It's Not All About The Cards
Slowly but surely we are advancing into discussion of advanced player and table dynamics. These next few parts are going to help you focus in on particular tendencies. Learning when people fold, call, or raise can help you better understand whether or not a particular hand makes sense and can lead you to make better decisions. In this part, I'm going to lay out an assignment that will force you to watch several players and observe their folding patterns. We'll then take it one step further and start testing out some concepts against the information you learn regarding a player's folding tendencies.
For this assignment, you are to observe two players in a tournament at a given table. It doesn't matter who they are, but it's always a good idea to pick a table where there is a player whose play you want to better understand or who gives you trouble. Do this for two tournaments. When observing them, you are to not be doing anything else while watching as it is important to be as accurate and thorough as possible.
You are to record the following information for every hand where they have put chips into the pot, including the blinds, up to the point that they fold. You can stop recording any information after they have folded.
a)blinds at start of hand
b) stack size at start of hand
c) position
d) pre-flop action (include position of raisers if any, either EP, MP or cutoff, button, blinds)
e) flop action
f) turn action
g) river action
h) opponent who made bet that induced fold
i) verbal statement about what cards they had, if any
Here are a few examples.
25/50, 4500, SB, folded to MP raise to 200.
50/100, 8000, MP, raised to 300, folded to BB CrazyDumbAss who moved all in for 7500. Said "nice bet, folded TT"
1000/2000/200, 120000, button, raised to 6000. BB called. Flop was 
. BB checked. Bet 8000. BB raised to 24000. Folded.
25/50, 10000, UTG, limped. MP player raised to 200. Two callers. Called. Flop was 
. Checked. Pre-flop raiser bet 500. Callers called. Called. Turn 
. Checked. Pre-flop raiser bet 2000. One call. Called. River 
. Checked. Pre-flop raiser bet all in for 7300. Folded.
Basically, you are going to create a summary report for every hand the player folded. When you do this summary report, I want you to analyze the information you have and answer the following questions at the end of your report.
1) How often did s/he fold blinds? Was there a specific raise amount to which they folded more than they did not?
2) If they limped pre-flop, how often did they fold when it was raised? Was there a "threshold" amount which they would fold to but call if it was less?
3) If they raised pre-flop, how often did they fold when it was reraised? Was there a "threshold" amount which they would fold to but call if it was less?
4) If they bet post-flop, how often did they fold when it was raised? Threshold amount?
5) Did they ever fold after reraising?
6) If they called a bet on the flop, how often would they fold to a bet on the turn or river?
7) If they bet on the flop and were called, how often would they check fold on the turn or river OR bet fold to a raise on the turn or river.
8) Did you note any specific patterns as to when this particular player would fold as opposed to when they would not? What were they?
Obviously, it's impossible to use information against an opponent after the fact. The purpose of this assignment is to get you into the habit of observing when and why a player folds. Once you've figured this out, you should be able to use this information to your advantage. In the next part, I'll go over how to use this information and will show you how you can determine a player's folding tendencies on the fly rather than over the course of a whole tournament.