LAG
Loose-aggressive: many hands, played hard. The highest-variance style, the hardest to play against, and the easiest to get wrong.
A LAG opens more than a third of their hands, three-bets light, barrels turns and puts you to a decision for your stack with a hand you would not have believed. On a HUD they look like 32/28. The style works because pressure is expensive to answer: every extra hand they play is another pot you have to defend, and defending correctly against an aggressive range means calling down light, which feels terrible and is often wrong by a hair.
What makes it profitable is not the loose part — that costs money on its own. It is that the loose range is played with initiative from position, so the extra hands come with a way to win without showing down. A LAG on the button is playing 45% of hands into two blinds who have to fold most of theirs. The same player under the gun with the same range is simply lighting money on fire.
It is also the style that punishes weakness fastest. Against opponents who fold too much, fold too late, or call one street and give up on the next, a LAG collects small pots constantly and occasionally takes a whole stack from a hand that never improved.
The error is copying the frequencies without the reads. A LAG has to know when to stop — when the check-raise means it, when the board favours the caller, when the opponent has stopped folding. Without that, loose-aggressive turns into a maniac: same number of hands, same number of bets, none of the judgement, and a swing chart that goes one direction.
FAQ
What does LAG mean in poker?
Loose-aggressive: a player who enters a lot of pots and plays them with raises and barrels rather than calls. Typical six-handed numbers are around 32/28, and the style relies on position and pressure rather than on the strength of the cards.
Is LAG better than TAG?
It has a higher ceiling and a much higher floor to fall through. A good LAG wins more because opponents cannot fold correctly against a wide aggressive range. A bad one is just a maniac — the frequencies are copied, the judgement about when to stop is missing.
How do you play against a LAG?
Stop folding to single bets, tighten the hands you play out of position against them, and let them keep betting when you hold something real. Their range is wide by construction, so the hands that beat second pair are worth far more against a LAG than against a nit.