Tags:
Advanced, Beginners, Intermediate, Poker Clinic, Psychology
What’s more, if you pay attention to what tilting and weak players say you can gain knowledge of their game and make it even easier to take their chips.
Here are three key quotes you’ll often see thumped into a chat box and what they might tell you about the mood and mindset of the player who typed them…
1) ‘I hate Aces. I should throw them away preflop.’
This fish has usually just lost a huge pot with Aces after getting called preflop, betting a dangerous board and calling all-in for a big shove on the turn when a card bringing the straight and flush has arrived. They could be beating something but that something is likely to be air. Nobody hates Aces – even Doyle Brunson still gets a little excited when he sees the pocket rockets – but nothing is bullet-proof. This kind of player can’t lay down a hand, especially a big pair, so you should be value-raising/shoving two-pair hands and better.
2) ‘I knew you had [insert your hand here].’
No, this player did not know you had middle pair with an open-ended straight draw from the flop onwards, otherwise it would not have taken him almost his entire time bank to convince himself that his top pair, medium kicker was good. This is a player who, when unsure of his hand, considers calling, considers folding, but doesn’t consider how the hand has played out up to this point. Eventually he just shrugs and clicks the ‘Let’s see how I’m beaten’ button before celebrating his inability to fold by falsely claiming he knew what cards you had. This is not a player to bluff. He is, however, a good player to make thin value bets against when you have a good read on his hand.
3) ‘I can’t believe you called with that crap.’
You called a 3x raise with Ah-5h preflop against a fellow deep-stack and called a further pot-sized bet on a 4h-6d-8s flop with a gutshot, backdoor flush and, very importantly, position. The turn gives you the flush draw, which you end up hitting on the river. The player calls a very hefty bet on the river before berating the call you made on the flop that allowed you to catch runner-runner for a flush. You can assume this player has a very ABC approach to the game and is unlikely to get out of line very often. Playing in position behind him will be very profitable as he’ll play his hand face-up and thinks you’re the huge fish. Perfect!
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