VERY IMPORTANT – THE TYPES OF

OPPONENTS
This is a precursor article to the separate pre-flop articles about opening, calling a raise, 3-betting and
facing a 3-bet pre-flop.

It’s so very important to know what types of opponents you have in front of you at the tables, and how
you can recognize them with a HUD(Heads-Up Display). I recommend HoldemManager2 or
PokerTracker4, they both have free trials that you can use for 30 days, which should be enough time to
get you familiarized with a HUD and start using it proficiently.

THE NIT
This guy is the easiest to figure out, in general, and the easiest to play against. He is also called a Rock.

Nowadays, he’s mostly similar in name to the TAG(Tight Aggressive). Before, you used to differentiate the
two, as a Nit would be pretty much way tighter in statistics, but nowadays we know that a TAG is still a
Nit, because he is just as exploitable.

There are two types of nits and this is very relevant not only to stats but also to your general knowledge
and perception of them:

1) Bad Nits – In general, their strategy is to play a very small array of hands(which is called playing
tight), and to play these generally aggressive. They raise a lot of high pocket pairs and high
broadways pre-flop, and then play them strong when they are either top pairs, overpairs or sets.
These guys will not generally have that many flush draws in their ranges, unless they are open
raising from the BTN or SB, but sometimes not even from there. So, protecting against flushes is
borderline unprofitable vs these guys.
Also, bad nits will tend to overplay a lot when they have either TPGK(Top Pair Good Kicker), or get
really married to overpairs.
2) Good Nits – These guys are exactly the same as Bad Nits, but their Extra Crisp is that they
understand their image at the table.
They are the next level of nit and if you want to adopt this play style, you’re going to have to
understand that everyone knows that you are a nit and they will adjust accordingly. Do you think
that folding 10-20 hands in a row will leave your opponents oblivious? Not really. So, let’s talk a
little bit about what these guys do better.
They understand that other people will think that they will have a lot of the times at least TP
when they double barrel, so they will get raised by at least two pair or sets, so this means that the
instant they get raised, they fold TP. Other people will never put you on a bluff so they will never
try to bluff-raise back. So then, they will always have IT when you get raised.
A Good Nit will appreciate your raising range on the turn/river accordingly and only continue with
hands that beat you or have a decent chance to get implied odds versus your raising range.
 A Good Nit will also be very constant and understand that sometimes triple barreling AA will not
get the desired result in getting max value, so he might occasionally (rarely) be tricky.
But no matter how good the Nit is, he’s still very exploitable because he folds a lot pre-flop, and having
tight ranges, is also very easy to be read post-flop.

A Nit is still a Nit and that’s why he’s called a Nit, because he’s a Nit.

LOOSE PASSIVE
These guys are the bread and butter of online poker. They are the most common type of recreational
player that you can meet at the poker table, and the guys who will make you the most money.

Their major flaw is that they call too much and can’t really let go of Top Pairs. Ever. They are chained to
the logical presumption that if they hit a flop then they have to call it off. Why? Because they call a lot
pre-flop, to hit flops. This is their plan.

Now, we know that the odds of a player hitting the flop will be less than the odds of him not hitting, so
this means that the Loose Passive will often just be left folding the flop. This will make them emotionally
or logically attached to the times when they actually do hit a flop, and they will never let go unless it’s
very, very obvious that they’re beat.

This is double exploitable -> You will bluff a lot of flops and take the pot down a lot of times -> more than
needed of course, and second, you will bet turns and rivers only for value, with really strong hands.

Now, if you think about the thought process behind this Calling Station’s play(that is what he is also
called), you might arrive to the conclusion that it’s pretty logical to invest money into flops on which you
actually hit something, but this type of game, first of all, we said that it’s not reliable because you will not
hit often enough, and second of all, it’s very unbalanced and exploitable.

But a recreational player will not care about that, he’s at the tables wanting to have fun, otherwise if he
wanted to really learn how to play solid poker, he’d probably be reading this book right now. 

Also the big problem with this type of player is that he is not organized by position, nor in ranges, and he
will generally have a fixed range of hands that he “likes” and he thinks are good, and hands that he sees
as really good and raises or re-raises with them.

So you can understand the discrepancy here, you can find players that will re-raise and stack-off with ATo
pre-flop, but there are Loose Passives who will only stack-off AA, not even re-raise KK, only consider them
calling material pre-flop. You can recognize this by seeing their stats and having a large sample size on
them. Also watch for their showdowns because that’s where the fastest and most important info comes
from. You see him 3-betting 53s? Take note. Stacked off pre AQs 120BB? Make a note and next time 3-
bet and get it in with AK vs this guy. Pretty easy, huh? It’s not.
 THE MANIAC
This guy is playing for the absolute fun of wrecking his opponents and making them fold. This guy is
playing his heart out, trying to get as many opponents to concede to him.

