Learning how to read your opponents can be a game changer in poker. This involves studying everything from your opponent’s facial expressions and body language, to their betting patterns.
You will never know exactly what your opponent has, but if you watch closely you can narrow down their range.
Non-Verbal Cues
A solid poker table reading strategy involves paying close attention to non-verbal cues that give away something about an opponent’s hand strength and strategy. Examples of these are facial expressions or posture, such as whether they fidget or avoid eye contact.
Watching their eyes will also reveal hints at the strength of their hands. Players who are confident may continuously reach for chips or shuffle them around, while nervous players might tap fingers or squirm in their chairs.
Once you have taken mental notes of all of this information it becomes much easier to draw an overall picture of each player’s style. Some common ones include loose aggressive, calling station, and maniac. If you know what type of player you are against it is easier to predict what actions they may take in certain situations.
Betting Patterns
Betting patterns can help you make reads like a pro in poker. If you’re up against an experienced player who has access to a hand history database then analyzing bet sizes becomes crucial. To avoid giving off obvious tells vary up your actions and use an even sizing range.
Unlearning the pattern that each player falls into will also help you assess the strength of their hands better. For example a player who checks the flop consistently when they have Ace-King or Top Pair could probably be assumed to have a strong hand here.
Players with this betting pattern tend to play aggressive pre-flop and continuation bet on turns after being called with many other fade-offs on rivers if their hand is weak – not hard to spot if paying attention!
Verbal Tells
When learning how to read opponents beginners often wonder about how to read opponents in poker. While tells are not always accurate, they can give some insight into the tendencies of your opponent. Verbal signals can often give away a lot about an opponent’s hand without giving anything away physically.
Players who have played a live poker game before know that people will make small talk during each hand discussing strategy or just talking to distract you. However it is important for these players not to say anything that could end up giving details about their hands away.
Understanding the way in which they play in certain situations is key to finding out whether they are strong/weak and bluffing/value betting so study hard – everyone has their own patterns depending on the situation.
Intuition
Having intuition is a massive part of being good at poker, it allows you to understand what other players are thinking and make decisions that will increase your chances of winning hands. However it should be remembered that this should never be relied upon solely as if you did this every time you would lose everything in no time.
Lauren is living proof that intuition prevails. After school, she listened to her gut and joined the military. It’s given her opportunities to travel and learn skills she didn’t know existed. When you apply this to poker, you can recognize betting patterns and evaluate how strong an opponent’s hand is by looking at the way they bet and their speed in doing so – it also helps when spotting a bluff (if there is one) which would give you an advantage while playing online poker!
