Establishing Your Poker Player Profile

When it comes to establishing your own poker player profile it is best to be adaptable. The more you change your tactics and strategies when playing, the harder time the other players will have at figuring out what your next move will be. A player who is adaptable is exceptional, as he or she can outwit all of their opponents when the stakes are high.

Of course, becoming a master of profile changing isn’t something that comes naturally, and like everything else, takes practice and plenty of experience playing against, and studying others. To help you with this task here are some tips to keep in mind on your quest to become a great player:

Don’t be afraid to fold - The best poker players in the world fold when they know their hand just won’t cut it. Folding doesn’t make you less of a player, on the contrary it shows that you know how to keep your chips.

Don’t study and try to outwit only one player - In online poker, most of the people you play against at a table won’t be there for long. Therefore, this strategy can prove to be a waste of your time if you constantly have to face new players.

Keep your emotions in check - If you are feeling upset or frustrated it would be best if you called it a day and calm down before attempting to play again. Negative emotions cause you to become distracted, and distractions cause your mind to wonder, allowing the other players to walk all over you.

Don’t fall into a routine – You may find that you are extremely comfortable with one strategy, but falling into a routine of using only one technique will turn you into a straight player, allowing others to gain a good idea of what your next moves will be.

Don’t become too comfortable – If you find that you are comfortable with the way you play, it’s time for you to improve your skill and try something new. Comfort is a sign of laziness, which can cause you to remain at one level, limiting your potential as a player and winner.

Keep your mind open for new ideas – Advice and a few pointers never hurts anyone, as it could be the one tip you need to progress your abilities. You can always learn something. Therefore, whether you get a tip from a professional, a book, a friend or even a kid, show your gratitude and don’t forget to return the favour whenever the opportunity presents itself. Being a good poker player is knowing how to think and act for yourself. So trust your instincts, learn to be flexible, and give it all you’ve got!

Game Selection in Poker

A lot of players feel that game selection happens to be one of the most important aspects to increase your chances of winning poker. It is also a concept which is highly overlooked by the players. There is a saying coined by one of the professional players which says that you do not need to be the best poker player, all you need to be is better than the rest on the table. Given a choice, you must pick the game which would be beneficial to you.

Try and evaluate the skills of the players around you, since if you are in the game with tight aggressive players, you wouldn’t be able to accumulate a larger pot. On the other hand, a few calling stations on the table would ensure that there is a lucrative pot amount. At any point, if you feel that you would be outmatched by the other players on the table, then you must look around for a different table. Simply put, game selection would prove to be a big factor to decide your winnings or losses.

We have already discussed the types of players in the last few posts and it is imperative for the players to identify their opponents. Therefore the game you choose would depend on the type of players sitting on that table. More often than not, you would come across a mixture of players; however there would be times when you would find a majority of the players with the same gaming type.

Showdown Poker

Such a game happens when there are more players calling in the game. it also happens to be a loose game where a lot of players would be seeing the flop and most of them would end up calling to the river. The term ‘showdown poker’ refers to the fact that you would have to show down the best possible hand in the end. There are no chances of a bluff in this game.

Wild Games

Wild games usually consist of a lot of loose aggressive players. They would want to cap the betting prior to the flop and continue betting even after the flop. Such a kind of game is likely to generate huge fluctuations in the bankroll. You would have to tighten the game, more than the normal games and wait for the premium hands to play big. Such a way, you wouldn’t be playing many hands, but chances of a win on the premium hands are huge. These kinds of games usually involve the younger lot and if you feel uncomfortable with the variations, you can choose another table.

Tight Games

Tight games involve a lot of tight players; therefore you would see smaller pots, since there are very few players involved in each hand. The players here would be extremely picky about their hand and would do a lot of checks looking for the free card, if they happen to be on the draw. Bigger bets can drive them away from the game. If there is a tight passive game, then you can loosen up a bit since you can see the flop at a cheap bet. Bluffing techniques would work in such games.

Reading Your Poker Opponents

We have seen some players and watched poker tournaments, where expert players read their opponents as if they were psychic. It is actually the skill that separates the professional players from the average players. Reading the hands of your opponents is one of the key skills, which need to be developed so that the players would succeed in the higher limit tournaments and games.

A Vital Skill

Reading your opponents to identify their cards is part psychology or part science or part art. This is not an easy skill to conquer and therefore not many players can ideally do it. It takes patience and hard work to develop these reading skills. It also requires you to pay attention during the game, even if you aren’t a part of the hand.

Reading the Board

One of the first skills a player must become skilled at is to read the board, so as to identify the best possible hand. You also need the aptitude to identify all the possible combinations made from the board cards. It is then required to recognize how your hand stacks up amongst all the possible hands. You cannot figure out the hand of your opponents if you do not know the possible combinations on the board.

Narrowing the Hands

You must analyze your opponent’s action in each betting round. Whether they raise, call, or fold would always tend to influence your decision. Use logic to help understand why they have played the game, based on the information that you’ve just observed. You would then have to work backwards from the current point and look at all the preceding action which was prevalent in the previous betting rounds so as to narrow down your conclusions. You would accumulate more information as the game unfolds.

Start a Checklist

The best ways to read other players is to make a check list to size up all the players during the game. There are a few questions that the players would have, based on their gaming strategy. Collect information from the other players as to how many hands they are playing and what cards were shown in the end. Also the position of their hands in the game along with their raises or flops would help you nail down their style of play. Find out if the player is actually bluffing or has premium cards in the hand. There are a few opponents who either bluff or semi-bluff at specific points in the game and catch your opponents doing this.

