Poker Articles -
Identify Your
Opponent:
Texas Holdem Poker players have varying styles of play and
different levels of experience. If you can quickly identify the
type of player you are up against and their skill level you can
use this knowledge to alter your playing style and maximize your
opportunities.
There are many types of Texas Holdem Poker player, and, of
course, many levels of experience between those players. Texas
Holdem the card game is similar to pushing spaghetti around a
plate – some will get more, others will get less and the house
always takes a slice. The statistics of cards over time dictate
that we all have the same opportunities. The key to maximizing
our potential gains is to quickly identify your opponent type
and skill level. If you can correctly identify your opponent
then you will be able to alter your playing style to maximize
your win, and just as significantly, minimize your loss.
Let’s review the various playing styles that you will come
across in an average Texas Holdem Poker cash game. Players will
either be:
And within these styles you will find a range of aggression that
goes from passive to aggressive. What follows are some strategic
hints and tips to help you play against each form of poker
player in an online environment.
Rocks are the most common type of Texas Holdem Player. They are
the easiest to beat and usually are inexperienced new players
who think the game revolves around the cards that are dealt.
It’s also the most natural playing style and so you will come
across them regularly. These are the people you should look to
play against. Controlled aggression is the way to proceed. Bet
at these players when flops look ugly and they’ll most likely
fold. If they re-raise you in return, step aside and let them
take the hand, coming right back at them next round. A rock who
has been sitting folding the last 20 hands, only to come out
betting, is the easiest read of all. If you can’t see them
coming then I’d suggest you take up a different game.
Tight players are usually battle hardened. The difference
between a tight player and a rock is that they understand the
need to come out more often, with the occasional bluff here and
there. More importantly they usually use the time spent sitting
out, to identify opponent characteristics in order to play their
weaknesses. The best of all players sit in this category – Tight
Aggressive No Limit Texas Holdem players need to be identified
early on and avoided at all cost. Find one and you should
re-examine your table selection (yes you should move table).
Real life examples of this type of player would be Howard
Lederer and Erick Lindgren.
Calling stations present an interesting playing style and are
the second most common type you’ll find in online poker. By
definition fairly weak, these players rarely take the initiative
and thereby have to rely on the luck of running up against an
aggressive player while holding the nut or near nut hand. More
often than not these people will lose because they are:
1) Playing their cards and not their opponent;
3) Regularly rely on card catching
strategies;
It’s worth pointing out at this stage that card catching is a
bad idea in almost any circumstances (except as part of a
semi-bluff play).
Maniacs are a rare breed of player seldom seen in low limit or
tournament Texas Holdem Poker games. They have no fear of
losing, indeed it’ll look like they want to, and it is this that
sets them apart from most players online today. Difficult to
play against, these opponents rely on your fear of losing your
stack to gain chips. Often seen with large chip stacks relative
to the table, Maniacs will bet large regularly, and whatever
hand you choose to play, it is likely that you will have to be
prepared to go all-in with it. No card catching against these
opponents – if you try you will be punished.
The identification of Maniacs is easy, as is your assault on
their playing style. Clearly the weakness these players have is
that they are susceptible to large pocket pairs (AA, KK, QQ,
even AK . The difficulty is that you will likely have to wait a
good number of cards before you get to play such a hand. Maniacs
are far from stupid (they often evolve in experience terms from
Rocks or Calling Stations that have read
Doyle Brunson’s
Super System books and progressed from there. To hit
them properly you have to either get lucky early on with the big
pair or play enough cards so you are not identified as a waiting
Rock ( obviously you don’t want them to get out of your way when
the time is right ).
If you beat an aggressive Maniac once, you’ll find they go on
Tilt really easily, which provides further opportunity for the
brave. I recall hitting one for $800 from $200 in 3 hands
because he went all-in 3 times in a row with no cards at all. He
incorrectly judged that I would fold rather than re-stake my
entire winnings on each of the next 2 poker hands. Fortunately
for me they were fairly solid starting hands in the
circumstances but I can tell you it’s not easy going all-in
pre-flop for $500 with just King Jack. I’d be mad to do that in
any other circumstance but I felt I had a good read on the
player type and his hand which turned out to be 92 unsuited
didn’t stand up.
Hopefully you’ll observe playing styles and look to pick off
Rocks and Calling Stations. If you come up against a tight (
particularly Tight Aggressive ) player, with no other easy to
beat players around, you should move on. I’ve been at many
tables where the poor players have lost and left, the good ones
remain, and one off those triggers the table’s break up by
saying “no easy money here, the only winner will be the rake,
lets move on." If you’ve not had this said to you, or you’ve not
made the statement yourself then consider that you may be a
fish.
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