If you’ve just started playing poker for fun or even for money you may not be aware that you have a playing style. You just enjoy the game without thinking about the different playing styles that you notice at the table. Even though you may not be aware of it, you represent one of the four types of poker players which is not difficult to figure out after you read this article.

Poker players fall into four categories depending on how tight and aggressive their play is. As a result we have 4 types of players: the tight-passive, the loose-passive player, the tight-aggressive and the loose-aggressive.

1. Tight (plays very few hands) vs. loose (plays a lot of hands)

2. Aggressive (raises and bluffs) vs. passive (calls other players’ bets)

When playing, you should always pay attention to the other players at the table to see what types they represent. Be aware, though, that good players switch between these playing styles very easily in order to confuse their opponents.

Tight-Passive player

This type of players raise or call only when they have a very strong hand so, if you ever have to deal with such a player and he calls your raise, be sure that you have a strong hand to backup your bet.

Loose-Passive player

Loose-passive players are also called “fish” or “calling stations”. They usually call you down to the river even when they have weak hands so the best tactic to employ against them is to value bet your big hands. Don’t bluff because they rarely fold once they’ve seen the flop and they will follow you with any two cards.

Tight-Aggressive player

Tight-aggressive players are also known as “sharks”, they are very good players and rarely bluff. They play only good hands and play them aggressively. You should be very cautious when playing against them.

Loose-Aggressive player

Most famous poker players can be found in this category. They have no problem going “all-in” as if this is the safest poker move. The best poker players use a mix up of aggressive and passive play to confuse their opponents. They sometimes go all-in with a pair of aces and other time with a simple 7, 4. Their unpredictable style puts everyone in difficulty and there is no wonder why they are the high-rollers of Texas Hold’em.

This post comes as a follow-up for my previous one on smart aggressive players because there is a resemblance between the two types though they are in fact quite distinct. Maniac players are often met in low-stakes poker at the beginners’ tables. Therefore, you should know how to exploit their lack of exprience and their maniac style.

Maniacs’ main feature is to make a lot of raises and re-raises in spite of the position in the hand, the cards they have or how many players have called before them. They are extremely active players so it is best to sit at their left at the poker table because this position permits you to respond to their actions.

Maniacs are consistent losers but on occasions they can do a lot of damage to your bankroll. The best tactic to use against them is to play by the book and forget about creative and fancy play. ABC poker gives the best results with this type of players.

Here are some basic rules to follow:

1. When you have a good position you should better lead with strong hands but if your position is not favourable then you must check/raise because maniacs bluff at almost all flops. Make them fall into your trap with strong hands on dangerous flops.
2. When out of position, never engage in a pot with them with medium hands.
3. When out of position don’t chase flushes and straight draws because maniacs overbet and you will find yourself forced to pay and pay and pay!
4. When you are BB don’t re-raise preflop because that won’t throw him out of the pot. Additionally, when in BB you must lead when you hit ( i.e. bet on the flop, a strategy that fails against smart agressive players) because they will most probably call.

Maniacs are addicted to pots so try to lure them all in if you are sure that you have the strongest hand (but only if you think he has a good hand too, otherwise you should just bet).

“Setup play” is the play you make at the beginning of a game to make the other players believe that you are a maniac. Generally, it is done when someone raises from first position and you make a re-raise from last position even though your hand is weak hoping he will follow you to the show down. At the end, when you both show your cards, he will see with what type of cards you played like this and he will consider you a maniac. Since this impression will last in his mind, you can change your strategy over the course of the game hoping your initial setup will pay off at some point.

Most commonly used for funding online casino accounts are credit cards and e-wallets. There is nevertheless a third and safer option in the form of prepaid vouchers. Below you can find details about all three forms of financing and the advantages of the prepaid vouchers.

Using credit cards means using borrowed money for wagering. The credit card allows players to wager until the limit of the borrowed sum was reached. Usually that amount of money is larger than what players can afford.

As far as the e-wallets are concerned, they can be funded either from a credit card or from a bank account. Regardless of the type of funding, e-wallets allow players to wager until they reach the limit of the sums they borrowed or possessed, which leaves them either with an empty bank account or in serious indebtedness.

In addition to the above funding options, there is the prepaid voucher. This is a small amount voucher that can be bought from a retail outlet for cash. There is a code printed on it that allows you to play at online casinos that accept the voucher. Given that the voucher has to be purchased beforehand with a relatively small sum of money, the prepaid voucher is a system that avoids borrowing and excessive wagering. As a consequence, this system promotes individual transactions with limited value.

The success of prepaid vouchers was ensured by two factors. One is the software technology that ties up the buyer, the seller and the online casino via the the code number imprinted on the voucher. The second factor is the availability of retail outlets spread all over the country.

European countries still turn to online gambling for financial help during times of economic crisis.

In contrast to Europe which has taken a more practical stance toward this subject, US is concerned about the social implications of online gambling.

Instead, Europe is more concerned about protecting the domestically state monopolised lotteries and other domestic gambling operators from foreign competition.

European countries seem to have reached the conclusion that it is wiser to come with a practical solution to the problem instead of continually trying to prevent gamblers wagering their money online is we also take into consideration the decline of land-based casinos.

David Trunkfield, consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, explains:

“What’s happened is a realization that you can’t uninvent the Internet. People are gaming online. You either try to regulate and tax it, or people are going to go to the offshore operators, where you don’t get any revenue.”

This is why the European online gambling industry has been growing steadily to the point where it’s biggest in the world at present while US continues to be inflexible about this issue. This year alone in Europe, the revenues from online gambling accounted for almost half of the entire gambling industry’s revenues. In the US, despite the high demand for online services, the American online gambling ban is being rigorously reinforced since 2006 causing a downwards revenue spiral since then.

The trend setter in Europe was UK, the first major European country to embrace online gambling and begin regulating its market in 2005. Following its example, countries such as France, Italy and Denmark started regulating their markets and gaining impressive tax revenues from partially liberalizing this industry. Other EU states including Germany, Spain and Greece are interested in liberalizing their markets too.

Betfair’s Tim Phillips concludes on this:

“The gambling business is one of Europe’s real success stories online. This is a business in which Europe leads the world.”