The Downfall of TAG Play

TAG play- a style of play where a player plays only premium hands and plays them aggressively with large bets or raises or re-raises. Multiple books, e-books, and articles have been written recommending this style of play. Dan Harrington has made a career with TAG play and has written multiple books on it. This is the style of play recommended for most beginners as it takes less thought and is a good way to gain experience at the tables. This is the style many recommend for live tournament play as it is a good way to protect your chip stack while minimizing the risks by only playing premium starting hands. It also helps the player establish a tight image that can be used in future hands for successful bluffs. So if this is the "best" style of play, why are the most successful players both live and online not TAG players?

While TAG play as a mix of styles does have its place during a tournament or cash play, TAG play by itself has some extreme downfalls. When a player chooses to use solely TAG play, they are playing long-ball poker. They will be involved in very few pots but the ones that they are involved in will generally be big ones. This works out great as long as they WIN these pots. If, however, they do not, they find themselves at the rail wondering what happened.

With this, TAG players suffer the most "bad beats", which makes perfect sense. If you only play premium hands, most of the hands that you lose will be "bad beats", at least in your mind. While AA is statistically the best starting hand and will win a higher percentage of time than other starting hands, that does not mean that AA will win EVERY time that they are played. There is no 100% guarantee that the best starting hand will win each hand. If there was, poker would be one boring game of players simply waiting for premium hands to play.

Which brings us to the final downfall of TAG play: There is no guarantee that you will be dealt premium hands to play or that those hands will stand up. There is nothing worse than waiting for premium hands and being card dead. When this happens, it seems like the games are rigged. Everybody else is playing so why can't you get cards to play? How about because everybody else is not playing only premium hands? While waiting on premium hands, your chip stack can be blinded perilously low. Once this happens, generally, the next time you are dealt a premium hand or even a semi-premium hand, you're tournament life is at stake. This is a situation that TAG players find themselves in much too often. They've waited for a premium hand and when they finally get one, their tournament life is at stake. Meanwhile other players have been building their stacks so calling the TAG player's bet is +EV even if they figure that they are up against AA. The cards fall in their favor and the TAG player is out scratching his head as to what happened.

So why would anybody want to play a TAG style? The TAG style has its place in a balanced style of play. With the flow of the game, moving from a TAG style to a LAG style and back can be very effective. When moving to a new table or starting a new tournament, a TAG style can used while noting how your new table is playing. Establishing a tight table image can be useful for future bluffs and steals. Whenever there are maniacs at your table, TAG play can be used to trap your opponents. Right after the cash bubble bursts, there tends to be a lot of maniacal play be the short stacks. TAG play is good to use at these times, too.

So while there are times that the TAG style of play can be useful, if a player sticks to a strict TAG style of play, there are many downfalls to his game that he will face. So for the best results, use the TAG style as part of your arsenal rather than you're whole weapon of choice. Learn to flow between the styles depending on what the situation at the tables dictates and you will be a more successful and more well rounded player.