Stages of a TAG — Part II

This series of columns describes a model for player development that I call “Stages of a TAG.” I think most players go through a series of stages or realizations about no-limit hold’em as they improve their games from rank beginners to decent tight-aggressive (TAG) players and beyond.

In total, I have identified 25 stages that I think most players go through, roughly in order, as they improve. This column begins with Stage 6.

Stage 6: I can semibluff decent draws post-flop with essentially no added risk.
I consider players who haven’t yet reached Stage 6 to be nits. They take few real chances, shying away from making or calling big bets without holding a near lock of a hand. At this stage, however, players begin to awaken to the fact that they can become more dangerous if they are willing to make big bets sometimes with non-lock hands.

The easiest hands to make these bets with are good draws. For instance, let’s say there’s a $50 pot preflop. The preflop raiser bets $40 on a 10 8 7 flop. You have the K Q and $200 remaining. An all-in raise here is a fairly safe play. Because the K Q will nearly always have a number of outs if called, there is a large margin for error. In other words, it’s almost impossible for this hand to be in really bad trouble if called.

Aggressive players use opportunities like this to put pressure on their opponents. It makes their hands harder to read, and in the long term, it wins more money.
Stage 7: Continuation-betting is much more powerful if you follow it up sometimes with turn-barreling.

A continuation-bet is a flop bet following a preflop raise. Many newer players will correctly make continuation-bets when they raise preflop and miss the flop, but if they get called, they will then nearly automatically give up on the hand. In this stage, however, players learn that there are many opportunities to steal pots even after being called on the flop. Oftentimes, a flop call indicates a speculative hand such as a draw or a weak pair. In these cases, a solid turn follow-up barrel will frequently win the pot.

Learning when to fire a turn barrel requires thinking about an opponent’s preflop hand range and how those hands interact with the board. Therefore, this is the first stage where players begin to rely on hand reading to make better decisions.

Stage 8: I should reraise more hands preflop for value.

New players typically raise preflop with only their strongest hands — big pairs and perhaps A-K and A-Q. This is particularly true for players who have learned enough about the game to play like nits. A player at Stage 8 realizes that his opponents limp in with hands much weaker than the traditional raising hands. When players are limping in with hands like 8-7 offsuit and A-3 offsuit, stronger hands like Q-J suited and 8-8 are good situational preflop raising hands.

Stage 9: I can now play a few more hands from all positions because bluffing makes bad hands profitable sometimes.

Nits learn to play tight, and it’s a style that is well-suited to their no-nonsense post-flop play. If you aren’t willing to bluff very often, it’s difficult to make speculative hands turn a profit. These hands don’t often enough make the near locks that nits are looking for. Making speculative hands profitable requires a good bluffing sense. If you don’t make a big hand, you still get a chance to win the pot by stealing it.

In Stage 6 and Stage 7, players add two important bluffs to their arsenals:

semibluffs with drawing hands and turn barrels against likely weak flop callers. Once players learn to use these bluffs effectively, they can open up their preflop games a bit. Because they can generate more value from weak hands, they can play speculative hands preflop that are a bit more likely to miss the flop or hit it weakly. Of course, some players take this idea too far and begin to flail wildly in every pot. Don’t do that.

Stage 10: I need to adjust my preflop game to my opponents. That means not folding as much to frequent reraisers and calling more from the button against light openers.
This stage is particularly crucial for online players. Online no-limit hold’em games are ultra-aggressive, and players are looking to steal as many blinds and put on as much pressure with preflop reraises as possible. The nit’s reaction to this aggression is to fold most hands and wait for solid values, but this strategy is too cautious.

At Stage 10, players construct hand ranges for their opponents. If someone steals frequently from the button, for instance, a player at this stage will know what hands he is reasonably likely to be up against. Then he can defend his blind with an array of hands that play without disadvantage against this range.

The same principle applies when facing preflop reraises. In the old days, a preflop reraise meant a strong hand. But in the ultra-aggressive online games of today, players reraise light just as frequently as they can get away with it. Learning to defend well against this onslaught is critical.

At this stage, players can begin to compete in the tough online microstakes games. They have added basic aggression to their games, winning extra pots and keeping their opponents off balance. They’ve also loosened up a bit preflop, because they know that they can turn a weak hand into a winner with a clever bet. Finally, they’ve begun to adjust to aggressive opponents who are trying to steal as much as they can get away with.

In my next column, I’ll cover more preflop adjustments that players make as they become more sophisticated. ♠

Ed’s latest book, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, is available for purchase at smallstakesnolimitholdem.com. He is a featured coach at cardrunners.com, and you can also check out his online poker advice column, notedpokerauthority.com.