Making reads on opponents

[saul9987]

I know this is key for all levels and forms of poker but its just kind of hard to develop reads in sngs and mtts online with multiple games going on at the same time and such, I was just wondering for some tips and categories to label people and what each category means as far as what someone is likely and not likely to do. Any help would be appreciated

[jackson_us5]

I basically try to categorize them first, these are mostly self explanatory like "calling station," but other ones I kind of made up, like "abc tag" is someone who is some thong like 19/14 in short handed and cbets almost every time heads up but shuts down if they have nothing then I try to pick up on tendencies and make a note on them, such as betting patterns with certain hands or boards (like how they play a draw vs. a set if there's a difference), how loose they call, etc. If you wanna track and analyze your opponents, define their game style, monitors their betting patterns then try using online calculator from Poker Pro labs. May be you can get some help.

[Mr.Fivestring]

I use poker tracker so that pretty much gives me all the info in varying degrees to make judgements but as a general rule I think there are three classifications that broadly define your everyday opponents, ( for full ring).

1) the really tight -- a vpip < 15% (amount of hands played) these people usually play quality starting hands and usually c-bet regardless and it is pretty easy to find out where you stand with a decent reraise or lead bet. Look to play good drawing hands against these opponents like pocket pairs looking for a set or suited connectors cause you can probably get paid off fairly easy when you hit and they have an overpair.

2) mid grade average -- vpip 15 to 30 difficult to read especially if consistently aggressive. play caustiously and value bet with good hands to keep them involved when your fairly confident.

3) ATC (any two cards) -- vpip above thirty Just wait for quality hands and value bet or set mine and hope to stack them. I often find myself thinking these people are so bad I should be able to beat them easily and that leads to me overplaying hands where I should know better, and losing to a bad kicker or something similiar.

[MJPerry]

Get PokerTracker and PokerAce HUD. That shit will change your life.

[PinkMisfit]

If you are able to play with certain people on a regular basis you will start to pick up on their strategies.

Things such as slow playing top pair or trips. Overbetting, underbetting and so forth. I do feel your more limited on what you can pick up on over the computer versus sitting across the table from someone.

Try to observe other players as much as possible.

[Steve-O]

The simplest classification is loose or tight, and passive or aggressive.

Once you have a general idea, than you can start getting more specific: Very tight/tight/semi-loose/loose/extremely loose: same for passive to aggressive.

Some other things to keep an eye on are if they are deceptive or strtaightforward, how they play specific hands and/or flops, do they always continuation bet, just to name a few.

Obviously, the more you play with someone the more detailed your notes should become.

[Shazz]

If a person changes his actions on every hand such as I do... Raise when I have a low pair of cards, or check on pocket kings etc.

No one can read me :D

[davidab157]

I know this is key for all levels and forms of poker but its just kind of hard to develop reads in sngs and mtts online with multiple games going on at the same time and such, I was just wondering for some tips and categories to label people and what each category means as far as what someone is likely and not likely to do. Any help would be appreciated

Start simple as steve says, classify someone as tight/loose (ie. do they play alot of hands) and aggressive/passive (do they bet/raise alot or call/check alot) and go from there.

Online it's easy to make notes on each person so if they play a set in a particular way or bluff in a specific spot it's worth noting down they have this tendency.

[kaSuha]

Get PokerTracker and PokerAce HUD. That shit will change your life.

Poker tracker has indeed changed my life...

I am a Senior at the University of Wisconsin and have been studying poker for a few years. I'm not an expert yet but i am an expert at software. If you really want to make money at this game you need to take it very seriously and understand all the mathematics.

Poker tracker 3 stores millions of hands from your opponents (download hands from websites such as HandHQ.com) into a database. Then you can analyze the way each individual plays. You can even find weak loose players using the software and then go to those tables and take there money.

So if you really want to win... Read all the poker books you can and master the following software programs.:

• Poker Tracker 3 Database Tracking

• Poker Heads Up Display (HUD)

• HandHQ – 600,000 Hands @ Full Title, Party Poker, etc. - $1/$2 BB

Hopes this helps you as much as it helped me.