A lot of you may not know the name and face that accompany this column. I'm better known in the online poker world as Rizen, online professional poker player. I'm a dedicated professional and student of the game. In May, I won the PokerStars $1 million-guaranteed tournament for more than $156,000. During the summer, I entered four events at the
World Series of Poker and managed to cash twice for more than $600,000, including third place for almost $105,000 in pot-limit hold'em event No. 3 and 24th place for more than $497,000 in the main event. I also have written numerous columns for PocketFives.com and am a guest instructor at PokerXFactor.com. I really believe I'm just a regular guy with a passion for poker who has been able to parlay that into success at the tables by spending a lot of time analyzing and thinking about the game. When I write columns, make instructional videos, or teach students, my goal is always to get people to not only learn how to play various hands from various positions, but to truly learn how to think like a poker player. With that in mind, let's talk poker.
One thing that we are taught over and over again, be it from books, coaches, videos, or forums, is to constantly be the aggressor. "Attack weakness," we're always told. Another common phrase is, "Make sure you win the pots nobody else wants." One of the core problems with this is that aside from knowing that we need to be the aggressor, we don't really know how to spot weakness in the first place, and when we do spot it, we often don't know how or why to attack it.
One thing I want to warn you about before I go too much further with this is that you must be paying attention to the table in order to exploit weakness. Good players know how to mix up their game and disguise strength as weakness, and vice versa. You must know your opponent well enough to be able to tell if his actions indicate real weakness or disguised strength.
There are really two types of weakness that you need to be able to spot. There is obvious weakness, when your opponent makes no attempt to hide the fact that he is weak. There is also disguised weakness, when your opponent tries to hide how weak he is by pretending to be strong. I'll discuss more obvious signs of weakness first.
Preflop, there is the limper. Limping on its own doesn't necessarily signify weakness. In fact, a limp from early position can be quite strong. That being said, if someone is limping after the first two people have folded, I consider it a sign of weakness. Beginning or unsophisticated players are often doing this with exactly the types of hands you think they'd limp with: smallish/medium pocket pairs, medium suited connectors, or weak Broadway hands like J-10 and Q-J.
OK, we've got a middle- or late-position limper; how do we exploit him? If the stacks are deep, you can often raise from position to isolate the weak player. I prefer to do this from the button, cutoff, and two off the button, and not try to exploit these players from middle positions, as then I can often run into a real hand. For this column, I'm assuming that we're exploiting the player because he is weak, not because we have a real hand. If we have a real hand, we're obviously raising for value, and this all doesn't matter as much. With the range of holdings just mentioned, sometimes the player will fold, but often, if you make a raise of something like four times the big blind to isolate him, he'll call, hoping to hit a flop hard and get your entire stack.
So, for argument's sake, let's say your opponent calls your bet. What are you looking for? Ideally, you're looking for flops with either lots of high cards or a good mixture of cards (K-8-2 rainbow). You're going to continuation-bet most flops, though, since his range of hands is such that he usually either hit it hard or missed completely, and you're often playing this hand only to exploit that he's going to miss most of the time (or not hit the flop hard enough to easily call).
Watch out for low, coordinated flops. A flop like 7-6-5 with two of a suit would really scare me, as that often connects with an opponent's middle-pair, middle-connector holdings. Sometimes on the scarier flops, I'll make a delayed continuation-bet (that is, check behind on the flop and bet the turn when checked to). A weak player is often a great source of chips by playing this way, because he will continuously limp-call and fold on the flop, believing that once he hits, he'll make all of his money back. He won't, though, because you're making a play on him and will fold when he shows strength.
Post-flop, the most common type of obvious weakness is the weak lead. This is when someone makes a bet of less than half the pot size. Good players will often use the weak lead to entice action with their big hands, but bad players often do it because they believe they have a decent hand or because they raised preflop and think they have to bet something, but they are scared, so they don't want to bet a lot.
Attacking this type of weak play differs depending on who the preflop aggressor was, as well as position. With position, if you were the preflop aggressor, the weak lead from your opponent often means that he got a piece of the flop but isn't confident enough to check-raise you. A decent-sized raise on the flop will often take down the pot, as he will convince himself that you must have a monster if you raised preflop then raised him again on the flop. If he was the preflop raiser, the same line often works, too, as your opponent often believes that since he raised preflop, he has to bet, but he is afraid enough of the flop not to make it a strong bet.
