Hi. Come on in. The summer heat has come to the Las Vegas valley. Let's take a dip in my pool and snack on some fresh fruits while we consider our beloved game of poker.
I've had a dozen requests from players new to the game about a brief comment I recently made, that poker is not a game of cards, but a game of people. OK, that fits right in with my series, "Some of the Many Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Playing Poker Many Years Ago."
You new players, and many who have not grasped this concept even though you've been playing the game for many years, must come to the realization that poker is a people game, played against other people, not against the casino. We use cards and chips only to keep score. In fact, poker is the only game in the casino in which your decisions, pitted against your opponents' decisions, have a direct influence upon your winning or losing. Therefore - there is no substitute for knowledge of your opponents. (Write that in blazing letters on the insides of your eyelids.)
There is no piece of playing strategy that I could give you that is more important. Your success at the game of poker will depend in large part on how much you take that fact to heart. Knowing as much as you possibly can about your opponents will tell you a lot about how to play against them. You obtain this knowledge by studying them.
You'll want to know with what types of hands they will raise, call, and limp in. Learning to play poker - that is, learning the strategy, rules, and such - is relatively simple. Getting inside your opponent's mind is more difficult.
What is his frame of mind? It might change tomorrow - or in an hour. What puts him on tilt? Does he have a strategy? What is it? Does he deviate from it consciously or when he's on tilt - and how far? Do his starting requirements differ from yours?
With specific knowledge about his game, you'll be able to play him to your advantage.
There is no substitute for knowledge of your opponents!
Notice and remember everything about an opponent and the way he plays, and why he plays - for fun, or for money. Is he gambling, or is he all tucked in, waiting for the nuts before he'll invest in a pot? When you know how an opponent tends to play, it's easier to put him on a hand because there are fewer possibilities to consider.
A good time to begin studying new opponents is when you are at the rail waiting for a seat. Study the players you haven't seen before. When you're on the rail for 20 minutes, you can gather much information about a player, and he has none about you when you sit down in his game. It's an easy way to get an edge on your competition.
Never stop studying your opponents - not today, not next week, not next year. You never can know too much about an opponent. What is the texture of the hands that you see him play? Is he a check-raiser? A slow-player? Will he raise with a drawing hand? Some players rarely bluff. Some raise on a whim. Some are very solid, selectively aggressive, well-disciplined, consistent winners (like my students). You need to know everything about everyone, so you need to "write a book" on each of your opponents.
Most players who keep a book on their opponents keep that book in their heads, but many poker players keep an actual written book on their opponents. When one of these players encounters a new opponent at the table, he starts a book on him. Talk comes easily around a poker table, so our "book writer" chats with the newcomer, learns his name and where he's from, and closely observes how he plays. Periodically, he'll walk away from the table and write notes about the new player in a small notebook he carries just for that purpose. When he goes home, he transfers his information into a larger notebook that he also takes with him whenever he goes to play.
Time goes by, and when our book writer finds himself in a game with a player whom he might have played against some months before during the visitor's long weekend stay in town, he steps away from the table and looks up Mr. Tourist ("Ray from Duluth") in his notebook and finds the information on how Ray plays.
If you play in any public poker room in America, you are in some of these "books." It might be a good idea to start writing some books of your own.
All of this swimming and considering has tired me out and I require repose. Take the rest of the fruit and kill the pool light on your way out.
Roy West, best-selling poker author, continues giving his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas for tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome.
