Being able to play the player is the essence of winning poker. Good players win more with their good cards and lose less with their bad cards, and one of the key ways they do this is by adjusting to the players they are facing. Poker isn’t played against computer programmes with a consistent set of responses – it’s played against other people. Each of them is different, with different tendencies, moods, levels of thought and ways of reacting to your actions. To take a simple example, say a player has open-raised under the gun and you hold a pair of Tens. Are you ahead or behind the range of hands he’s holding? Against a regular aggressive player you may be clearly ahead but against a nitty super-tight player you may be getting crushed by his narrow selection of starting hands.
Good players also understand that their opponents are not machines and react to their situation. Your specific history with an opponent is very important in how you should play them. For example, they may be a player who plays weak-tight and can’t make big call-downs with marginal hands. However, if you’ve bluffed that player twice recently in big pots he will remember that and be far more likely to call you with a weaker hand.
It’s also important to realise that players’ performance varies. When players are tired, and particularly when they are losing, they may start to play badly. If a player is tilting and playing really badly you should take advantage of this by adjusting your game, being prepared to enter the pot against them much more often and making big call-downs against them. If you’re not making these adjustments and always playing the same hands the same way you’re leaving money on the table.
Thinking is the key
Of course this is a balancing act, and playing your hands for value is still going to be the main source of winning chips at the table. It’s very easy to convince yourself that the super-aggressive loose player is making another big bluff and call with a marginal hand only to be shown the nuts. The key is to gather knowledge on each individual opponent and use that to inform the range of hands you put him on. That way you can balance your poker fundamentals with the human side of the game.
Player types
In cash poker it’s super important to be able to quickly and efficiently work out how your opponents are playing. By matching them up with one of the following playing styles you’ll be able to beat them up all day long.
-
Tight-aggressive players, aka TAGs
These players use a style that the vast majority of winning players employ. They play tight, which means they don’t play too many starting hands, but they also play aggressively when they do enter a pot. This means that when they’re involved in a pot they often have the lead and are often asking the questions of other players. There are good and bad players using this style, so look at the decisions they make in order to assess how well they’re playing. TAGs can often be exploited because they play in a predictable fashion – for example a non-thinking TAG will always continuation-bet, so can be exploited by raising on the flop a lot.
-
Loose-aggressive players, aka LAGs
These players used to be very rare but have become more common in recent years. They play loose, meaning they play more hands than average, maybe even more than is optimally correct. They also play aggressively, so they try to take the lead in the betting. Good LAGs will often be very dangerous opponents. Look at their decisions in big pots to assess how well they play. Exploit them by playing premium hands against them and widen your calling range so they can’t move you off hands.
This category covers a lot of losing and recreational players. They may play loose or tight, but whichever it is they don’t play aggressively enough, often opting to call rather than raise or take the lead in hands. They also find it extremely difficult to fold hands if there is any chance they could be winning. You should be seeking these droolers out, as they are easy to play and exploit. Simply don’t bluff them very often and make sure you value-bet them to death by widening the range of hands you value-bet and increasing the size of your bets to make them pay the maximum. Take them to Value Town!
These guys play a tonne of hands and play super-fast and recklessly loose. They like to gamble and make moves against opponents, seemingly getting off on the thrill of making monster bluffs. They can be dangerous opponents but they can also be a huge source of profit. You must be prepared to stack off lightly against them or don’t play them at all. Look to reraise them and isolate them but also to call them down with very marginal hands.
A lesson from Tom Dwan
Let’s look at an example of that classic poker concept, ‘playing the player not the cards’. This hand was played between Barry Greenstein, 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate and internet phenomenon Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan. We’re going to focus on durrrr’s play in the hand and how he plays the players to absolute perfection at the highest stakes.
(Hand starts at 4:35)
Before the flop Greenstein raises from under the gun. Dwan knows Greenstein’s been playing tight and is confident that from early position with aggressive players behind him he is playing a strong range of hands. Backing his knowledge of the player he decides to enter the pot with Qc-Tc. He doesn’t reraise as this would give Greenstein the chance to four-bet a very strong hand.
Almost everyone else at the table then enters the pot behind him. The 2c-Td-2s flop actually gives Peter Eastgate trips with his 4h-2d. Greenstein leads out and Dwan immediately decides to raise with top pair. This is a pure bluff as he knows his hand is behind Greenstein’s range, however he’s confident he can get Barry to lay down an overpair and knows the Ten in his hand makes it highly unlikely Greenstein has pocket Tens.
The action folds round to Eastgate who cold calls with his trips. The problem for him is that this effectively turns his hand face-up. After all what else could he cold call with here? Barry also decides to call.
The turning point
On the turn Peter and Barry both check. Dwan thinks before deciding to bluff. His knowledge of Peter Eastgate is crucial at this point. He’s been able to beat up on Eastgate in this session and has also seen Eastgate check down a hand he should probably have value-bet. He knows Peter hasn’t played in this big a cash game before, that he has bought in too deep and is now playing a little scared. He may also have picked up that Peter’s body language when calling on the flop wasn’t confident. The question he has to answer is can he get Eastgate to lay down his trips which, at this point, he almost certainly holds. His raise on the flop shows he already thinks he can get Barry to lay down an overpair. After more thought he decides to bluff the turn. His read of both players turns out to be right and they both fold the better hand.
The fascinating thing to ask yourself is do you think durrrr could have fired the river if Eastgate had called? We’ll never know because his knowledge of Peter Eastgate and Barry Greenstein as players was so good in this situation that he scooped the $133,500 pot on the turn.