What is a 'Typical' Player?

Many of the poker hands discussed in books and articles involve players about whom little, if anything, is known. It is assumed that they are strangers to you. The problem is that everyone has his own ideas about how a "typical" player plays. The reader often assumes a typical player plays the way he does. Others assume a typical player is like one of the players in their home game. I believe this is one of the reasons why there are often disagreements about how a particular hand should be played when it involves these typical players.

I would like to profile a typical $15-$30 or $20-$40 hold'em player who plays in the major casinos or card rooms in Las Vegas, where I live. I would modify this profile if I were playing in another part of the country, such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, or Mississippi. The typical player I have in mind is most often a tourist, but this same profile would apply to some of the locals.

This person has played a substantial amount of hold'em. He started at the lower limits and has moved up to the middle limits as his interest and financial condition improved over the years. Contrary to what he claims, he does not play to make money. Of course, he would like to do so, but he really seeks emotional stimulation and social interaction. He plays at the middle limits because the money is meaningful to him. He is not a student of the game. He may have a few books, but he does not study them. He occasionally reads a magazine article or two. His game has been formed and shaped primarily by his own personal playing experience. He can modify his play based on some knowledge of the other players, but he mainly plays his own cards. When he has a losing session, he tends to shrug it off as bad luck. He is not likely to ask anyone about how he should have played a particular hand. He may know roughly how much he has won or lost recently, but he doesn't keep long-term records. Overall, he is a reasonable player and will win or lose a small amount in the long term.

Let's get into the specific mistakes these players make. Preflop, they play too many hands. While their raises tend to be sound, they limp and cold-call raises on insufficient values. For example, suppose a decent player limps in from under the gun and everyone folds to him in middle position. He will call with a suited connector like the 7 6, or a small pocket pair like the 5 5, or two offsuit connectors like the 10 9, or any suited ace or king. Unfortunately, all of these hands require multihanded action, preferably in an unraised pot, to be profitable. When he plays this way, someone often raises after he calls, and only the limper and he call. Now he has paid two bets to play in a shorthanded pot with a hand that is getting insufficient drawing odds to be profitable. This is a big leak in his game.

Many of them like to play weak, offsuit aces. In general, these hands are good only for open-raising from late position when you are trying to steal the blinds. Nevertheless, it is quite common to see these players limp in with a hand like A-7 offsuit. They are hoping to flop a pair of aces and win, but the pot they win will often be miniscule. When they lose to a bigger ace or something better, they go through a stack of 20 chips. Occasionally, when they do have the better kicker, they get counterfeited and end up splitting the pot. One noted writer actually said that he preferred two offsuit wheel cards containing an ace over something like A-7 or A-6 offsuit because of the increased straight-making possibilities. This only lowers the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.

They frequently cold-call someone else's preflop raise with hands with which they would not dream of raising themselves. Suppose someone raises from early position and a middle-position player calls. If they are on the button, they will call with pocket fours, Q-10 suited, or K-J offsuit. The small pocket pair and the suited one-gapper need volume and a cheap entry fee to be profitable. Add a few more players and calling with these hands would be justified. Two big, offsuit, one-gap cards are poison, since they are quite likely to be dominated regardless of how many other players come into the hand.

Post-flop, their play is generally reasonable. Once the flop comes, many of their betting actions should be either folding, betting, or raising – but they call too much. They like to take off cards when the pot odds are simply not there. Here is an example: Our hero gets a free play in the big blind with something like 7-4 offsuit after two players, including the small blind, limp in. The flop comes A-6-4 with a two-flush. The small blind bets. Our hero is unsure about whether or not his hand is any good, but he has a pair. He thinks that maybe the small blind is betting a draw or simply trying to steal the pot. Since he doesn't know what to do, he calls. But he is really getting only 4-to-1 pot odds when he may have five outs (an 8- to-1 shot). I think the pot is too small to bother with, and folding is right. But if he thinks his hand is good, raising is much better. The one extra bet will most likely drive out the third player and give him some leverage over the bettor. Once in a while, the bettor may even fold. But just calling is the worst option since it invites the other player in. He is also just setting himself up to be bet out of the hand on the turn unless he improves.

Here is another, more flagrant, example. Our hero was in the big blind with the 3 3. An early-position player raised and five players called, including the small blind. Of course, he called, since he was getting pot odds to flop a set. The flop was 6 5 4. The small blind bet. Our hero thought for a while and called. He later folded on the turn when a big club came and it was bet. I asked him afterward why he called the flop bet. His reasoning was that he had a straight draw, and the pot was large. He also thought that if no one had a deuce or a 7, a set of threes might win. If the 3 arrived, he argued that he would have redraws against a flush. He went on to talk about how it might not get raised on the flop, or that the turn may not get bet, giving him a free ride to the river.

These players check-raise only when they have a strong hand, and they usually wait for the turn to do so. This makes it very easy for their opponents to know where they are. It also costs them money when the turn doesn't get bet.

When they catch a big hand on the flop, they almost always slow-play regardless of the texture of the board, the size of the pot, or the number of opponents. They frequently win a much smaller pot as a result.

At the river, they leave a lot of money on the table because they simply check it down when they have the best hand. They will be betting something like top pair, top kicker all along against one or two opponents, and then will check the river when a blank arrives. This is especially bad when they are checked to by their opponent(s) and they still won't bet the river. They have these silly ideas like, "The pot is big enough," or, "I don't want to pay off a check-raise and risk two bets to win one," and so forth. They will get paid off more often than they think. Furthermore, even when they are not called, players notice that they won a good pot without showing anything down. If it happens several times, they will likely get called down on future hands.

Although they get off some hands early, overall, they pay off too much. A hand came up the other day in the Mirage $40-$80 game. A local, known to be a very tight, straightforward, and unimaginative player, raised from under the gun in this ninehanded game. Another local on the button called with K-J suited after two other players had called. The blinds folded and the flop came K-8-2 rainbow with none of the button's suit. The preflop raiser bet, the other two players folded, and the button called. The turn and river were blanks, and the button simply called all the way. He paid off to A-K. From the flop on, he lost $200. But suppose that he raises the flop bet. If he gets three-bet, he can call and then fold when the turn gets bet. Now, he loses only $120. If his raise is just called, he can then fold when the turn gets bet, thereby losing only $80. If he is checked to on the turn, he can bet and fold if check-raised, which results in a loss of $160. Finally, if his turn bet is called, he can simply check it down at the river, again incurring a loss of $160. There are probably numerous other scenarios in which he could have avoided losing as much money as he did.

In closing, these players frequently do well in the games back home. This is because their opponents play a lot like they do. They manage to win some money in their local games because there are plenty of truly bad players present who are simply giving away their money. But when they play in a major poker center like Las Vegas, they struggle to break even. Some of them leave town big losers, convinced that they were just unlucky.

Jim Brier has co-authored a book with Bob Ciaffone titled Middle Limit Holdem Poker. It is available through CardPlayer.