You have managed to get to the flop with a good hand but what next? For many players postflop is the weakest part of their game. A key part of postflop play (as with preflop) is knowing the type of players you are up against and playing specifically to counter their style.

Overall there are 4 main types of poker player, tight-loose and passive-aggressive. In the free poker and online nanostakes (.02/.05 blinds), each of these player types make a few key mistakes.

In this free online poker article we are focusing on postflop play against the Tight Aggressive type opponent.

Ways to combat the Tight-passive (TP) “rock”

These players are pretty common at nanostakes games.

Typically they limp rather than raise and call rather than 3-bet (that is reraising preflop) and they do not play many hands as a matter of course.

They will not raise you much preflop without a very good hand like a set or better and will not call down unless they hit a very good board like a top pair.

Thankfully, their tendencies also make them simple to play against.

The ranges they play tend to be limited to pocket pairs and high card hands like KQ, AJ+ meaning that loads of middle range flops such as T84r can be cbet 100% as they produce folds most of the time. You should look to cbet flops wide and shut down on the turn/river if you get called on the flop with no strong reason to continue.

Continue betting down after the flop if you have a strong top pair or better. Check down until you improve and then bet with your draws, although you will rarely get value in those spots.

They are east to play, remember that they only raisxe with premium hands and fold too much so raise and bet a lot of flops to take their money.

Do always remember that there are levels of player types. Some TAGs are almost LAG, some TPs are almost LPs, etc, so you have to adjust your play to your individual opponents, these player types are just a tool to help you do that.

Learning to recognize player types and the degree to which a player fits a type isn’t easy.

Yes, sorry to say, plenty of practice is required though if you really focus on this and keep good game notes it will come faster for you. In your early poker days be sure not to risk very much if any money while you learn. Start of with the lowest stakes games or with free online poker games and work up from there.

For the main large version of this lesson where all the 4 styles are covered along with some extra postflop methods get over to the free online poker training blog on NoPayPOKER.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!