For beginning players or those that just aren’t the aggressive player, tight play style often comes as a second nature. It is a great style for those who are there to play only the hands they have the advantage in. What you do have to remember is that you can’t play too tight because you won’t be able to make any money and unfortunately miss out on lots of hands that you might have made money on. Sure it is safe, but you should remember a few things when you play a tight style or if you’re just trying to have a tight play image at a table.

First off, tight players need to throw in bluffs occasionally and in some cases it might be better to be caught and loose a small amount of chips to another player that all the players can see you bluffed is even better. This stems back to our table image and table psychology. You need to have people stay in hands with you so you can make more money with them chasing you. If you are playing tight for an hour straight at any single poker table you will easily have a reputation for being a tight player and when people go in to a flop with you they will know that. It could be hard for you to fully use your better pocket cards. For example, if you have pocket aces and everyone folds out to you because it’s the first hand you have played in ten rounds. Any way you look at it you need to play the game and risk some of your chips because if you don’t people won’t risk them to you. It makes it hard to play too tight, obviously if you want to maintain an extremely tight play style you can always just move tables every so often to keep your image relatively secret. Because each new table will not know you, they will not know you are playing super tight and so on your first hand you play people will be ready to explore how good a player or what you’re willing to play with. Just remember every hand you play, win or lose will have an effect on your opponent’s image of you. You as the better player need to be cognizant of this. Being in control of your image is so pinnacle when playing tight to the chest because you need to try to suggest your not playing as tight as you are.

When playing against tight players just be aware that they are tight players, they will be bringing the goods when they say they are more often than not. The loose players at the table and be wary when they make uncharacteristic chip moves because it could indeed mean he has the nuts (best hand). However also take into account chip stack and the last few hands the player has participated and what you think he is trying to portray to the rest of the table before you make your own call or fold.