What is it about that one guy in your poker game that just gets under your skin? He’s tight, aggressive and generally knows how to play, but every time you get to the river he always turns up the goods. Well, from a poker standpoint, he’s playing flawless poker and you should be too. His vision of you is the guy who always pays him off, the station, the fish. Maybe you are just there to have fun and he knows this, and he’s using this information against you.
Today we are going to talk about your opponents. You should know your hole cards by this point, and the stakes you play. At any level of poker, whether high, or low, there are good players, mediocre players, bad players, and even on the odd occasion-- there is a great player. The latter is true for the higher stakes games, where games are built and die surrounding a single fish and great players generally flock as their bankroll permits.
Generally speaking you should be adapting to your opponents. When they play loose, you should tighten up, and when they tighten up, you need to rev into 5th gear and start pouncing on them. Not every opponent is the same but there is generalization on how some players play and how we can use this information to our advantage.
There are many types of opponents but the ones we should be looking for are the more loose-passive and the weak-tight players:
The loose-passive player tends to lean on the call button too much. They love to play pre-flop, but they almost never fold! How can we beat them if they never fold? Well, that’s sort of the point. We want them calling us down until the river. They usually have no concept of pot odds and value betting thin is the best solution. A thin value bet is when there are many other hand combinations that may beat us, yet we elect to bet a portion of the pot knowing that we will be called by worse. A simple example would be betting a straight, when it is pretty obvious a flush is out, but we are sure our opponent does not have it but may look us up with a set (trips) or two-pairs. Remember though, betting for thin value is opponent dependent so you have to use your best judgement. The bet/fold line is best unless we really think our opponent is spazzy/spewy then we should consider just checking back in position if the action dictates.
The weak tight players tend have no concept of the game except they know the value of AA and KK. Trust me; most of these nits even hate QQ on a K high flop. They are in check/fold mode most of the time since they need to smash a flop to bits before putting any amount of money in. These guys are perfect for small ball poker. Small ball poker is the concept of winning multiple small pots versus one large pot. So we basically try to beat them with continuation bets on the flop after we raise pre-flop. I tend to almost fold most of my hand range against a 3-Bet unless I am near the top portion which against a nit would be something like QQ+/AQs+. Sometimes I will drop the AQ suited and stick with AKo+ but sometimes I won’t. It is really dependant on your opponent and how he plays.
Keep your eye on these players and target them when you are in position against them. Take mental notes on what they do. Remember the last time he bet the pot on the river and he was bluffing? Remember the last time he checked the flop with the nuts? Recreational players tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. They subliminally maintain bet sizes which they think are mysterious and take really unorthodox lines, but generally they just have no clue what they are doing and are simply gambling rather than strategizing.
My next article will discuss bankroll management and how important it is in having a successful poker career.
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