Nit

Also known as: nitty, rock

An overly tight, risk-averse player who only commits chips with premium holdings and folds far too often otherwise.

A nit plays a narrow range, rarely bluffs, and avoids marginal spots — their value is almost always real. Against the field this loses money two ways: they miss thin value and steal opportunities by folding too much, and they're trivially exploited because their bets mean strength. When a nit raises the river, you can fold tournament-saving hands and be right.

The exploit is mechanical: attack their blinds relentlessly, c-bet and barrel into them since they overfold, and pay them off only with strong hands. Stop bluffing a nit who won't fold and stop value-betting thin when they call — both are pointless against a range that's already polarised toward the nuts when money goes in.

Note the difference from a reg: a competent reg is tight-aggressive and balanced; a nit is tight-passive and unbalanced. In tournaments a little extra caution near a pay-jump is correct ICM play — that's not nittery, that's ICM. True nittery is folding good spots where no real ICM pressure exists.