[razor]

Has anybody here ever looked over their "poker life" to watch how it went.

When you begin...like most people, you were prolly loose and not really knowing what to do.

then came tight

then tight with agression

but how and when does one move from being tight and agressive to simply being solid.

Just curious if through all your transitions you noticed as you read and play to improve, but do you simply wake up one day finally playing solid or is it something you realize someday that you've been playing solid for some time.

i got being tight down....lol, and getting better at being agressive when I enter a pot, but still back off sometimes. it all takes work.

but do any of you remember when your game hit new levels? just crossed my mind and wondered if others ever looked back at this

[jhasper]

Has anybody here ever looked over their "poker life" to watch how it went.

When you begin...like most people, you were prolly loose and not really knowing what to do.

then came tight

then tight with agression

but how and when does one move from being tight and agressive to simply being solid.

Just curious if through all your transitions you noticed as you read and play to improve, but do you simply wake up one day finally playing solid or is it something you realize someday that you've been playing solid for some time.

i got being tight down....lol, and getting better at being agressive when I enter a pot, but still back off sometimes. it all takes work.

but do any of you remember when your game hit new levels? just crossed my mind and wondered if others ever looked back at this

[jhasper]

To me, the mark of a "solid" player reads their opponent much better than the intermediate tight/aggressive player. In this manner, they can play more hands and take down more pots with bluffs. A pro could raise with like 7 9 suited, but it would be ill advised for the intermediate tight/aggressive player to do that. The reason being, if you flop two pair and are facing a big bet on a board with a K on it, what are you going to do? Does that person have K9? Does he just have a pair? Does he have a set? When you play only tight/aggressive, you don't really have to think as much, because when you hit your hand it is most likely the winner.

[lork]

Good post!
I definitely remember being loose as they come when I started. Any face card was awesome! Wow some of the people I must have pissed off calling down with my A,6.
I didn't know about stealing blinds until I started posting here, and even then I was a little timid in trying it.
The big transition for me from being tight/passive to tight/aggressive was after the 1st TPF tourney. I remember being in that tourney and being scared and I took like 7th or 8th Way better than I expected. Then, between the 1st and 2nd TPF tourney I remember Koko starting a thread about aggression. I never even considered betting big without a solid hand. When the 2nd TPF tourney came I had really changed my style and was playing much more aggressively. I ended up winning that one.
As far as playing solid, I'll let you know when I get there!

[pritz]

What's kind've funny is I started out tight and conservative. I still am a bit but moving more agressive. I never was a loose player. Guess I skipped over that step.

[razor]

When I started, the death of me was thinking a hand like QJ offsuit or J10 suited was highly bettable pre-flop from the early position.

[ballen]

I don't think TAG and "solid" are mutually exclusive terms. TAGs are "solid" by definition.
I just don't see how "solid" play could be random.
Anyway......
TAG poker is unnatural. They're made, not born. They're the cops and pilots of the poker world.
Control & Aggression, two opposing concepts.
I'm making the transition from weak/tight to TAG. S or M said that the weak tight player already has half of the equation figured out.
When did it happen? Don't know. I think it happened when I developed "feel" and quit worrying if my opponents "liked me".

[quickie]

At that point I was loose-passive. Called a lot, saw a lot of flops. I didn't understand the nuances of the game, the relative strengths and weaknesses of draws, top pair, kickers, and pot odds.

Then my real education began.

[chris]

This has me thinking back to the early 90's as a teenager when I used to play in my dad's poker club. I was pretty damn tight then as I remember, to the point of pissing off some of those old guys

[johnf]

I've always seen it as tight is a conservative player, and a solid player is a player who is tight about entering a pot but when he does enter hes agressively. (i mite have got that from supersystem im not sure)

i was never a tight player i started very loose, and ive tighened up somewhat especially in tourneys but rings im still looser than your average"solid player". i just dont know how someone can be a rock and just sit around for the nuts all day. they get no action.

[petronder]

no. Experience, experience, experience. You can read all the books you want and it will definetly help your game, you can post all you want here and definetly improve you game. But nothing beats experience. That is the number one factor in my opinion. I have been playing poker since I was 9. Been playing SERIOUSLY since I was 15. Thats 9 years of in-depth experience, and I still wouldn't consider myself all that "solid" I still tilt, I still mis-read, I still get bored, etc. Everytime you play you should learn something new, whether is something as small as a specific person doing something, or something as large as a pattern you have. If you aren't walking away with something new you aren't improving.