Hold'em uk

• Hold'em UK
• Blue Chip Casino Hotel Adds New Poker Room
• Partners

Why Some Poker Players are Tight

Some poker players view the game as a source of entertainment. Poker becomes a better and more exciting alternative to watching Saturday night reruns. But some poker players are more serious about their endeavors at beating the game of poker. They learn all that they need to learn, such as all the mathematical poker odds involved, the various techniques in bluffing and slow playing, the different poker tells, and all other useful information about poker.

Some are serious about poker simply because of the mental challenge. But many are serious about poker because of the money. And when a poker player is most concerned about the amount of money that he can gain out of playing poker, then this particular poker player will become a tight player.

How can a person identify a tight player? All tight players exhibit one distinct trait: they are extremely cautious with their money. A tight player does not bet, call or raise when he is holding mediocre hands. And a tight player will not raise or re-raise when he has drawing hands only, unless the pot odds are in his favor. A tight player views his cards as a way to handle his money.

And since money is the determining factor, one can find tight players in high-stakes poker games. And finding a tight player in low-limit games is rare. But why is the betting limit of the poker game crucial to finding tight players? Here is a rationale:

If one asks a middle-income person, who is earning about $50,000 a year, to give $20, there is a very strong likelihood that this middle-income person will give the $5. Such $5, when compared with his annual income, is just 0.01%. But if one asks a business tycoon, who is earning 50 million dollars annually, to give the same percentage, which is $5,000, the chances that the businessman will give the $5000 are slim. This amount is too big to be given away.

The comparison above is analogous to poker games. In low-limit games, such as $2-4 Texas Hold'em, the amount that will be spent by a player in order to see the flop is quite small, usually about a dollar only. With such a small amount, the players can afford to be relaxed and loose.

But in high-stakes games, seeing the flop is almost prohibitively expensive. Betting $20 to $50 is not a good financial move. The pot odds may be decent, but if one loses the hand, the chances of recouping the money are not encouraging. Thus, the players become tight.