This guy is under the impression that if he bets big he will compensate for his lack of knowledge of the
game and just make everyone fold and scoop every pot.

Also recreational in nature, but more on the aggressive side, these guys will usually re-raise pre-flop a lot,
try to pot every flop, turn and river until you fold. And then, if you don’t fold your Top Pair, they will start
calling you a donkey! This player usually will invent a lot of excuses for which he is running bad, but
generally this is just bad play.

Common traits of maniacs are not being able to stop bluffing and losing a lot of stacks really fast, but also
the ability (because of variance or opponent’s bad play to try to out-bluff the bluffer) to gain a lot of
stacks fast. His graph is like mount Everest, a lot of high ups and high downs, but in the end, over a large
sample size, it’s always going to result in him losing his bankroll.

So you have to understand that if a player is investing money with a lot of hands, you’re supposed to
invest a lot of money in hands that can flop strong and call him down on all three streets.

He will also be 3-betting a lot pre-flop, so do start playing hands versus this guy that you are comfortable
calling a 3-bet with. Don’t open JTo just to eventually fold when he re-raises, because this way you’re just
investing 3BB or whatever your raise size is pre-flop, and then you’re not even getting a chance on seeing
the next 3 cards. You’re just burning money.

It feels like when you’re playing vs this guy, every time he’s trying to win the pot so hard, that you can just
trap him and trap him and triple check out of position and get his whole stack by check/raising the river.

THE WHALE

The Whale is the exaggerated version of the two typologies of recreational players, either an exaggerated
Loose Passive or an overhyped Maniac.

Most of what he’s doing is very similar to the players that we have described before, but this guy is doing
it with way more hands. A whale is the big version of anything -> playing somewhere over 60% of hands,
most whales you will see joining every pot and playing every hand, in position, out of position, cold calling
3-bets and 4-bets, going all in with a large array of hands and, in general, going the way the wind is
blowing.

This player does not exert a lot of pickiness when it comes to pre-flop holdings, and in general will have a
terrible play post-flop, calling down three streets with third pair or any sort of pair that he can cling onto.

Depending on how passive or aggressive this guy is, we will either tighten or loosen our pre-flop ranges vs
these misguided opponents.
 THE LAG

Loose Aggressive -> this type of player likes to play a lot of hands and likes to play the strong hands fast
but also bluff a lot to balance. The LAG will try to put as much pressure as possible on his opponents,
pressing hard where it hurts but backing down when you play back too hard. He is the perfect
combination between Attack and Defense. Well, at least good ones are.

This is the fiercest opponent that you’re going to meet, but as they come, there are still two large
categories:

1) The Bad LAG: This guy is just a nit who is playing more hands but is, in general, bluffing too much
post-flop but also calling down players with marginal holdings that would best be described as
“fold material” to double or triple barrels.
This type of player knows what a LAG is, and is trying to imitate the style of the LAG without
actually knowing the thought processes behind the Good LAG’s game, so he fails and fails time
and time again miserably, but he is not trying to correct his mistakes, all he is just thinking is that
either “he got unlucky” or “How am I losing, I’m playing the exact same way as the other guy”,
but what he’s not taking into consideration most of the time is the opponent that he has in front
of him and what that opponent will think of the Bad LAG.
2) The Good LAG: This particular opponent is the toughest to play against and is, in general, the
most balanced player. This guy will steal a lot vs guys who fold a lot to steals, will 3-bet bluff a lot
the guys who don’t like to react with a wide range to 3-bets, will barrel turns vs guys who call too
many flops, or on cards that “hit his range more than the other player’s”.
He is very aware of his image at the table and is the player who constantly adjusts and thinks
always throughout the hand “what is this guy thinking I have here?”. To be honest, if you can
answer the last question correctly every time, you’d be the next World Series of Poker Champion
on ALL Events.
But don’t be that scared yet, because these guys will always have flaws and unless you’re playing
with Sauce123 or Isaac Haxton or Phil Galfond at the table, you’re OK. And even if you’d be
playing with these guys, there’s bound to also be a recreational player at the table. Just don’t let
that player be you. Remember what Mike McDermott said:
“If you can’t spot the sucker at the table in 30 minutes, you are the sucker!”
A harsh, but true statement.