• How do they play?

Tight aggressive players play a selective range of strong hands and use aggressive betting and raising to build the pot and apply pressure to their opponents. They tend to play fewer hands than loose aggressive players, but when they do play, they do so with a strong hand and often make large bets and raises to build the pot and intimidate their opponents.

These types of players are often considered to be among the best players in poker because they play a balanced style that combines tight hand selection with aggressive play. This type of player is characterized by a willingness to fold weaker hands, a tendency to bet and raise with strong hands, and a focus on maximizing value from their winning hands.

In general, tight aggressive players play a conservative, risk-averse style of poker that is designed to minimize losses and maximize wins. They are often successful because they are able to apply pressure to their opponents and extract maximum value from their strong hands, while avoiding making costly mistakes with weaker hands.

Tight aggressive players understand the value of raising good hands preflop, in order to grow the size of the pot with stronger hands. However, we can still subdivide these players into two groups post flop:

• Straightforward tight aggressive players: these players understand the value of raising good hands preflop and they usually do a continuation bet (we will go more in depth on c-bets later on) on the flop, however they find themselves lost when get called on the flop with a marginal hand. Against these players, you should defend quite often their c-bets, and pay attention to their actions in later streets (turn and river).
• Good tight aggressive players: these players have solid strategies preflop and post flop. They understand the relative hand strengths and are very hard to be exploited.

• How to combat them?

Good tight aggressive players are difficult to be exploited. They understand the value of aggression and relative hand strength, plus are backed up by playing strong hands initially. However, there are a few things we can do to combat them:

1. Avoid playing with these players when possible: poker games usually have 6-9 people on the table, if you notice there is a very good player in it, you should focus on playing versus other players that are easy to exploit. Of course this is not always the case and we will have to combat them!
2. Apply pressure by raising and reraising: applying pressure on them will counter attack their initial aggression. Always keep in mind if they are on the tighter side or looser side. Remember that tight players play stronger hands, so be cautious when they show interest to continue in the pot after your aggression.
3. Play a polarized range: a polarized range is a range that consists of premium hands and very weak hands. Because these players are good, you should play very balanced, having both value bets and bluffs in your range. Never play in a straightforward manner against them, they will notice your tendencies very quickly and easily combat you.
4. Study and improve your game! At this point, it is necessary that you are studying the ranges, hand strengths depending on different boards, pot odds, etc. The best way of combating good opponents, is by becoming better than them!
5. Be aware of your own style: good players will notice how you play. So make sure you are aware of it and make changes on how you play accordingly, always trying to have your opponent’s misperceiving how you act.