements somewhat. The the blind hits you every 2-3 hands, you can't exactly be waiting for AJ or better everytime. Stealing blinds becomes pretty important for these games. From what I've learned, you really have to adjust your playing style to suit the environment and sometimes within a single game if you think people are catching on to how you're playing.

[Red_Squirrel]

My preferred game is short handed no-limit ring games and I play very tightly post-flop but pre-flop I'll call an unraised pot with virtually any hand depending on the style of play of my opponents because often the hands I make money on often don't have pockets that have particularly high odds. I read somewhere that the odds of pocket aces beating 72off is only 5:1 so in my opinion its worth the costs of seeing the flop for the reward of the hands that pay off.

With aggressive opponents I generally fold continuously on bad hands and slow play my good hands which I find generally works until I become predictable which is my main weakness.

I'm interested to know what other people find works for them and also any problems people see in my strategy

Red_Squirrel

I play both tight and aggressive, it's called tight/aggressive (on these forums you will see it abbreviated to TAG a lot).

The TAG style is where you don't play too many hands, but when you do get involved in a hand, you are very aggressive with it (as much as possible).

Of course, you don't want to go crazy when you get a hand, you have to know when to lay them down.

However, I only play TAG in ring games, in tournaments, I play loose/aggressive (LAG). When I do this I am playing many hands aggressively, basing most of my plays on reads, rather than the cards.

Of course, many many different styles win money, that is the beauty of poker.