Reading Opponents – Putting Players On A Hand
Being able to accurately put your opponents on a range of hands is an essential skill at the poker table, either in live play or online. Your ability to do this well in your game is one of the most important factors. However, qualifying your opponent’s hand is one of the more complicated aspects of the game to master. Here’s a quick start guide to get you on the road to reading opponent’s hands.
The most important factor in being able to read your opponents is paying close attention to the game, even when you’re not involved in a hand. Betting patterns and certain body language tells tend to be repeated over and over by many players, and learning to recognise these can give you a huge advantage. If an opponent plays out of his normal pattern, then you should stop and ask yourself why. Typically this means his hand is uncommon too, usualy indicating a moderately good, or rather weak hand which requires a decision.
Monitoring your opponent’s positional play will allow you to make solid assumptions about the potency of his hand. If he plays a lot of hole cards, his positional play won’t mean much, but if they are usually tight, solid hands from early position are the norm, loosening up to a wider range from later positions.
Always watch your opponent’s on the flop, not the board cards. Staring at the flop is often the result of his cards improving. Turning away, or a rapid check often means a potential draw or complete miss. However, if he raised preflop and aces or face cards land on the flop, be careful of a trap.
Keeping an eye on the pot and relative stack sizes is hugely important. A normally tight player who is prepared to risk a lot of chips usually means they are holding a strong hand. If he seems determined to keep the pot small, then the pot is potentially yours for just a bet. Loose players are harder to read in this case, and it’s more important for you to have a winning hand than to even anxiety trying to understand what they are playing.
Watch how the action changes according to what comes on the flop. Keep an eye on conviction that turns into apprehension, or the other way around. Run through qualifying your opponent’s hand before they turn it over. Again, you don’t have to be in the hand, but you do have to examine the flop and follow the betting action. Repeating this consistently will allow your estimation of hole cards to become quite exact, in fact over time you may really start to surprise yourself with how accurately you can read your opponents, and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with at the tables!
