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PLAYER PROFILING
OR WATCHING WHO
YOU PLAY WITH!
ere's some advice that will improve your game as much as
it'll have a positive impact on your wallet or purse. If you
watched the movie, The Beautiful Mind, youll be familiar
with the Mathematician John Nash and his discovery of Game
Theory. Game Theory is a fascinating concept that turns game
relationships, opponents and players, into mathematical functions
that can be crunched and computed. Playing styles can be
analysed and defined. In fact, the best Texas Holdem computer
simulations focus on playing styles more than just odds to study
how the values of cards change depending on the betting style of
the other players. Playing style has a much larger influence on the
outcome of the game than most of us realized until the last few
years.
Based again on these computer studies, four basic types of playing
styles have been identified:
Loose-
Passive: Often referred to as ?calling stations?, these players
tend to call any bet as long as they have even the remotest chance
of winning the pot. Interestingly, loose-
Passive players often will
not
Raise when they have a good hand (thats the
Passive side of
their unique personality). By the same token, theyll also not fold
when they have a garbage hand. They tend to stay in the majority
of hands unless pushed hard to call.
Loose-aggressive: Loose-aggressive players will make often and
inappropriate
Raises. They will not always have the best hand
when they
Raise, and will even
Raise with garbage hands. Loose
players tend to bet irrationally first they
Raise, then they stay,
then they
Raise and then they fold. That uncertainty is a dead
giveaway. Due to their inconsistent and irrational play, looseaggressives
are often called ?maniacs?. Playing against maniacs
can be profitable, but they can also be expensive to play against,
due to the number of wild
Raises you'll have to call.
Loose-
Passive
Net Looser
Loose Aggressive
Low - Moderate Wins
Tight-
Passive
Moderate Wins
Tight-Aggressive
Maximum Wins
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Tight-
Passive: These players are known as ?rocks?. Tight-
Passive
players play fewer hands than most and play them very
cautiously. This is the preferred style of fish play when starting
out according to the Cage Food Chain Theory of play. When a
tight-
Passive player does
Raise though - watch out, its more than
likely that they have the ?nuts?. Playing tight-
Passive will keep
you from losing money, but it won't make you rich either.
Tight-aggressive: Tight-aggressive players also play few of the
hands dealt to them, but will be much more varied in the way they
play. If a tight-aggressive player
Raises, youll never know if they
have a good hand or if theyre
Bluffing. And thats exactly the
point. Tight-aggressive players are selectively aggressive. They
will bet very cautiously on good hands to try and trap players
with lesser hands into betting later and building the pot. They will
Raise to create an expectation in other players that they have a
great hand in order to push weaker players out of the hand. And
this is very important, as you understand how reducing the
number of players in the hand can dramatically increase the power
of your hand. Tight-aggressive is the standard that you should
aspire to.
To practice your ability to read player types, find a mid-sized
game. This size of game allows you more of a choice of who to sit
by. Watch everyone play. Get a feel for who's playing tight, who's
aggressive, and who sucks. Note who check-
Raised,
Bluffed or
semi-
Bluffed. Count the number of times each player bets on the
pre-flop or folds. These are key indicators to player type. If you
can label each of the players in this way, you will have advanced
your ability to win by leaps and bounds.
The first thing you need to decide as you observe is whether these
players are clearly better than you. Always avoid games where
you see a lot of early pre and post flop
Raises, and avoid games
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where it looks like one or two strong players are cleaning up on
everyone else at the table. Very aggressive players will take over a
table and cause a lot of grief. Steer clear of these tables if you
consider yourself a fish or a barracuda. Even as a shark, usually
one or two aggressive players at a table is enough eliminate easy
wins. Increasing the overall tightness of a table only benefits the
house, which will make more money from the
Rake than you will
ever make from the pot.
The Mathematics of Aggression
How effective is aggressive play in online Texas Holdem? Now,
no guessing here. I want the facts.
A very detailed study carried out by Carnegie-Melon University
showed the precise value of aggressive play. For the sake of this
exercise, they had their computer-simulated player come out
playing aggressively on every hand, regardless of pocket pair
quality, against a varied field of opponents. There were two very
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distinct scenarios (and only two) where this was a winning
strategy.
