Razz Poker Playing Styles

Razz Poker is a game that needs concentration as well as for the player to have the ability to be able to read their opponents as accurately as possible in a quick period of time, allowing the player to be able to make correct plays at the best possible time to maximise their winning potential.

Getting familiar with a player at the tables is recommended for any player who is looking to play Razz and win, creating a bankroll through the profits that they return on their investment.

Knowing how a player is going to react to certain situations will give you the upper edge when you come to a point where you are facing off against that player, allowing you to use this information to exploit them the best you can or giving you enough information to know that he is holding a hand that could very well be the nuts.

Being able to place a player into a category of playing style is a great skill for any poker player, helping them to adapt their own playing style as needed in order to counter their opponents actions and moves.

Okay so lets have a look at the 4 possible categories that you can place a player into in order to be able to see which playing style you should use to counteract against the player.

Loose/Aggressive
Loose/Passive
Tight/Aggressive
Tight/Passive
We need to now outline what players are best placed into the which category. To do this you need to know what sort of player falls into these categories.

Loose/Aggressive

Loose aggressive players tend to make up a large number of the players that can be found online as it is an easy style to fall into, placing bets into pots with the hope that you are going to place a high enough bet in order to take down the pot before all the cards are dealt and the showdown happens.

Players like these are a great opportunity for an opponent to make a fair amount of profit from, keeping their play tight and only making their move on the pot when they are holding a hand that features a high amount of strength.

Playing like this means that when you get a strong hand, you can raise the pot value as the aggressive and loose player will happily see your larger bets and could even feel that they are able to scare you out of the pot by moving all in.

Play a good tight game against players like this and your set to make a good profit at the end of your game, just remember don't get complacent as this will lead to you feeling the loss too.

Loose/Passive

This form of player can prove to be a very difficult player to play against as they are offers such a diverse style of betting and moves, leaving it a lot harder to get an accurate read on them so you are having to place wagers into the pot without added information from their previous playing as they could well have just thrown a switch to their passive or loose style, leaving you guessing.

Tight/Aggressive

You will know when you have one of these players seated at your table as they prefer to fold roughly 90% of their hands as they sit and wait for strong hands to play. Once they get that hand that they have been waiting for they come out fighting, placing aggressive bets into the pot in order to increase the pot size in a bid for them to win it and be able to wait for their next hand.

If this happens, ensure that you have a strong hand if you are looking to face off against this player, otherwise fold your hand and move out of the line of fire.

Tight/Passive

A little like a Tight/Aggressive player in the way that they are willing to fold up to 90% of their total hands but rather than play the strong hands that they play by throwing in large bets in order to show strength, they prefer to slow play their hands in order to let their opponents do the betting and they simply follow the flow of the game.

Try to figure out if a player is using this tactic in order to be able to attack their chip stack at points they are exposed.