PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

This will be the most complicated and difficult assignment for all of you to do. Write down questions you have and see if you are able to figure out the answers, if you can't go to the PokerWorks.com forums and leave a question for me and I'll get to it within a week or you can leave a comment on this article and it will appear in the forum. This assignment is NOT a perfect science, what it's meant to do is get you in the habit of observing player's tendencies. Some of the classifications might be off, but try this and I think you'll notice some patterns start to develop.

For this assignment you are to play a minimum of 5 NLHE tournaments.

Part One - Mapping your table

As soon as your table opens, write down each player and their applicable seat number on a piece of paper or in a Word Processing document (probably easier if you do it here so you don't have to transcribe it later). Leave a little space for each player so that you may enter some information we will be using for the second part.

For the first ten hands you are to do the following:

Pre-flop

1)    If it is raised and reraised before you act or there is just one raise that is more than 5x the BB, fold all hands except AA/KK/QQ. Play those hands at your discretion.
2)    If it is raised to less than 5x the BB before you act, fold all hands except pocket pairs and AK/AQ. Play those hands at your discretion.
3)    If there is no raise and you are first to act, raise to 3x the BB total bet with any two cards.
4)    If there is no raise but there are limpers before it gets to you, raise to 3x the BB plus 1x the BB for each limper.
5)    If you are reraised under #3 or #4, proceed at your best discretion, but generally you should fold unless you are getting sufficient odds to call or have a premium hand.

Post-flop

1)    If you are not first to act and if there is a bet, fold unless you feel the pot is worth proceeding with (that is, you have a strong hand), then raise 2x the original players total bet amount (so if they bet 400, you would raise 800 to 1200).
2)    If you are first to act bet 1/2 the pot regardless of what the flop is. If you are raised, proceed at your best discretion.
3)    If any of your raises are just called, proceed at your best discretion on the turn and river.

Part Two - Assigning Points

Now for each hand you play as outlined above you are to record the following for each of the other players at your table. If they do something more than once, give them credit for each time they do it (for example if someone calls a reraise twice, they would get 10 C points not 5).

1 - Bet or Raise pre-flop, flop, turn or river - 5 A points
2 - Reraise pre-flop, flop, turn or river - 10 A points
3 - Limp pre-flop - 5 W points
4 - Call bet or raise pre-flop, flop, turn or river - 5 C points
5 - Call reraise pre-flop, flop, turn or river - 10 C points
6 - Fold pre-flop - 3 W points
7 - Number of times made a small bet (less than 1/2 pot) flop, turn or river - (5 W points)
8 - Number of times made a big bet (pot or more) flop, turn or river - (10 A points)
9 - Bet out first to act on flop, turn or river (5 A points)
10 - Folded on flop, turn or river (5 W points)
11 - Check raised on flop, turn or river (20 A points)
12 - Won pot by betting/calling an all in (10 A points)
13 - Won pot by raising (20 A points)
14 - Won pot by calling any bet other then all in (20 C points)

Now using this information you are to give a total point value to each player for the three categories, A, C and W. It's good to have a spreadsheet up with a point chart that you can update as you go.

Part Three - Player Classification

Using the point totals, you are to classify a player as follows - a high score would be one that is in the top 3 for the table, a low score would be one that is in the bottom 3 for the table, a medium score in the middle 3:

High W, Low C, Low/Medium A - Rock
High W, Medium C, Low A - Weak
High W, High C, Low A - Calling Station
Low W, Low C, High A - Maniac, loose aggressive player
High W, Low C, High A - Tight Aggressive player

If there is a player bordering on one of two categories, go with your best judgment on which one they are. Feel free to change it to the other category if you observe those tendencies.

Part Four- playing the player

This is a basic guide; we'll get more in depth on this in future chapters. Once you have the classification you are then to play the players as they are classified as outlined below:

Rock - If they have raised and you have position, just call with any speculative hand (suited/gapped connectors, pairs). You should avoid hands like KQ/KJ/AJ/AT/QJ that will likely be dominated. What you are looking for is to hit a flop hard (and by hard I do not just mean top pair, I mean set, two pair, top pair with a strong draw) as the implied odds go up against these types of players. If you miss the flop, you should generally fold but occasionally you might want to call/raise if a good scary board has presented itself. If you do not have position, you need to proceed with caution against these types of players as you do not get to react to them and that is crucial.

Weak - this player doesn't see a lot of flops but when they do they will generally limp in and call a raise if there is one. They are very easy to play against post-flop. Bet. If they have any of it, they'll either call or raise. If they don't, they'll fold. They'll usually fold.

Calling Station - Raise more pre-flop then you normally would. If your standard raise is 3x the BB and they are the only person in the pot (i.e. they limped) or are in the blinds, go ahead and raise it to something like 8x the BB. Don't be afraid to make this raise with a lesser hand like AT, AJ, KQ. Go ahead and make a bet on the flop, calling stations will generally fold if they have no chance at anything and call if they have anything remotely resembling a draw. DO NOT bluff these players but pound your strong hands. A good method is to bet 1/2 pot on the flop and then increase your bets if you believe you have the best hand and they will call. The key to playing these players is to get them to call when you have strong hands and to check when you don't so you get a free showdown. If they raise, it generally means they have something VERY good, the only type of hands I'd play in this case would be pairs and I'd only proceed post-flop if I hit a set.

Maniac/Loose Aggressive - To play a maniac you combine the above two strategies. You want to play your speculative hands in position (and like with the Rocks, position is crucial against this type of player). You want to bet your strong hands strong (which means raising more like you do against the calling stations) and you DO NOT bluff these players. The key is to speculate in position as they'll pay you off if you hit generally and be aggressive with your good hands.

Tight, Aggressive player - this is the player you should watch out most for and avoid the most. Generally, you are going to want to have position (it's ok to speculate because like rocks, these players will sometimes pay you off when they can't release their strong hands) and good cards. If they reraise you, you need a much better hand then you would if you were playing a maniac/lag. If they call you, they are generally going to try and use position against you, so this would be the one area you could trap them by checking to show weakness. If you have been making standard continuation bets they will play back at you. Go ahead and fold and let them think they can run you over, and pop them back eventually.

If there are more than two players who are in the hand with you, treat each player accordingly and use your best discretion in how to proceed.

If you move to a new table before the ten hands is over, try again. If you move to a new table after you have classified the players and have more than 60x the BB, apply the 10 hands again. If you have less than 60x the BB, the assignment is over for you for this tournament, proceed as you best see fit, but feel free to do a modified points system based upon the play you see and classify your opponents.

Answer the following questions for your own benefit and learning:

1)    During your 10 hands of data compilation what was the general reaction of the players at your table?
2)    Once the 10 hands were over and you shifted back to your normal game (well normal comparatively speaking) do you think your play in the first 10 hands generated more action for you? If yes, was it specific players or the whole table in general? What classification of players were giving you action?
3)    How accurate do you think the classification system was? If it was inaccurate can you determine a reason it was?
4)    How did playing the players per their classifications work for you? Was there something that you had trouble with, and if so, what was it?
5)    What hands gave you problems? What was the classification of the player? Why did you play the hand the way you did?
6)    General observations/comments on the assignment. How did it work for you? What did not work for you?

In the next part, I'll actually do this assignment myself and show you the results and answer my own questions.