A nit in poker is a player who plays a very tight style of the game and only gets involved with strong hands. This is a great strategy for tournament play, but in cash games it can be very hard to be profitable. However, if you learn how to beat nits it can be very profitable.
The main problem with being a nit is that the players you are playing against will quickly pick up on your tight approach. Even in a low to mid stakes live game, other players will notice that you are only playing about 12% of your hands and they will be able to adjust their range accordingly. This is one of the reasons why a nit strategy is only really profitable in the very lowest stakes.
Nits are also very cautious and will often miss out on a lot of value, especially in the early betting stages of the hand. This is because they will either raise a small amount preflop with only the absolute premium hands or they will check back a lot of weaker hands they could be value betting. Moreover, they will also tend to play flop and turn cautiously and fold to pressure, which means that they are a prime target for more aggressive players who know how to crush passive players.
A good way to beat nits in the early betting stage of the hand is to aggressively re-steal against them when they raise with weak hands like KJs, JTs, suited connectors and even some pocket pairs. This will give them the impression that you aren’t interested in their pot and will make them feel uncomfortable when they try to steal from you. Moreover, you should always call their 3-bets with deep stacks in late position, as they are very unlikely to call this type of bet unless they have a monster hand.
Another great way to beat nits is to bet the flop and turn with strong speculative hands that are likely to improve, such as suited pairs, AKs, QQs and KKs. This is because nits rarely bluff on these types of boards and will usually have a strong top pair top kicker when they do.
Lastly, you can also win a large amount of money by making a lot of continuation bets on the flop when a nit is in late position. This is because they will very rarely 4-bet and when they do, it is usually with a very strong hand. Thus, by c-betting on many boards and allowing them to call you, you can easily win a big pot against this type of opponent.