This playing style can be pushed intro extremes, just as the aggressive playing style, but once again, this is not the best way to go. If you were to continually play tight, players will notice. If you only raise with good hands, your raises will soon be no threat anymore to the other players. Of course, if other players don’t notice, it will almost certainly make you good money. Good starting hands are the biggest part of winning a pot, so only playing those hands might seem like a waterproof system. If this is what you think though, you couldn’t be more wrong. First of all there’s no guarantee at all that you will get a decent amount of good starting hands. What will you do if you only get low hands? Your stack will just slowly vaporize before your very eyes. Then there’s the fact that other players can have good hands as well, or they might even be bluffing. How will you know your hand will hold up his end of your seemingly waterproof bargain?

So what to do? The idea is like the old saying: fight fire with fire. Talented poker players will never use too obvious tactics like the one I just described. They will vary playing styles using randomness as one of their biggest weapons. Or at least they make sure it looks random to the other players on the table. So again I come to a combination of tactics. In this case it will be randomness combined with tight play.

First off, do not be afraid of bluffing. This goes for any playing style, in aggressive tactics your bluff will be harsher, in tight play tactics your bluff will be of lower values. The beauty of it is, it doesn’t really matter, players might think your bluffing or they might think you just want them to call. It can be a bluff or the famous ‘reverse psychology’ idea. As long as you keep your poker face on and don’t give anything away with your physique, players will never know for sure what you’re up to.

Second, play the good hands, but not just the good hands. This will draw attention and believe me, players will tell! Try playing some mediocre or bad hands as well, just to throw people off-guard. Playing these hands doesn’t mean you go all-in on them of course, just play these hands like you would a good hand. You must give the other players on the table the idea that you aren’t afraid of a good bluff, so they will not know the size of your hand based on your bet or raise.

Third and last; keep in mind that tight play consists of small value bets and that pushing your stack all-in should be used as a final act of confidence, not a bluff. A “value bet” bet has the same potential of confusing the opponent as a big bluff like an all-in. All-in bluffs are more suited to the aggressive players, so if you can not maintain your best play under stress of possibly losing your entire stack all the time, don’t play aggressively and safely resort to tightness! Other players might not like this, but this can just gain you psychological advantages, so do not respond to that.