Mastering “Check and Call” In Poker

It has been observed that all the poker experts would recommend a tight and aggressive kind of play. Playing tight aggressive would mean that two things, first you are required to be choosy about all the hands that you play and you are also required to play aggressive on the hands that you do. Such behaviour is apparent in betting and raising, not only for the premium hands but also with the normal strong hands.

Tight aggrieve play would lead the other players to believe that you are choosy about the hands you play and at the times when you bet and raise, they would automatically fold, even if they have stronger combinations. Tight aggressive players are known to raise or fold, but they would never call. They have a mental attitude where a raise is better than a call. A majority of the poker champions are tight aggressive players; however there are a few loose-passive players as well.

Loose passive style is exactly the opposite of the tight aggressive play, and these kinds of players do not match up with those tight aggressive players in the tournaments. Loose players are also referred to as the ‘calling stations’, since they have a greater tendency to check and call. Checking and calling is not one of the winning strategies in poker. However, the expert poker players would like to be in control all the time and would put the opponents in defence. Loose passive style should never be mistaken as a losing strategy, since if it is played properly, it could yield more profits.

It would make perfect sense to check and call against the tight aggressive players. For the most part, the tight aggressive players would engage in a lot of bluffing and they often bet their bankroll. It would be ideal to allow your opponents do the bets and you must bet out. If you are playing against someone whom you have dominated successfully in the past, a check would leave the opponents folding if you tend to declare that you have a stronger hand. You are eligible to get a free card if you decide to check and call at the time of a flop. This would lead to some more thinking by the opponent and hence will give you a chance to bluff, if there is a score card on the board.

Checking and calling is a good strategy, especially when it comes to slowing the play with a bigger hand. The key is to know when to use the check and call strategy, since this would generate better profits as compared to bet and raise.

Tips on Playing a Loose Table

When it comes to poker, there are two kinds of loose tables, the loose aggressive and the loose passive, depending on the type of players on these tables. A loose aggressive table would usually consist of less number of players, with all of these who like to raise money, prior to bringing an end to the game. As far as the loose passive table is concerned, it would consist of a larger number of players, who usually fold before the flop. There are different strategies for different kinds of tables; however it would be important for you to recognize the various kinds of tables.

When it comes to the loose table with the passive players, you must have a game plan which is reliant on the timidity of every player to call a raise just before the flop. There is a random distribution of the hands, where some of the players would limp in and some of the players would want to raise and call. The basic nature of the passive player is to raise and call all the time, which is why you need to be alert and play in accordance to your cards. There are very little chances of any player calling a re-raise on the passive tables.

If you happen to have a premium hand, it would be ideal to call for a raise. Such a way, the other players on the table are not scared away from the big pot. Also, keep in mind that you should not raise too high, or else you might get cut by the other players. Try and set a size for the bet, since this would allow you to slowly build the pot sum. While playing at a passive table, you would be playing a lot of hands where some of them would be winning and some of them would be losing. These hands are excellent when it comes to the multi-way pots, however with passive players, you cannot win large amounts of money.

Loose Aggressive tables are completely opposite. Here, there are only small pair hands being played at the time when you close the bet. The last person to usually call the bet would be you, prior to the flop. Ensure that the hands are folded, since there is a potential risk of raises and re-raises. Just like the passive tables, the aggressive players would play only the premium hands, however here the intention is to build the money into the pot. The aggressiveness of the players on the loose table would decide your move as soon as the table flops. The strategy of the flop also depends on such a factor. Winning on the loose table would entirely depend on your skills and strategies employed by you as well as the reaction of the opponents.

Tight Aggressive Vs Loose Aggressive Play in Poker Tournaments

It is always assumed that you must adopt the Tight Aggressive style of approach, at the time of playing poker games. With this conception, most of the players across the world use such a strategy. Even though Tight Aggressive Game or the TAG might seem like the best strategy in no-limit games, it is not the ideal tactic to employ, especially if you are playing bigger tournaments or Sit-N-Go games.

One of the most common strategies known by the advanced players is to adopt a style which is opposite to your opponents’ style. Now since majority of the players are using the TAG approach, it would be suggestive to add some Loose Aggressive elements to the game. This would give a new dimension to the game and you would often leave your opponents guessing, since it involves playing different varieties of hands.

A lot of the experienced players would suggest that you cannot stick to just one style of play for a longer duration. If you adopt the TAG style, you would eventually become fairly predictable and therefore your opponents would figure out that you are playing only premium hands. Such a way, you would be bluffed a lot more and hence you would not get paid even with the monster hands. To overcome such a problem, you must effectively mix your play, so as to keep the opponents wondering about your strategy. These are the steps towards building a strong tournament approach. It wouldn’t be necessary to completely move to LAG style; however you can add some key elements and see a major improvement in your games.

To elaborate more on the Loose Aggressive approach, here the players would call and raise larger number of hands, with the sole intention of outplaying the opponent holding the stronger hand. Such LAG players are highly alert and would often back down as soon as there is some sort of retaliation or resistance. Such a player is also likely to send semi-bluff into the pots and would easily take over opponents who are weak or cannot call.

The LAG approach would easily exploit the aggressive players in the game. The LAG strategy is focussed towards obtaining more chips into the pot from those players who otherwise call only on premium hands. No Limit Cash Games would allow you to sit through for longer periods of time without calling; however the scenario is different when it comes to Sit-N-Go tournaments. There are antes and blinds which continuously affect the bankroll and therefore you are required to make your moves constantly. If you choose to add the LAG elements in the game during the start of the play, then there are chances that you would be able to save some chips till you come across some frenzied circumstances during the later parts of the game. LAG approach would allow you to pick up loads of smaller pots, without much resistance involved.