PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

Poker can be a boring game, especially when you aren't getting any cards. Many players spend time in between hands roaming between tables, talking with their friends, playing with their iPod, or even taking a quick cat nap (don't laugh, I see it all the time covering tournaments). These players are missing an opportunity, a golden one at that, to gather crucial information about their opponent's. How can you possibly pick up patterns on how a player plays if you aren't paying attention?

The same can be said for playing online... too many people spend most of their playing time doing everything but studying their opponents. They play like robots almost. They flip over to their table and see that someone has raised their big blind from the button and automatically assume it's a steal and put in a re-raise. What they failed to notice was that the button was the tightest player at the table who has only played three hands in the last two hours. They move all in over the top and chips that didn't have to be lost are tossed out the window.

Obviously, the point I am trying to make is that is important to be paying attention to your opponents. What is it you should be looking for though?

There are seven main things you should be studying your opponents for and they are as follows:

#1 - Hand selection – When your opponent shows his cards, what are they? It's important to make note of what position they played these particular hands from. If you don't see what their cards are, note the frequency with which they play hands from various positions.

#2 - Aggression – How aggressive is your opponent? How often are they raising and re-raising?

#3 - Calling tendencies – How often does your opponent call bets and what size bets are they calling? What type of hands are they calling with and perhaps more importantly what size bet is sufficient to get them to fold?

#4 - Reaction to opponents’ bets/raises - How does a player react when they are raised or re-raised? How does a player react when they were the pre-flop aggressor and their opponent leads out into them or check raises them? What is their typical reaction to aggression against them?
#5 - Pre-flop betting patterns - How much do they bet? Does it vary based upon position? Does it vary based upon the strength of their hand? How much do they re-raise? When do they re-raise?

#6 - Post-flop betting patterns - How much do they bet? If it varies, can you figure out when it varies? When do they raise? How do they play weak hands? Strong hands? Draws?

#7 - Blind defense - How often does your opponent call a raise out of their blind? How often do they re-raise a positional raise of their blind? How often do they fold their blind when it is raised from late position? Other positions? Is there a certain amount they will call no matter what? Is there a certain amount they will fold to unless they have a premium hand?

In order to help you get practice in studying your opponents, I've put together an assignment that will have you observing an individual player and compiling an observation report. For this assignment, you are to pick a player to observe. Try and pick someone whose play you admire or respect or someone who gives you trouble when you play. Make a general observation about the following and create an observation report (you obviously don't have to do this, but I've found that by having to put what you've observed on paper it will help you put the complete story together):

1)    Blind play, do they defend or release.
2)    What hands do they play and from what position, and how do they play them? For example, do they raise with K-J in early position? Do they limp with big pairs in early position? Do they raise with anything when they are first to act? Pre-flop, do they do a lot of limping, raising or both? What percent of the flop would you say they saw.
3)    What hands they reraise with. This will tell you a lot about how they a) react to other players b) what hands they believe have significant value.
4)    How much they bet pre-flop. What is their standard raise? Do they vary it? If they do, are you able to get any indication of why they vary it and with what type of hands?
5)    How much they bet post-flop. Do they bet draws? Do they raise draws? When they have a hand like top pair how much do they bet? When they have the nuts or a hand close to it, how much do they bet? Do they vary their bets? If so, were you able to determine anything by the way they were betting?

6)    How they play speculative hands. Do they call raises pre-flop out of position? Do they call raises pre-flop in position? Post-flop if they've flopped a draw, will they "chase" and if so, what size bets will they call and what size bets will they fold to.
7)    General summary/observations (tight, loose, aggressive, passive, good, weak, steal a lot/not at all, adjusts play based on stage of tournament etc;).
8)    How to best play this opponent (in your opinion).

If you know the player, you are to not tell them you are observing them as you want them to play as they always would.

Here is an example player observation report I completed on one of my former students:

a) What hands do they play and from what position, and how do they play them? For example, do they raise with K-J in early position? Do they limp with big pairs in early position? Do they raise with anything when they are first to act?

X plays mainly four types of hands. Big cards, pairs and suited cards (usually connected), and any hand when someone raises his blind. He'll play the first three range of hands from any position, usually raising if he is first to act but occasionally limping. Never limped with a big pair. Called lots of raises with a wide range of hands.

