Against Tight-Passive Opponents
You should play a lot more hands against tight-passive opponents for two reasons: first, they’ll often give up before the flop, allowing you to steal a lot of blinds; and second, when they do call, they’ll tend to continue to call when your hand is best but won’t raise when their hand is best.
Against this kind of opponent, you will probably want to play all your hands with a raise because of the good chance that they’ll just fold and you’ll win the blinds-but you don’t want to get too carried away.
You should probably still avoid the very small pairs and the unsuited Aces and Kings with very small kickers. Deuces and treys just don’t have much value.
Against Loose-Passive Opponents
Against loose players you won’t get many chances to steal the blinds; they’ll call, but they’ll continue to call far past the point where they’re clearly beaten.
Because of that you can play many hands against loose-passive opponents if you play just fairly well after the flop.
Any pair, any Ace, and most suited kings are strong hands in a short-handed game against loose-passive opponents.
Even pocket pairs as weak as 2 
2 
can be played strongly after the flop with the right kind of flop and the right kind of player.
For example, say you open with a raise and only the big blind calls, then he checks when the flop is Q 9 8 
.
Against a loose-passive player, you’ll often get a call from a hand like 7 5 if you bet.
Most players will fold on the river even if they pair one of their cards if you just keep betting.
I’m not saying you should always bet in this situation, but it’s always something you should give serious consideration to against loose-passive opponents.
Against passive opponents you can get the maximum return when you’re best, but they won’t extract the maximum from you when they’re best.
Pick the Right Table / Picking a Seat / Theories of Poker / Betting Theory: The Odds
A Theory of Starting Hand Value
A Theory of Flop Play: Counting Outs and Evaluating Draws
The Dynamics of Game Conditions / Table Image / Player Stereotypes
Women and Poker / Spread-Limit Games / Double Bet on the End Games / Kill Games
Short-handed Games / Tournaments / No-limit and Pot-Limit Poker
