PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

This assignment is going to require that you pay careful attention. Turn the tv off, kick the boyfriend/girlfriend out of the room, and take notes. Lots of them. In order to adjust your play to your specific table, you must figure out what type of table it is. Is it aggressive, ultra-tight, or full of calling stations? This assignment will give you a way to help you figure out which it is.

Assignment

Play a minimum of five NLHE tournaments on line at sites like Full Tilt Poker or Pokerstars.

Determining Table Type

For the first 10 hands of the tournament you are to note the pre-flop action (including your own) of each player at the table. Each time you move tables, repeat the process. If you move before ten hands is up, disregard the numbers. Each action receives a point value as follows:

Fold: 10F
Call: 5C
Raise first to act: 20R
Raise when there are limpers: 40R
Raise when there is a raiser: 80R
Fold after calling when there is a raise or re-raise: 5F
Call after limping when there is a raise: 20C
Call of a raise: 20C
Call of a re-raise: 40C

If a player completes in the small blind, or checks their option in the big blind it is considered a call.

Here are a couple of example hands to show you how to assign the points:

Hand 1:

Player 1 – Fold: 10F
Player 2 – Limp: 5C
Player 3 – Fold: 10F
Player 4 – Limp: 5C
Player 5 – Fold: 10F
Player 6 – Raise: 40R
Player 7 – Call: 20C
Player 8 – Fold: 5F
Player 9 – Call: 20C
Player 2 – Fold: 5F
Player 4 – Call: 20C

In this hand the totals are 40F, 70C, 40R

Hand 2:

Player 1 – Raise: 20R
Player 2 – Fold: 10F
Player 3 – Fold: 10F
Player 4 – Fold: 10F
Player 5 – Re-raise: 80R
Player 6 – Fold: 10F
Player 7 – Fold: 10F
Player 8 – Fold: 10F
Player 9 – Fold: 10F
Player 1 – Re-raise: 80R
Player 5 – Fold: 5R

In this hand the totals are 70F, 0C, 180R

After the 10 hands, you add the totals for the three values (F, C, and R) and assign your table a classification based on these totals. Here are the different table types and what they typically look like:

Maniacal – multiple raises and re-raises every hand. Imagine the first hand of a free roll tournament and this is the kind of table you have.

Aggressive – not quite as crazy as maniacal, but you can expect a raise every hand with lots of action.

Passive – ever been at a table where six people limp in every hand and there is no raising? That's this type of table.

Calling – and then there are those tables that whenever you raise you get five callers. It doesn't matter how much you raise either, they're going to call.

Standard – this is your typical table. A mix of limping, raising, and calling but the play is straight forward.

Tight – think of the end stages of a tournament where no more than two to three people ever contest a hand pre-flop and the pot is almost always raised. That is this type of table.

These are your six table types. Let's look at a typical hand for each of these table types so you can get a clearer picture of what I am talking about.

Maniacal

Player 1 – Raise: 20R
Player 2 – Call: 20C
Player 3 – Fold: 10F
Player 4 – Re-raise: 80R
Player 5 – Call: 40C
Player 6 – Call: 40C
Player 7 – Fold: 10F
Player 8 – Call: 40C
Player 9 – Re-raise: 80R
Player 1 – Call: 40C
Player 2 – Fold: 5F
Player 4- Re-raise: 80R
Player 5 – Fold: 5F
Player 6 – Call: 40C
Player 8 – Fold: 5F
Player 9 – Call: 40C
Player 1 – Call: 40C

The totals for this hand: 35F, 300C, 260R. A maniacal table will routinely have insanely high C and R numbers and low F numbers.

Aggressive

Player 1 – Fold: 10F
Player 2 – Call: 5C
Player 3 – Raise: 20R
Player 4 – Fold: 10F
Player 5 – Re-raise: 80R
Player 6 – Fold: 10F
Player 7 – Fold: 10F
Player 8 – Fold: 10F
Player 9 – Re-raise: 80R
Player 2 – Fold: 10F
Player 3 – Fold: 5F
Player 5 – Call: 40C

The totals for this hand: 65F, 45C, 180R. An aggressive table will have a much higher R than C and the F will be a high value (anything above 60 is considered a high number).

Passive

Player 1: Call: 5C
Player 2: Call: 5C
Player 3: Fold: 10F
Player 4: Call: 5C
Player 5: Fold: 10F
Player 6: Call: 5C
Player 7: Call: 5C
Player 8: Call: 5C
Player 9: Call: 5C

The totals for this hand: 20F, 35C, 0R. A passive table will have very low numbers all the way around with a very low R number. Even the C number is relatively low because players are not calling raises, they are limping in.

Calling

Player 1: Fold: 10F
Player 2: Call: 5C
Player 3: Fold: 10F
Player 4: Raise: 40R
Player 5: Call: 20C
Player 6: Fold: 10F
Player 7: Call: 20C
Player 8: Fold: 10F
Player 9: Call: 20C
Player 2: Call: 20C

The totals for this hand: 40F, 85C, 40R. A table filled with calling stations won't have a high level of aggression or much folding so the R and F numbers will be intermediate values. Because there isn't a lot of re-raising going on at this type of table, the C number will be high but not insanely high like it will be for a maniacal table.

Standard

Player 1: Fold: 10F
Player 2: Fold: 10F
Player 3: Call: 5C
Player 4: Fold: 10F
Player 5: Call: 5C
Player 6: Raise: 40R
Player 7: Fold: 10F
Player 8: Fold: 10F
Player 9: Fold: 10F
Player 3: Fold: 5F
Player 5: Call: 20C

The totals for this hand: 65F, 30C, 40R. A high folding number and low to average C and R numbers.

Tight

Player 1: Fold: 10F
Player 2: Call: 5C
Player 3: Fold: 10F
Player 4: Fold: 10F
Player 5: Raise: 40R
Player 6: Fold: 10F
Player 7: Fold: 10F
Player 8: Fold: 10F
Player 9: Fold: 10F
Player 2: Fold: 5F

The totals for this hand: 75F (the highest possible F is 90 at a nine handed table), 5C, 40R. A tight table will have a very high F, very low C, and usually a medium R.

Now that you have a few examples, it's time to classify your table. Take the totals you have for each of the three categories and assign them an extreme, high, medium, or low value based on the following guidelines:

High F: Greater than 650
Medium F: Between 450 and 650
Low F: Less than 450

Extreme C: Greater than 1500
High C: Between 600 and 1500
Medium C: Between 250 and 600
Low C: Less than 250

Extreme R: Greater than 1200
High R: Between 600 and 1200
Medium R: Between 250 and 600
Low R: Less than 250

Using these values, determine a classification using the following rules:

Maniacal: Low F, Extreme/High C, Extreme/High R
Aggressive: High/Medium F, Medium C, Extreme/High R
Passive: Low F, Medium/Low C, Low R
Calling: Low/Medium F, Extreme/High C, Low/Medium R
Standard: High/Medium F, Medium/Low C, Medium/Low R
Tight: High F, Low C, Medium/Low R

Sometimes you will run into a classification where you don't have an exact fit.
For example, a 500F, 1000C, 1000 R would be Medium F, High C, High R.  There are three types that have Medium F's: Aggressive, Calling, and Standard. Of those three, only Calling has a High C. Of those three, only Aggressive has a High R. you will need to use your best judgment to determine which type of table it is but the general rule of thumb is to give more precedence to the R number, so in this case I would classify the table Aggressive.

That's it for this assignment. I want you to get comfortable doing this as in the next assignment, we're going to take this one step further and take these classifications and try different playing styles given the table type you are facing.