One against a loose table, very aggressive play was a winning
strategy. In the case of our experiment, betting pre-flop on every
single hand added up to moderate winnings. In a real online
game, betting like a maniac on every hand may diminish the
power of this strategy because other players will pick up on your
strategy - but we suspect, not by much in online play. Again, the
secret is finding the right table. Imagine the joy of sitting down at a
large table full of new players and yours is the biggest
Stack. Like
shooting fish in a barrel as they say. This is the kind of table you
are searching for.
Two against three or less players, this aggressive approach was
also a net moneymaker. As soon as you go to four players or
better, the technique started to haemorrhage serious money. All
of our research shows that
Bluffing at full or near full tables is a
waste of money, and this study supports that. At the end of this
chapter we have included a complete chart on the pocket hands
that successfully take the pot based on number of players at the
table. You will see quite clearly that strong hands double in power
and relatively weak cards can become big winners. Narrow the
field and you can pump up the power of your cards.
An excellent indicator of playing style is that the
Bankrolls of tight players tend to go down in small
amounts incrementally, and periodically go up in mid
and large amounts. Watching
Stacks can give you valuable
information about player style.
Insider Tip
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Loose Players Have Bigger Swings.
Money tends to move clockwise around the table because its
easier to read players to the right. When that really loose player is
about to take a negative swing, you want to be at a positional
advantage over him or her.
Even more, you want a maniac on your right. Maniacs eliminate
players with okay and drawing hands. Twenty year-old high
school students are more readable, and you profit from being able
to act directly after them
Heres a question then would you prefer to sit down card from
a great player or a poor player?
Sitting in late position (next in sequence) from a poor player does
not give you much of an advantage. You really need to know as
much as possible about the best players, the ones most likely to
take your money.
A loose player, someone who plays only for fun and doesnt really
understand the game, is like an old car. He or she will wander all
over the road, their steering is wobbly and they cant be depended
on to play according to their cards. Watch for and appreciate loose
players. They are great contributors. They tend to bet more than
they win and build pots for the rest of us.
While different players prefer different styles of play, the general
consensus is that the ideal table is loose-
Passive . That means lots
of callers and few
Raises, especially before the flop. You will also
want to play at tables where most, if not all of the players are
worse than you. You will make most of your profit from other
player's mistakes.
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Tight players on your left will more likely call a bet than re-
Raise
even though they might have a decent hand. You can more easily
scare them into thinking you've got the nuts and buy more free
cards despite the fact that they've got a positional advantage on
you.
Research shows that lots of pre-flop raising reduces your potential
profit. It also becomes more expensive to see the flop overall,
which negatively affects your
Bankroll all those times when the
flop doesn't hit you.
It is always better to have six players calling one bet
than three players calling two bets. Even though the
pot size in both cases is the same, in the first situation you will
make a profit of 5:1, whereas in the raising situation you will
only make a profit of 2:1. Simply put, the more players there are
putting money into the pot, the more profit there will be when
you win.
Insider Tip
A tighter game, where fewer players are calling before the flop and
staying until the showdown, can also reduce your overall profit.
But some players prefer a tight-
Passive table, since tight-
Passive
opponents are rather predictable. A tight-
Passive table gives a
player the opportunity to steal more pots, since you can often
make other players fold with a well-timed
Raise.
Fishing For Loose Players
If you sit at a table of ten and at least half of the players are better
than you, you will lose. If one or two of the players are better than
you, you have a fair chance of taking some money home but this is
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still not an ideal situation. Your profit is going to be determined
more by the composition of the table than the types of cards you
are dealt. You cant control the cards you can pick your table
and move if it gets ugly.
How do you know?
As we have been preaching, the great advantage of online poker is
that it allows you to observe the table before you play. Once you
have chosen what appears to be a fairly loose table, you begin to
carefully observe. The best recommendation I can give you is, if
you want to be a winner, spend at least 15 minutes. Many would
suggest spending at least 30 minutes - before beginning play.
This may seems like a lot of time to invest but once you begin to
play, you will have a clear idea of who you need to beat and who
you need to milk to win.
The Cage Table Rating System
Heres a simple rating system we use to evaluate how winnable a
table is.
We assign each player a number from 1-10.
Ten (10) is the loosest player a beginner, someone who bets
wildly and show poor cards at the showdown.
One (1) is for the tightest player. Someone who plays and wins
consistently, cant be
Bluffed, has accumulated substantial
winnings, makes reasonable decisions, doesnt play every hand.
Assign each player at the table a number from 1-10.