Examples:

Limped: 10-, 6-, 9-8o

Called a raise: K-, J-, 10-, J-, K-8o, J-

Raised first to act: 9-, K-10o, 3-, K-, Q-Q, J-J, K-Jo, 8-, 9-, K-K, A-9o, 9-9, A-5o, 10-, 4-4

Raised limpers: 4-4, A-Jo

So as you can see - if X limps, it's almost always a speculative hand (connected cards, usually suited). If he just calls a raise, it's again, almost always a speculative hand (suited cards, usually bigger ones). Much more indiscriminate raising first to act, but there may be some patterns in his betting which will help narrow those down as well. The two times he raised limpers were late in the tournament, when the money was shallow, and both times with above average hands, but not necessarily great hands.

b) What hands they reraise with. This will tell you a lot about how they a) react to other players b) what hands they believe have significant value.

Raised a raiser: 9-, 8-8, A-, A-A

The first two times he raised a raiser I think were more based upon the players he was raising then on the cards he held (the 8-8 hand was against someone who was pretty short), although it did appear to me that X had a fondness for 6-9 (and who can blame a guy for such a thing) so it might have been the "cards" talking and not the player - not much I can discern from X' reraising patterns because there weren't many times where he did this, it does seem he's likely to apply pressure to smaller stacks with not premium hands but ones that have a chance of winning a race (i.e. the 8-8 hand) so if I were a small stack I would take that into consideration and be more willing to play hands like 10-10/K-J/K-Q against him. The third time he raised the minimum in an attempt to isolate a short stack all in with A- (a mistake I think due to the number of players left to act, but I will talk more about that later). The last time was an obvious reraise situation and was a "please call me" type of raise (just barely more than minimum).

c) How much they bet pre-flop. What is their standard raise? Do they vary it? If they do, are you able to get any indication of why they vary it and with what type of hands?

2.5x BB w/ K-Qo
3.25x BB w/ K-, Q-Q, 8-, K-K, A-Q, 4-4
4x BB w/ J-J, Q-Q
2x BB w/ Q-9, A-5o

Two things I can pick up from this - 1) If X raises more then he generally does (which is usually somewhere slightly over 3x the BB), he has a premium hand and 2) if he min. raises, he has a less than a premium hand. Accordingly, I'd be more likely to just call the bigger raises due to the implied value I would have and reraise the smaller raises (substantially) due to the likelihood that he would fold. If he raises his normal amount, then it's hard to put him on a set hand.

d) How much they bet post-flop. Do they bet draws? Do they raise draws? When they have a hand like top pair how much do they bet? When they have the nuts or a hand close to it, how much do they bet?

X is pretty consistent with his post-flop betting. He generally bets about 1/2 the pot and will do so with both made hands, with draws and with bluffs. The times I saw him vary from this (small or big bets) he almost always has a made hand. I'd test his consistent bets much more then I would something that varied from this.

e) How they play speculative hands. Do they call raises pre-flop out of position? Do they call raises pre-flop in position? Post-flop if they've flopped a draw, will they "chase" and if so, what size bets will they call and what size bets will they fold to.

See above - will play speculative hands, generally likes to take control with draws post-flop by being the aggressor so never really saw him chasing because he was controlling the action.

How they defend their blinds. Do they call any raise out of the BB or do they defend them aggressively by reraising? Do they fold their blinds unless they have a legitimate hand?

This is probably X's biggest leak. Early in a tournament he will call nearly any raise out of his BB. I never once saw him reraise out of the blinds. It seems he takes it personally when someone raises his BB. Hands he called raises with included: 6-2o, 6-5o, 10-6o, 5-3o. In fact, he just called with A-Q from a late MP raise and just checked his option when the SB completed when he held A-x. One of his favorite plays was to call out of the blind and bet out on the flop. There are two ways I would attack this if I was playing against him - 1) I'd be much more likely to raise with a lesser hand because I know it won't take much to beat him if he calls and 2) I'd raise him much more liberally anytime he bet out on the flop, even if it missed me.

Their general table image. What do other players think of this player (based upon their reactive play to them)? Is this player chatty or quiet? Do they give away any "chat" clues when they are in a hand?

X is generally quiet at the table and most players seem to let X take control of the action when he is in a hand, letting him be the aggressor. This is typical of what I've seen in the past the times I've played against X.

f) how to best beat this player?

Outlined in all the above areas.

As you can see from my example, there's a lot of information to gather. This is the type of stuff though that can help you avoid making mistakes against this player. In the next part, we'll discuss taking advantage of the information you have gained on your opponent.