Phil Hellmuth might tell you that, as he plays a style that focuses on getting it in with the best of it, and avoiding coinflips. People that play online poker, successfully, might argue otherwise. As yet, no online player has as many bracelets or anywhere the live success rate of Phil Hellmuth.
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier who has a reputation as a loose aggressive player who is as likely to amass chips as go out early in a tournament is putting together a good couple of years. Players point to his willingness to gamble and exploit small edges as two of his strengths. Though, his nickname does not come from his predispostion to play anything including the kitchen sink.
Some online players consider traditional coinflips: a pocket pair vs. overcards to be exploitable edges. Meaning 56% is enough of an advantage to not only get it in but they might admonish you for not doing so. Live players like Hellmuth, depending on the situation, might think their kind of thought is crazy. Who’s right?
On one hand you can’t argue with Hellmuth’s long term success. On the other hand nobody is playing as well in live Multi Table Tournaments as Elky. Is Hellmuth’s model outdated and one precipitated on besting other Tight Aggressive Players? Is Elky’s the new model to follow, one that exploits the relative passivity of traditional players? Or is Elky just running good and over the long term Hellmuth’s is better?
In this new age of poker this is the question of the day?
Case in point, once upon a time three bets meant AA, KK, and but a few other hands, except when bet by a drunkard or maniac. However, a single preflop bet could be any range of hands. Obviously, the ease of representing a huge hand by repopping a raiser became significant enough for players to widen their range in 3 bets which has started a fast trend to aggressive four bets.
Tight players such as Phil Hellmuth used to never dream of this (though you could argue he’s adapted to this style somewhat by making looser calls and even added the repop as part of his own arsenal). Surely, if the table were so tight, they viewed this as profitable all those “tight” live players were adaptable enough to exploit the edges, but now players 4 bet the way they used to three bet. It’s becoming common for good online poker players to get to 5 or 6 bets (when stacked deep) with absolutely nothing. What a shift in poker strategy.
Though, with poker the sign of greatness is the ability to switch gears, and that’s just as obvious with the new generation as the old one. Several players in the main event who went deep with Elky said his style was as tight as anybody’s. Playing opposite of your reputation can certainly be profitable, and Hellmuth and Elky are both smart enough to do just that.
So what’s the answer? Is tight right? Does it matter when you play poker online or play live poker? Depends on the situation, unfortunately is the answer, which is the answer to just about any question in poker.