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If you are not sure from observation what their score is, score them
higher than you would guess. They are probably better players.
On apiece of paper or in your head, mark the table with these
numbers.
When you get a chance to, always p
Lay Down card from the two
best players on the table. This is a winning position.
Now add up the numbers and divide by the total players.
1+3+7+4+5+1+1+10+9 = 4.5
If the average of the table is 6 or better, dont play. There are too
many good players for you to be a consistent winner. Even an
average of 5 can reduce your chances. What you are looking for is
a table where most of the players are looser than you. The lower
the number the better.
The Casino Giveth Sometimes
Players who never fold on the first two cards even when it costs
them, are loose. A higher percentage means a much looser game.
Most online poker rooms, such as Ultimate Bet, list the percentage
of players who are seeing the flop. Players who fold often on the
first two cards tend to be tighter players.
All online poker rooms also list the average pot size. You do not
necessarily want to play at the table with the highest average pot
size, since this may indicate a lot of
Raises going into the pot.
For loose-
Passive games, choose a table with a relatively high
flop percentage and a reasonably average pot size.
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Another factor to consider is the number of players at the table.
Most online tables are ten-handed, which means you'll have to
play relatively tight. You should take position into account and
call before the flop with premium cards or good drawing hands.
More players means more competition, so you'll have to show
down better hands.
At a six-handed table, you can play considerably looser than you
can at a ten-handed table. The side effect of this is that you'll
experience more variance (the swings in your
Bankroll will be
greater). Some players prefer short-handed tables because you get
to see the flop more often, and thus have more chances at winning
the pot.
Aggression in poker has far more power at a shorthanded
table.
Insider Tip
It will take some experience to learn what type of table is best for
you. While you can't go wrong with a loose-
Passive table full of
mediocre players, you may find that a loose-aggressive or tight
Passive
table suits you best. If you find yourself at a table where
you are struggling to make a profit, don't hesitate to leave and join
another table.
Raises in Loose Games
All new poker players will generally start out in loose, low limit
games. While most experienced players prefer the sort of loose
Passive
play present at a low limit table, others may have difficulty
playing against opponents who repeatedly ?
Suck Out? and win
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with garbage hands and bad plays. A common complaint among
low limit players is that opponents will not always fold to
appropriate
Raises, and occasionally, mediocre low limit players
will make incorrect
Raises. Knowing when to
Raise, and how to
interpret an opponents
Raise is covered below. The following
information assumes that you have made an appropriate table
selection, and are not playing at a table that is overly aggressive or
tight.
If you've got a great starting hand, especially a high
pair (JJ or higher), don't hesitate to
Raise and re-
Raise
before the flop.
Insider Tip
One of the most common complaints among low-limit players is
that opponents often
Suck Out with inferior hands against a solid
hand such as AA. The best way to win with these hands is to play
them fast and aggressively.
Raise before the flop, and keep on betting after the flop. Unless the
game is ridiculously loose (and your opponents are ridiculously
bad), almost all of your opponents will fold to your aggressive
betting. You won't always win with AA or KK, but if you play
them aggressively, the majority of the time you will.
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Again, the research shows that aggressive play will drive down
the number of players in the hand and increase your odds of
winning.
Since many low limit players will play incorrectly and call bets
and
Raises with just about any half-decent hand, you need to make
sure that you are raising when you think you have the best hand.
If you do have what you believe is the best hand at that point, then
you need to
Raise to get other players out of the pot, who may
draw out on you with a garbage hand. If you are repeatedly
winning and showing down the best hands, then other players
will start to respect your
Raises and get out of your way.
If you've flopped a decent hand (top pair with good
Kicker, two
pair, etc.) and are betting on it, don't be scared off if someone
Raises it to two bets.
Although you could very well be beaten, experience shows that
bad players will sometimes
Raise with any decent pair, a draw or
even overcards. Call the bet, and be prepared to call to the river
unless the board looks scary or the action gets too intense. If you
fold every time you get
Raised with a decent hand, then you'll lose
out on some pots that you would have won, had you shown the
hand down.
Utilize pot odds to determine whether the payoff is big
enough to justify putting in more bets. Then observe
opponent play to see if the
Raise is valid.
