How to exploit a group of tight aggressive players?

Question

I'm a relatively new Poker player. Today I played online no-limit Texas Hold'em against 8 opponents. I don't think they are very strong players, because the stakes are small.

I noticed that most of them were tight aggressive players: they folded mediocre hands and were betting a good amount of money with stronger hands like AQ, QQ, etc.

Here's the problem: if I bet or call a raise pre-flop, there is a good chance that out of remaining 8 players one or two will have a strong hand, stronger than mine. Those players will call and win the pot eventually because they have a stronger hand.

So even with reasonably good hands like A9 I felt insecure (and often lost), because likely the opponent who stays in the game has AJ, KK. If the board is 69JK and I have a pair 9 with ace kicker, probably one of the opponents that plays post-flow has a higher pair JJ, KK, because without having a high card he would have folded pre-flop. And since there are many opponents, often at least one will remain in the game post-flow.

Any advice how to play on such table?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, if you're at a table full of tight-aggressive players, the correct move is to find another table. This kind of opponent is difficult to exploit for very much. A good table will usually include some looser, more "action" oriented players. Having just one or two players like that a table will often suffice, as they will cause a snowballing effect. Pots get bigger, more players get drawn in with speculative hands, and the chips start flying.

It's important to note that not all tight players are aggressive and/or strong players. Many tight players do play too conservatively and passively. Exploit these players by finding seats with them on your left. You will have position in more pots this way, and the passive ones will put you in fewer difficult spots when playing out of position against them. That being said, it's a grind for even the best players to extract chips from tight players.