You are at the flop with a solid hand, now what? For many players postflop is the weakest part of their game. A key part of postflop play (as with preflop) is knowing the type of players you are up against and playing specifically to counter their style.

In poker, there are 4 different styles of player (tight/loose) + (passive/aggressive).

In the free poker and online nanostakes (.02/.05 blinds), each of these player types make a few key mistakes.

In this free online poker education lesson we'll look at how to exploit the Tight-Aggressive style player.

Ways to combat the Tight Aggressive Player (TAG) Style

The TAG is going to be the best player you face in free online poker and micro stakes games, happily they are also quite rare!

Tight aggressive is the way that you should aim to play as well and by virtue of this fact you should try to avoid getting into pots with other TAGs where possible.

Typically the TAG will open with sensible ranges preflop for raises and be more aggressive postflop.

They will be cbetting pretty wide but closing down on later streets a fair amount and they're most unlikely to spew off their stacks by check-raising or betting down with nothing.

That said, they also won't be calling down with their weak pair hands (think second pair and often top pair hands) or draws (without proper odds.

They will normally get out of the way if out of position if they have nothing and play a solid style when In Position that is difficult to exploit since it is centered around playing with solid hand ranges and betting for value to get folds out of other TAGs and Tight Passive players.

They don't get out of line too much. The profit strategy with TAGs when you are In Position is to cbet flop wide (you will get lots of folds) and to slow down when you're raised.

When you're Out Of Position you are limited to check-raising flop and turn wide, though it's best not to do so with weak hands against TAGs especially in micro stakes as varaince will work against you and lead to a lot of nasty wipe outs.

Again, TAG is the style of play we should be emulating as it's just all-around solid and hard to exploit - don't get out of line too much (unless you have a read or some other reason to), pick your spots, and get lots of value from other players' mistakes.

And keep in mind there are degrees of player styles. Some styles share traits with the most closely related group, TAGs with LAG bits, TPs that lean toward LPs and so on, so keep your wits about you and adjust your play per opponents using player style models as a tool to guide observation and decision making.

Learning to recognize player types and the degree to which a player fits a type isn't easy.

Yes, sorry to say, plenty of practice is required though if you really focus on this and keep good game notes it will come faster for you. If you're new to poker do not risk much or even any cash as you learn.

Kick off by playing micro stakes or free online poker games and slowly work your risk levels up.

For a full version of this article with all 4 player types covered and some advanced postflop play tips see the free poker online blog at NoPayPOKER.