Insider Tip
On the other hand, if an opponent re-
Raises it to three bets, be very
concerned. Generally, a mediocre low limit player will not re-
Raise
unless they have a great hand. Take time to study the board to
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determine what your opponent might have. You might be tempted
to follow the above advice and call him to the river, hoping that he
is
Bluffing. But time and time again, they will turn up a superior
hand. Don't re-
Raise unless you have the nuts, and if you don't
have the
Absolute Nuts, be prepared to call to the river.
Playing Tighter
If everyone at the Texas Hold'em Poker table plays loose then no
one can win.
The players will trade pots back and forth while the casino slowly
Rakes all their money. The better Hold'em players will lose less,
but in the long run, no one can win.
No one can win if everyone plays tight. Only the house wins.
Insider Tip
The tight players will trade smaller pots back and forth while the
casino
Rakes all their money. The better Hold'em players will lose
less, but no one can win.
If everyone at the Texas Hold'em Poker table plays the same, no
one can win. Learning Hold'em only by simply playing Hold'em is
player's folly. If you learn to play Texas Hold'em poker like
everyone else plays, you cannot have a long run edge.
To win at Texas Hold'em Poker you must play tight in loose
games and play in loose games only.
There is no other way. You have no edge in a tight Hold'em game
and you only have an edge in a loose game if you play tight. It
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might be possible to play loose and win in the long run if all the
other players are complete idiots, but nature does not provide
enough complete idiots who play Hold'em poker.
As players come and go during a Hold'em poker
Session the game
will sometimes get tighter. You'll see more players folding on the
first round. The pots will be smaller. If your Holdem game gets
too tight, find a better game or don't play at all.
You want to be the only tight player in a loose Holdem poker
game, but often there are one or more other tight players at the
table. Sometimes loose players tighten up their play for whatever
reason, but that's usually temporary. You'll have to take all of this
into consideration when evaluating a Holdem poker game.
There's no exact way to measure it, but you can develop a feel for
it.
The Law Of Big Numbers
Most of us are impressed with big numbers like the size of Bill
Gates fortune. But what about small numbers that give you a
huge advantage?
Lets say that you improve your odds of winning by 5%? So
instead of winning 10 in every 100 pots (on average) you could
increase that to 15. Doesnt sound like much does it?
Ten in 100 pots for 10 players really means you are getting back
the money you bet less the house
Rake. Start with $100. Play 100
hands of Poker. The
Rake is $1 per pot. Thats $100 the house takes
from all the winnings leaving you $90 at the end of the night. The
played all night and lost $10. Write that off to entertainment.
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With 15 pots that little 5% advantage means a lot.
You are now up, just based on average play, $115 for the night.
Small numbers make huge differences. Play three times a week for
a year and you are up $18,000 based on your 5% advantage.
Never Sequence Bet
A sequence bet is a bet based on the idea that Well, Ive put in so
much money on this lousy hand, I might as well see it through.
Never change future strategy based on a past hands. So you got
lucky and drew on an
Inside Straight? You should have folded.
Not only will that luck not return, it will make you a looser player.
We will tend to use the experience to modify future play.
Show the avatars (people in chairs), but don't stereotype them.
This is probably the most debatable tip I'm guessing, because if
you've turned them off, you probably really don't like the avatars
to begin with. And if you do like avatars, well, they're probably on
already. I just want to get my two cents in about this Party Poker
tip by saying that even though avatars are computer graphics, it's
again human nature to easily identify faces. That means we can
more easily associate a personality to a face, so it makes it easier to
remember how someone is playing when we can attach a face to a
playing style.
That being said, I'm sure there is some negative influence of these
faces as well, because we probably tend to associate a certain
avatar with a playing style. For instance, I'll admit that I used to
mentally associate one of the avatar pictures with
Bluffing. I think
this was caused by a long string of coincidences, when different
players using that avatar would constantly
Bluff, so I just starting
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linking that specific avatar with
Bluffing. Don't let this happen to
you.
If you are a 2 or a 3 how do you get to be a 7 or an 8?
Playing Poker Solitaire
Human psychology is very interesting. Research has shown that
the average gambler tends to underestimate the cards of their
opponents and overvalue their own. One of the best ways to
understand this tendency is to play Solitaire Poker.
Play out 6-10 hands of Texas Holdem, evaluate your card odds for
the flop, and then look at the other down cards. You will be
surprised at the number of opportunities to win you will see in the
competitions hands.
Be hard on your hand. Sure you could draw a card that will help
you but so can all of the other remaining players.
