Loose Game or Tight Game?

"The game is really great," Mr. Broke said to me. "The monkeys are swinging from the trees." I was seated at an adjoining table, and he was hitting me up for a loan, having blown his bankroll in the wild $30-$60 hold'em game to my right.

I'm not much of a fan of loaning money to people to play poker. The player must be skillful enough to win, which is not always the case with people who are broke. And he must be the sort of person who repays his debts promptly and honorably. It's a rare combination. Most poker players who are looking for a loan are digging a hole for themselves, which is not a place where you want to join them, and you're not doing anybody a favor by helping them dig in deeper. Of course, they don't see it that way.



That said, when is a game a great game? The game that Mr. Broke was playing was a good one, although not particularly great for him. They were playing fast, putting in lots of preflop and flop raises, and pressuring the game to a very high degree. It was a situation in which you could get a lot of chips in with marginally the right price, which made it subject to big swings. It was the kind of game that takes bankroll depth to ride out. It was not a game for a guy trying to stretch a borrowed stake.



Mr. Broke was getting caught up in the action, calling raises with marginal hands with many aggressive players yet to act behind him. He found himself getting trapped right and left with second-best hands and paying off. The nature of the game, many players with a broad range of holdings, made hand-reading difficult, and Mr. Broke wasn't the best hand-reader to begin with. And the large pots warranted a lot of crying calls on the end with hands that might be good but were probably beat. It was a game with a lot of potential for those with strong stomachs, superb hand-reading skills, and deep bankrolls, but it was not right for Mr. Broke. It was no accident that he went broke!



Most players see big pots or multiway action and characterize the game as good. They figure that with lots of money going in, people are entering pots with weak hands and taking them too far, so there's a chance to make a big score. While these can be components of a good game, they do not necessarily make a game a good one.



I constantly hear that the $100-$200 game at Bellagio is looser than the $30-$60 games. There's no doubt that you tend to see a broader range of holdings and more bets in the pot at showdown, but players characterizing the game in that manner are mistaken. The game is more aggressive, giving the appearance of being looser; but loose implies weak, and as a general rule, that $100-$200 game is much, much tougher than the $30-$60 games. What makes a good game, one with high winning potential, is one in which your opponents are making errors in strategy based on the texture of the game.



Some of the world's best players play a very fast, aggressive style, with hand-selection strategies that are much looser than conventional wisdom dictates. They attack situations in which aggression has high value; they push their marginal edges; they bluff correctly, and by making the pot larger early, they increase their edge in their bluff plays. They outplay their opposition by making correct value bets and correct laydowns. Yes, they play fast and loose, creating big pots, but playing against a table full of these guys will have you committing a large numbers of bets, which can be suicide to your bankroll.



There is another type of game – one that doesn't have near as much risk to pursue a respectable win rate. This type of game has many tight players who play in such a predictable, readable fashion that they are almost incapable of scoring a win. They play tight hand-selection strategies, often following "book" thinking exactly. They put little or no deception into their game.



A player with good hand-reading skills can define their hand range accurately and consistently make correct plays against them. They fold their blinds too frequently, and get robbed over and over again. They think it is never correct to pay off unless they hold a very strong hand, and they fold winner after winner over and over again. This type of player will play this way year after year, even decade after decade, firmly convinced that because he is playing tight, he is playing correctly. He blames his consistent losing on being "the unluckiest player alive." Find a table full of these guys and your bankroll will consistently grow. And you won't have to risk near as much of your bankroll as you will against a table full of speeders.



If your objective is to win money – or, better stated, to get a meaningful edge over your opponents – tight games can often be more lucrative than loose games. Of course, that is not always the case. However, most players tend to overestimate looseness of their opponents and underestimate tightness of their opponents in analyzing how profitable game situations can be. Tight and loose are not necessarily the defining components of how you should judge your edge in a game. You should judge and select games based on errors your opponents make and your ability to capitalize on them.



Much is said about patience in the game of poker. And while being patient and staying patient are important components of the game, they can take you only so far. If you possess good hand-selection skills and the knowledge to play a reasonably straightforward strategy, and you play with unaware, inexperienced opponents who lack reasonable hand-selection and betting skills, you can beat opponents who rely principally on patience to define their game.



If you play tight and have a reasonable level of betting skills, your game has value against weak, loose unknowledgeable players. If that is your level of game (be honest with yourself), you should seek that type of game. If you are the type of player who can play that type of game but lacks emotional control when frustrated, you should stick to tighter, more passive games, in which the emotional pressures on you will be greatly diminished.



If you read hands and players well, playing against players you can read and manipulate will be your strongest suit. You will do well no matter what type of game you're in, assuming that you have the strategic ability to adjust to the game (much of that ability comes from being able to read hands). That said, all else being equal, you will tend to do better in a game in which there is more action, although the most important component is likely to be the extent to which you can manipulate your opponents.



Loose-passive games with opponents who play their hands poorly post-flop and whom you can control tend to be the richest to play. This is because you can adjust the price you offer your opponents and can make many different positive-edge

manipulative plays, and be able to limp in with many mediocre hands and gain back any edge lost preflop by outplaying your opponents post-flop.



Tight, predictable games present a profit opportunity for most fair to good players, which is often unrecognized. Thus, these players bypass many profitable opportunities.



And when they're swinging from the trees in a fast and loose style, like Mr. Broke's game, it's a tougher game to play in. You need a higher level of ability, more skills, and a deeper bankroll to get from start to finish. And you have to know that in a game like that, you can have the best of it over and over again and still lose every chip you put on the table that day. And, be bankrolled accordingly.



Roy Cooke has played winning professional poker since 1972. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. His books are available at www.conjelco.com/cooke. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a freelance writer in South Florida.