LAG & TAG Strategy

It is often assumed that one must employ the ‘Tight Aggressive’ (TAG) kind of play in the game of poker. Taking this into consideration, a majority of players across the globe do adopt such an approach. At the same time as ‘TAG’ style of play would be beneficial in no-limit games, it is not the best technique to employ while playing big tournaments or single sit n go tournaments.

One of the most common strategies often employed by successful players is to play in a style that is opposite to your opponents. As quite a lot of players adopt the TAG approach, you may perhaps want to consider the ‘Loose Aggressive’ (LAG) kind of play. This would take the game to another level and you would always keep your opponents guessing by playing a larger number of hands.

All those who have been playing poker for a long time now, do realise that one cannot stick to one style of play every time. If you keep playing the same style over and over again, your game would become highly predictable and the opponents would be able to figure out the value of your hands. There are chances that you would get bluffed and lose, despite having worthy cards. It is not necessary to adopt a LAG approach all the time, you simply need to add some loose elements to your game and you would notice some overall improvement.

In order to understand better, a LAG player is the one who calls and raises larger number of hands, with the sole purpose of outplaying an opponent who possesses a strong hand. Such a player is usually aware and would back down in case of any resistance. A LAG player would also bluff, and more so if the opponent is found to be weak or does not call. This approach is often used in a lot of SNG tournaments and improves stack size in the beginning of the game. Such a style of play would help you pick loads of smaller pots. With the number of hands being played with such an approach, there are chances that a player might end up hitting the best combination on the table. However, one must be very careful with such a style of play since mistakes would damage the stack size and jeopardize your chances of a win in the later stages of the game.

To conclude with, tight aggressive style of play is usually benefit in the no-limit games, however a player has to possess the necessary skills to get the successful outcome. On the other hand, the LAG approach would allow the players to accumulate larger stack size in the early stages of the game. Loose aggressive would also give you an edge over the players adopting the TAG style of play. Lastly, do keep your opponent’s style of play in mind, before adopting one for yourself.