One of the best exercises in an actual game is to try and guess the
other players two down cards based on their playing style and
betting. The better you become at this, the better your game will
become. In the end, isnt this really the point of the game?
Reading Your Opponents
Online Poker eliminates visual and verbal clues tells) from the
game. You cant see the faces of the other players (their real faces,
in any case). This limits your ability to read the other players. The
rules in online poker compensate for this by giving us a wealth of
information in other ways.
- How the other players react to the bets?
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- How quickly do they respond?
- Whats their betting style?
- How often do they
Raise and when?
- Are they consistent stay,
Raise,
Raise?
- Or
Raise, stay,
Raise, fold?
Wait a Full Table Rotation Before Posting the BB
Online Tells - The in-turn buttons lead to the most obvious tell
unique to online poker. If the blinking light representing a player
acts immediately, its likely this person has clicked the box of an
in-turn action. It is usually easy to determine when a player has a
no-brainer hand. The immediate ?check? is often incredibly
revealing. If you are first to act, and for some reason take a
moment before checking, and your three opponents immediately
check behind you like rifle fire, this is a tell as big as Texas. They
haven't got a thing.
Another common situation . . . the first player takes a moment, and
then finally checks. You have the ?bet/
Raise in turn? button
checked, so your bet appears, but instantly the player next to you
Raises. Uh-oh, he had the bet/
Raise button checked too, and didnt
care what you or the first player did. That tells a lot more than a
just normal
Raise would -- an awful lot more.
Besides the speed of action resulting from using the buttons, other
online tells can be discerned from how slow a player commonly
acts on their hand. Players who are consistently super-slow (rude
human speed bumps) are likely not paying attention to the game,
either because they are playing two games and are not competent
at it, or because they are doing other work at home. Either way, if
all of a sudden this person plays a hand crisply and promptly and
aggressively... well, they just woke up because theyve got
something.
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The Stall? is a common tell among average or slightly below
average players. When the last card in Hold'em or Omaha makes a
coordinated board (making a nut hand like a flush), the mediocre
player pauses as if thinking, and then finally bets. This pause
almost always means ?powerhouse? or at least that the bettor
thinks he has a killer hand. Some would call it reverse psychology,
but more often than not, its true.
PRE-FLOP STRATEGY
Before you start betting like a madman when you get two eights
in the pocket, you need to carefully consider all factors involved
in solid pre-flop strategy.
The factors to consider are the number of players, how
aggressive/
Passive the players at the table are, your
Bankroll, your
position, and how much risk you are willing to entail.
THE RIGHT NUMBER OF PLAYERS
With 10 people in the game, it's much more likely that someone
else has a strong hand in the pocket than in a short-handed game.
Also, you'll need to be more cautious in larger games, as the
chances of someone's pre-flop hand fitting the flop will be much
better. More competition means stiffer competition.
HOW AGGRESSIVE ARE THE OTHER PLAYERS
Assuming you've been playing with a few people for several
hands, and you noticed some jackass is raising every hand preflop,
you'll want to play tighter. Let the guy win the blinds (big
deal) and nail him to the wall when you have a solid hand in the
pocket pre-flop
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Your
Bankroll
If you have $2 left, you'll want to play extremely carefully and
select one hand to bet on, hoping to get as many players involved
as possible for a larger pot. You'll want to be all-in before the flop
is dealt. On the flip side, if you have $1000 at a $1/$2 table, you can
take the high-risk, high-payout bets. If you are worried about
losing your money, you should stop playing poker, switch tables
or take a break. Second reason to buy more than is necessary, is for
intimidation factor. Opinions may differ, but faced off against a
big
Stack, my feelings are that a good amount of players (but not
all) show a bit more respect (read: fear) and will play accordingly -
which is to your benefit. Now, don't read this as buying in for
$1,000 in a $1/2 game, because then people will think you are just
nuts, but $400. Now we're talking.
Buy-in More Than Necessary At The Poker Table
If you've been doing your homework, you'll know that you should
always sit in with at minimum 50 times the
Big Blind at any poker
table. In the realities of online poker, this should be more along the
lines of at least 100 times the BB. You should think about doing
this too. Why? First, don't ever be in the position of holding the
nuts and not having enough money to
Raise the pot. I've seen this
happen too many times, where a guy will have flopped a full
house in a $3/6 game, but only have $12 in his
Bankroll. He could
have made a killing if it weren't for the fact he was playing with a
small
Stack.