 As
soon as you sit down at
the poker table, you
should already be
evaluating how each of
your opponents play. The
more information you have
on your opponents, the
better the plays you can
make against them. You
can obtain information
about how your opponents
play by watching the
hands you are not
involved in. But what
information do you have
on other players at the
table if you are involved
in the very first hand?
If this is the case there
are a few things you can
look for that will give
you an idea about what
the players are like.
Stack Size
In cash games, you can
quickly spot who the
potential solid players
and potential weak
players are by looking at
the size of their stack.
Each cash game has a
maximum buy-in that is
typically 100 times the
Big Blind. Typically, the
likely solid players will
either be close to this
maximum buy in or above
it. This obviously cannot
apply to all players, as
some of the weak players
may have had a good run
of cards that allowed
them to increase their
stack above the maximum
buy-in. But this will usually be a decent indication of their ability.
Conversely,
the likely weak/poor
players will have a stack
size significantly below
the maximum buy in. This
is because the
recreational players are
comfortable with letting
their stack diminish as
play progresses, whereas
a winning player will
want to reload to the
maximum to give
themselves the best
opportunities to make
maximum profit on each
hand.
Online Player
Name/Alias
The alias or name of your
online opponents can also
be an indication of their
personality and
intentions from playing the
game. Many of the
‘sensible’ players
will simply use their
real name or possibly a
poker related name as
their alias. On the other
hand, the ‘less
sensible’ and
recreational players may
opt for the rude and
almost offensive names. Although
this is far from being a
solid indication of our
opponents’ styles of
play, it can be helpful
when we have little to go
on in regards to what our
opponents are like. We
can infer that the
players with
‘sensible’ names are
more likely to be solid
players whereas the
players with ‘less
sensible’ names may be
playing for fun as
recreational players.
Not Waiting For Big
Blind
As soon as you sit down
at a cash table, you are
not dealt a hand until
you have posted a big
blind. The big blind can
be posted at any time of
the rotation but it is
advised that you wait for
the actual big blind to
come to you before
playing a hand. This is
to save yourself from
seeing flops in
a bad position with a
hand that could
potentially lose you a
lot of money. Therefore
if you notice that other
new players at the table
are posting the big blind
before the actual big
blind gets too them, you
can assume that they are
anxious to get into the
game and play, and may
not be a solid player.
Calling The Blind,
Then Calling A Raise
This is the strongest
indication on how solid a
player at the table may
be. If you see a player
calling the initial big
blind, and then calling
again after a player
behind them has raised,
you can assume that they
are not an exceptionally
strong player. This is
for the reason that if
you have a hand that is
worth calling a raise
with, it is the far
better play to be the
raiser instead of calling
another players’ raise.
In addition, if a player
limps in, you can assume
that they have a marginal
hand or they are
slowplaying a monster.
Therefore as someone
raises behind them, if
they call you can assume
that they are calling a
raise with a marginal
hand because a player
with a monster starting
hand will usually
re-raise. This fact that
they are calling to see
flops with marginal hands
is enough information to
assume that the player is
weak and inexperienced in
playing winning poker. On the other hand, they
may still have a strong
starting hand even if
they do call both the big
blind and then the raise,
but are just passive
players. However, a solid
player will not be this
passive so you can safely
assume again that they
are not that great to be
simply calling with
strong starting hands.
Evaluation
It
should be stressed that
the above advice on analyzing your opponents style is not always going to be concrete evidence about
how your opponents play.
You may come across a
player with an extremely
childish name and not
waiting for the big blind
as he sits down, but at the same time is a very strong player. Therefore you
should not rely solely on
these reads to gauge the
strength of your
opponents, but to simply
help influence your
decision on how they play
when you have little else
to go by.
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