It is very important to develop a strategy that you stay consitent with. While developing there are some things you should take into consideration. For obvious reasons you should base you strategy on how your co-contestants. Are you playing against a foolish player that takes great risks, then you should play in a certain way, and you are to be confident that you are able to tackle all kinds of poker players.
Here follows a round up of different kinds of poker players.
Tight-aggressive
This is your goal poker playing style, because it is the most succeeding style. If you read poker books this will in almost every case be the style ordinated. Being tight refers to focusing on strong hands and putting less weight on weaker hands, which results in less bluffing. If you encounter a tight-aggressive player raising you better watch out!
You should aim at avoiding tight-aggressive players and instead focus on finding easier targets.
Loose-aggressive
In contrast to being tight, being loose means that you often play with weak hands. That will result in more bluffing. This is a more unsafe playing style. A loose-aggressive player is very unpredictable as a consequence of his constant bluffing, which becomes hard to distinguish from his stronger hands. If you yourself happen to be a loose player, you should aim at playing tighter, which you would probably profit from.
When you play against a loose-aggressive poker player you are best off calling often. Let your opponent fail bluffing!
Tight-passive
A tight-passive player plays very cautiously and only when he or she has really good cards on his or her hand. This is a reason as to why you should be really careful when a tight-passive player actually does raise! Generally a tight-passive player is too cowardly to really get much of of good hands.
When you play against a tight-passive player you should be really aggressive, because the person will with most certainty not answer to your attacks. You have thereby not much to lose!
Loose-aggressive
A loose-passive player tends to join more games than a tight-passive, and is also often the one calling without raising. This player often calls with weak hands and is thus an even easier opponent than the loose-passive player.
This is your great chance to win some good money!