When out of position, you can check-raise in an attempt to take the pot down right there. Another way to vary your game is to check-call and see if he will fire a second bullet on the turn. Many weak players aren't capable of doing this, so you can often steal the pot with a river bet. This calling strategy works when in position, as well, and can be a very powerful move against players who will take one stab at the pot but not two.
Then there are the disguised forms of weakness. Preflop, this usually includes raising from a steal position. Restealing from these players is very read-dependent, and it requires you to be paying attention to the table. There are a lot of preflop stealers who will fold when reraised (assuming the stacks are deep), and there are others who will call with almost anything they raise with. I try to categorize players as I play with them, based on their preflop strength of play and aggression and post-flop strength and aggression. If a person is a poor post-flop player, I'll often smooth-call and look to take the pot away later, but if he's strong post-flop, I'll often reraise and try to take the pot down right there, particularly if I believe he's getting out of line. If you're dealing with a player who hardly ever raises, don't assume his raise is weak, even from a steal position.
Post-flop, the most common type of disguised weakness is the overbet. Again, I caution you that good players will overbet their good hands sometimes to look weak, but average players often do it to discourage calls. Before deciding to try to exploit an overbet that you perceive as being weak, make sure that you look at the flop texture. Draw-heavy boards are more likely to get overbet with a real hand, as players attempt to protect their hands. Overbets on uncoordinated boards are more the type of plays we're looking to exploit. Again, how you attack them comes down to your read. Against some players who aren't capable of firing two bullets without a hand, you are better off calling and waiting to see if they can fire twice. Against players capable of firing twice, you'll want to raise to represent real strength. Mixing up your game and playing your opponents based on their strengths and weaknesses is of the utmost importance.
These are just a few of the more common forms of weakness that I see, but there are many more. As you play more, you'll learn to identify them and exploit them. One thing you'll notice is that I didn't talk about short-stack play. If you choose to attack weakness as a short stack, you're just pushing all in, be it preflop or post-flop. These plays often work, but when they don't, you can often look silly showing down garbage. If you're in the medium-stack range, you should be limiting how much you're attacking weakness without a legitimate hand. If you have a stack of around 10 times the size of the pot and you raise a middle-position limper and then continuation-bet the flop, you're often using close to half your stack on the play. While it may be profitable to do so, you can often use those chips better with your real hands later. Attacking weak plays is something that, when done right, works about 80 percent of the time for a small pot and doesn't work 20 percent of the time for a larger pot. Make sure that you can afford the chips that 20 percent of the time, or don't do it.
Also, when we're attacking weakness, it is a steal, and we must treat it as such. A steal doesn't become a value play because we hit middle pair, unless we hit a flop with two pair or better with our trashy hands (again, for this column, I'm assuming that we're attacking without real cards); it's still a steal. We've shown a lot of strength in the way we've played hands against the weaker players, and if they suddenly spring out of the woodwork, they've often hit their hand. If you're not disciplined enough to be able to lay down middle and even top pair with your raggy hands when you're trying to steal from a weak player, you're probably giving away any profits and more that you're making from your plays. A steal is a steal, and it doesn't become a value play unless you hit two pair or better.
Lastly (and probably most importantly), be selective. Use your table image and playing style to dictate how often you attack players who show signs of weakness. If you do it every time, it becomes obvious and exploitable. ("I'll limp with aces because this guy always raises me!") If you go card dead for a little while, use your tight image to pick up a pot. If you've been getting hit in the face with the deck, use your image of always playing good cards to pick up a few pots. Knowing how and when to do it is largely a "feel" thing, but you should be aware of how people at the table are reacting to you and adjust your game accordingly.
Until next time, best of luck at the tables.
Eric "Rizen" Lynch is a professional poker player who is well-known for his impressive online results. Read Eric's analysis on his blog
(rizenpoker.blogspot.com) and check out his instructional videos, available at PokerXFactor.com.
