Beat cash games 5

	Knowing how your opponents play and think is essential

We’ve arrived at episode five in this cash game series and it comes with my personal guarantee that it’s better than episode five (Episode II for the pedants out there) of Star Wars (‘around the survivors a perimeter create’ my arse). This month I’m going to look at playing the player.

Poker is not a game played in a textbook – it’s played against other people. Every opponent is different, with alternative ways of playing and thinking. Not only that, they’ll vary how they play depending on whether they’re winning or losing, if they’re a big stack or small stack. In fact they have only one thing in common – you want all of their chips.

The whole game boils down to knowing your players, thereby adjusting your play and using the right weapons to attack their weaknesses. When you assess a cash game, both online and live before or when you start playing, the first question you should try and answer is: where will my profit come from?

You should be aware of what type of game the table is playing – e.g. is there much preflop raising or many players limping? Who are the individuals and how are they playing? Who are the players to avoid and which ones are guaranteed to give you money? Are they calling stations or raising/bluffing maniacs and what money do they have in front of them? Remember, a lot of players will play differently – usually looser – when they’re winning or have a big stack. Put simply, if the worst players have big stacks and/or are playing loosely you want to play big pots with them – your edge being that you’ll be playing more solidly (holding better cards). But if the bad players are too tight you should be grinding out a lot of small pots, taking their chips with bets on the flop or on the turn after the flop has been checked.

Play the player

Knowing how your opponents play and think is essential in cash games. The faster you can do this the better; key indicators will be how many pots they’re playing, if they take notice of position, how aggressive they are, and the quality of the hands they’re showing down (see the 15- minute report tip right).

A lot of players play in fairly predictable patterns – beware the ones that don’t – and the sooner you can identify them the better. For instance, a lot of players will always bet small on the flop with a strong hand, then much bigger on later streets. Many players also have a very specific range of hands they raise pre-flop with.

Observation of betting patterns – when they bet and how much – is a vital skill. When you’re playing in a game but not in a hand try and guess your opponents’ hands – even reason out loud if you’re playing online – and see how close you can get at showdown. Of course, all of this observation means nothing unless you use it in your play. The key point to take on board is that there’s no one set way to play any hand. How you play your cards should be completely dependent on who else is in the pot. Let’s look at a couple of examples to show you some of the adjustments you should make.

In fairly low stakes games value betting is an important skill because many of your opponents will be calling stations. For instance, if you’re playing against someone who you know can’t lay down hands you should often bet out on all three streets. Let’s say you have A-K and flop top pair. At the river there are no obvious straights or flushes. Against a tricky opponent you might just check, but against a calling station you should be betting to extract the maximum number of chips, as they’ll often call with an inferior kicker.

Another type of player you’ll meet a lot are the weak/tight guys who are trying to play ‘correctly’ (whatever that means) and don’t play many hands but then give them up too easily. These are players you can push around.

For example, let’s say one of these guys opens the pot for a raise. You know this is only one of about six hands – A-K, A-Q or a big pair. If you’re sitting on the button and, crucially, both of you have big stacks it’s correct to call this raise with a huge variety of hands and certainly any hand with potential (e.g. connecting cards). Here you’re completely playing the player. You know his holding, so you have a great chance to make a big hard-tospot hand that will take the pot, or bully him on the flop or turn with the knowledge that he’ll lay hands like an over-pair down.

Image-conscious

When playing in any game you should always be completely aware of your image and how the other players in the game perceive you. This will change as the game goes on. If you’re winning; if you’ve shown a lot of bluffs; if you’ve shown some strong hands; or if you’re on a losing run – the perception others have of you is fluid. What’s more, it may be that one player has a certain image of you, whereas another has a different view depending on your interaction with them.

Whatever your image you’ll be able to adjust your play to take advantage of it. In a lot of low stakes games you’ll often be playing tight/solid poker. If you’ve played this way enough and shown down enough good hands your bluffing equity increases greatly meaning you can get away with some moves. In some low stakes games the calling stations are so committed to their way of life you’ll never get them to fold a hand, so in these games your ability to bluff will always be low. However, against players with some perception – particularly if you come up against someone else playing solid poker – you’ll have a greater ability to bluff.

By contrast if you’ve been playing a lot of pots aggressively you’ll have a very different image. The advantage of this style is that you’ll get paid on your legitimate hands when you have them. If this is the case make sure you play your good hands aggressively and don’t try and trap as your opponents may spot it.

Your recent history with a player is absolutely vital in your decision-making. You’re a human being with emotional reactions and so is your opponent. If you’ve just played two pots with him, bluffed him twice and showed him the bluffs while typing ‘Alan78 can’t even spell poker’, apart from expecting to be viewed as a bit of a tit you should also expect Alan to call you next time you play a hand.

It’s also the case that if you feel a player is beating you up you should consider taking a stand. For instance, if you’ve had to fold to a player two or three times because the hand or situation wasn’t right you should consider calling him down next time you play together, even if it’s a marginal hand. This is because there’s a greater chance he considers you weak and is bluffing, not to mention the fact that it’s important the table doesn’t view you as a weak player, otherwise you run the risk of getting pushed around for the rest of the game.

Fighting talk

Speech play is a dying art in poker thanks to online play and the banning of it in some cardrooms and TV-based tournaments. (Always make sure you know the rules in any cardroom before you start jawing away). By speech play I’m referring to clever jibes or comments made to induce a certain action in your opponent. Shouting ‘In your face/Who’s your daddy?/Kiss my face’, and other such insults, doesn’t quite qualify. But opportunities do exist to needle players in a cash game as you may be sitting with them for some time. You should realise that if you do needle or target a player it will usually make them more likely to call you more often, so make sure that’s what you want (Tony G is particularly good at this). This also applies if you start a chat war with someone online – they will want to play against you more and call you more – so make sure your play takes account of this.

This has only been an introduction to the art of playing the player. If you only take one thing from this article then remember, Attack of the Clones was bollocks. If you take two things, remember that how you play every cash game hand (and even whether you enter the pot or not) should depend on which individuals you’re playing against. Next month I’ll be combining everything examined so far as I take you through a cash game session.