Most people sit down at the poker table ready to play. They thought about the game on the way to the cardroom, maybe they waited for a while before they got called for their game, they have their chips, and they are ready to go. They probably even gave themselves a quick pep talk about playing good hands, but the chips feel pretty good and action and winning await.
This common feeling leads to countless poker discussions in which a common sentence is, "I just sat down, and I don't know how these people play." To me, this one of the saddest phrases in poker. Winning at poker requires that you make excellent decisions, and to make them, you must know how your opponents play. But how can you know how they play if you have never seen them before?
The answer is to watch them play before you post or take a hand (if you are in a game that does not require posting, look at your free hands; I will discuss how to play these hands in a later column). Do not post; watch!
How much can you learn by watching one round of play? Plenty. Let's play at an imaginary table and see how it may go.
You get called to the table and sit down in what would be the cutoff seat. You give some cash to a chip runner, who departs. The dealer looks at you expectantly and routinely asks if you want to post. Taking my advice, you don't want to, but you also don't want to look tight. So, you say, "I like to wait until my chips get here," or, "I have to find my lucky quarter first. I never take a hand until I get my lucky quarter out and rub it a bit," or, "I have to go tell my friend where I am sitting." Of course, you can also just say, "No, thanks," which works great, but if you think you need an excuse, there are plenty of them.
In the first hand, several players fold to a late middle-position player, who raises. The rest fold to the big blind, a smallish man chomping on an oversized cigar, who calls. The flop is J
9
5
. The action goes check, bet, call. The 6
comes on the turn. Check, check. The K
falls on the river. After the big blind checks, the preflop raiser turns over the A
10
. Cigar man takes down the small pot with the 7
5
.
OK, that's just one hand. While you have not learned anything you can take to the bank, you can draw a surprising number of preliminary conclusions. You will continue to validate and refine them over the entire session, but it makes sense to get started right away. You can categorize these tentative findings into three areas: the overall game, the raiser, and the big blind.
As to the game, it seems pretty tight. There are no maniacs, at least in the first few positions. No one limped in early. Of course, everyone could have had a terrible hand, and more hands will fill in more blanks, but so far, you should be inclined to respect raises, at least from the early-position players on this hand.
How about the raiser? He bet the flop and checked the turn. Many players would have bet the turn, hoping their lone opponent was weak and willing to fold, or on a draw, so that A-10 was the best hand. The fact that he did not bet means he probably needs some values to bet the turn in a similar situation. If you play against him and he does bet the turn, you should more inclined to lay down a marginal hand.
He also failed to bluff the river when an excellent bluffing card hit. Now, you can't tell whether his failure to bet was that he simply does not like to bluff or that he has played with this opponent before and knows that he loves to call the river - and maybe both. But, without more information, you should be more inclined to trust this player's river bets.
Because he played so cautiously, you should begin to add him to your "possibly bluffable" list. Would he have called a bet on the river from a worse hand? You don't know; he may be a timid calling station. Still, it may be worthwhile testing him in the future should a similar occasion arise.
How about Mr. Cigar? He called with a hand that many players would fold, so it could mean that his blind is going to be tough to steal. This is important information, because for the rest of the game, he will be in the big blind when you are in the cutoff seat, meaning that occasionally you will be in position to steal his blind. It looks like he will not be giving it up easily, so you will need reasonable values for your raises.
Next, you observe that he played the flop, and indeed the whole hand, passively. On the flop, he hit a pair, and could have elected to bet out, check-raise, or check-call. He chose the latter. Many players would have tried one of the more aggressive options, either to take control of the hand or to find out what they were up against.
He also checked the turn when a blank hit. While you don't know what he was thinking, he could have bet, assuming his opponent had overcards and he needed to protect his hand. The fact that he did not bet reinforces the idea that he may have passive inclinations. You need to be wary in the future when seemingly passive players suddenly start betting and raising. They often need excellent holdings to get busy.
On the river, he checked again. Most players would because the king was a scary card, so you can't really make any reasonable surmises here.
After the hand, the button says to Mr. Cigar, "You got lucky. I had king-jack and almost called. I had you crushed." Well, that's interesting. Of course, he could be lying, but most likely, this sort of comment is accurate. This means that the button considers K-J a close call of a middle-position raiser in what appears to be a tight game. More than likely, he will be tempted to make this sort of call with inadequate values in the future. Since he is on your immediate left, you may have a harder time raising him off his button. Again, this indicates that you will need to play a reasonably honest game preflop when you are in the cutoff position. The player on your left likes to play, and the big blind likes to defend.
In fact, on the basis of this hand alone, you should start to think about changing seats. Perhaps the one to the left of Mr. Cigar will open, and it may present more opportunities.
Of course, this was only one hand. Very little happened, but you already have started to make some preliminary assumptions. You will get to watch several more hands before you post, and all of them will give you similar insights. Remember, it is much easier to study the game while you are not getting hands or flying blind in situations for which you are not yet prepared.
At the end of seven to 10 hands, you should be ready to play, without the excuse that you just sat down and have no idea how these people play. If someone has not played a hand in that time, you have learned something: Maybe he likes to play lots of hands but picked up only 7-2, but you must realize the good chance that this is a tight player who requires respect when he enters a hand. Similarly, the player who entered the pot with half of the hands could have picked up very good ones and may not play another hand for an hour, but your working assumption should be that this guy came to play, and you should be more inclined to engage him.
You also have the ability to size up the players based on what you see, what they say, how they act, how they handle chips, how they respond to each other, and many other hints and tips.
Waiting and watching pays huge dividends over many sessions. You will have an idea where you want to sit, whom to raise aggressively, and whom to avoid. You will have a game plan for which players you can bluff, which you can bully, and which may put you on the defensive.
You have to be flexible, and willing to change your opinions based on new evidence, but your preliminary understanding of the game and players will give you more confidence and a much better chance to make the best possible decisions.
Barry offers poker lessons tailored to the specific strengths and weaknesses of the individual student. Please visit his web site at www.barrytanenbaum.com or e-mail him at [email protected].
