Tight is Right

The formula for making money playing poker is very simple but human nature is such that most people find it almost impossible to follow the very simple formula. In a way it is like losing weight. Most of us could lose weight if we followed the simple formula: eat less and exercise more - yet it is very difficult to actually make yourself do it. The formula for winning money at poker is playing "tight"- playing when it is likely that you are holding the best hand and making your opponents pay for holding worse hands. Only playing good starting hands, and only continuing to play when it is very unlikely someone has you beat, is to play tight. A tight player does not bluff frequently, and against certain opponents (maniacs) will never bluff at all.

Play tight. Wait for the good cards. Let others bluff at you when you have the monster hands.

Sounds boring, I know. Bluffing, chasing draws, going all-in with a chance of being second best - all these things are exciting. True. You know what else is fun? Winning. If you are playing poker because you are an adrenaline junky, go ahead and play as loose as you like. If you want to make money I suggest you play tight.

The key to playing tight is to establish before you even sit down at the table what hands you can play from which position. When I'm in tight mode, these are the only hands I will allow myself to play:


From Early Position: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs, AQs, TT, and AKo

From Middle Position: all of the above hands, plus AJs, KQs, 99, A10s and AQo

From Late Position: all of the above hands, plus KJs, 88, QJs, K10s, A9s, AJ

That's it. I will leave the blinds out of it for now. Playing from the blinds requires a separate discussion.

If believe you restrict yourself to these starting hands, you will improve your chances of winning dramatically, particularly if you are playing against weak opponents. To test my theory, I am going to play 1,000 hands on-line restricting myself to these hands. Okay, I'm going to be playing for play money, but it should be interesting to see what happens.

(Note: results of this experiment were posted Sept.22/10 in Tight is Right: The Conclusion )