Reading Your Opponents

By TPD-Admin
for Thepokerdonk.com

Published: August 20, 2009

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reading your opponents

In the game of poker, the power of observance can be one of your most destructive weapons. The ability to read your opponents is one of the strongest poker strategies you’ll ever learn. When you can accurately read your opponents, your actual hand strength becomes a lot less important.

Reading your opponents does not require a master’s degree in psychology. The simple ability to observe repetitive behavior and associate it with a particular person is all you need to start successfully reading your opponents on the felt. As you become more accustomed to reading players, you’ll find that many players have the same patterns, making an accurate read much faster as you gain experience.

To effectively read an opponent, start by looking for poker tells and betting patterns. Poker tells are those commonplace reactions our body naturally makes to different situations. A nervous player may inadvertently scratch their forehead, brush their hair back, rub their nose or chin. These are the most obvious poker tells.

Poker Tells

These behaviorisms relate to a player’s nervousness. When you notice them, see how the hand plays out, noting the player’s bet sizes and, hopefully, ending hand. Nervous reactions can mean the player is bluffing with a bad hand, or slow playing a strong hand. They are attempting to be deceptive. More often than not, a high bet equals a bluff, a low bet equals a monster hand.

Other poker tells to watch for are those virtually uncontrollable, instant reactions to looking at a hand for the first time. Often, a player’s eyebrows, if not the eyes themselves, will react. If there’s a rising twitch in the eyebrows, or the eyes widen for just a split second, they’ve looked down at something they are very pleased with. You’ll notice many of today’s pros wearing hooded shirts and sunglasses at the tables to prevent being read in this manner.

Betting Patterns

A lot of players find a strategy that works for them and stick to it. Whether it be a strict, tight poker strategy that calls for premium hands only, or a loose poker strategy in which they always see the flop (if it’s cheap enough to do so), but only continue with great improvement. If they hit a monster hand, especially the nuts, they will slow play it every time. Or they will raise every time a scare card falls on the turn. These are all predictable betting patterns that can give you a keen perception of your opponent’s true hand strength.

Any experienced player will also use their position to their advantage. If you’ve read our previous poker strategy, “Playing Your Position”, you should already know that when the right opportunity arises, stealing blinds from late position becomes highly profitable. But some players will attempt this maneuver entirely too often. Call them on this bluff and the profits will roll your own way.

Bluffing

Not a lot of experienced poker players will try to bluff too frequently, but when you’re up against less advanced players, you may find someone trying to bluff every time no other player raises the pot. Watch closely for players who bet as if they’re getting good hands entirely too often. Chances are, they aren’t getting good hands – they are bluffing. Make the call to put a stop to it, and pad your stack at the same time.

Don’t Get Read

Last but not least, be aware of your own emissions. Are you becoming predictable? Are you following a betting pattern? Are you making nervous gestures that you weren’t even aware of? If you’re attempting to read your opponents, you can bet your last poker chip they are attempting to read you as well. Mix up your game play, switching up poker strategies intermittently, and you’ll drive them crazy trying to read you!

Tagged with: betting patterns, bluffing, Poker tells, reading your opponent

One Comment on "Reading Your Opponents"

The Poker Donk » Reading Your Opponents on Sun, 4th Oct 2009 2:44 am

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