Spotting Patterns

If you've been reading my columns, you should be familiar with weakness, keeping your ego in check, playing within your emotional threshold, and giving 100 percent while you're at the table. If you can do all of these things, you should be well on your way to becoming a winning player, or, even more likely, are a winning player already. So, what else is it that separates good players from bad ones?



One big topic that I haven't discussed in this column yet is pattern recognition. Virtually every player I've ever played against, even some of the very good ones, can fall victim to playing certain types of hands very formulaically. If you're paying close enough attention at the table, you can pick up on some of these patterns and use them accordingly to your advantage.



I'm going to point out a couple of common patterns in this column, but I really want to emphasize that playing patterns can be virtually anything, and that rather than focus on the specific examples given in this column, you should maintain an open mind at the table and look for any type of pattern that you may be able to exploit.



One of the more common patterns I see at both the real and virtual tables is players who lead into the preflop raiser from out of position on the flop. For instance, if player A raises from middle position, player B calls from the big blind, and the flop is A 10 2, player B bets into player A. This is a common betting pattern that I see. Most players, when they lead into a raiser, hold either monster hands, a weak made hand, or a draw. The key here, though, is that most players, even some very good ones whom I've encountered, won't do it with all of those hands. So, once you get a chance to see a showdown, you can file away the information for future use.



In an online hand I was playing recently, I was player A in the hand above, with the exact same action and the exact same flop. I held the 9 7 and was almost ready to fold, when I checked my notes on player B and saw that I had noted from a previous hand that he leads into preflop aggressors with his draws. Seeing that the board was very draw-heavy, I went ahead and called his bet, planning to raise his turn bet on any non-club, non-Broadway turn card. The reason I didn't raise the flop is because with two cards to come, many drawing hands will call anyway, and I won't know if I should bet the turn or not.



So, the turn was the 2, which was actually a good card for me because with the board paired, any drawing hand might have to fear that I was slow-playing a set and they could be drawing dead. Sure enough, player B bet into me again, I made a healthy raise, and he folded. Now, there is no way for me to know for sure that he had a draw, but my observations from previous hands had enabled me to note that this particular pattern was a sign of an unmade hand or a weak hand, and not a strong hand. Armed with that information, I took a pot away that I otherwise may not have won.



The very best players mix up their games well enough not to fall into many discernable patterns, but a vast majority of players you will encounter will exhibit many patterns if you take the time to observe them.



On the flip side, try to make sure that you are not falling into easily identifiable patterns. It's very easy when you play a lot of hands to get into a groove and start playing hands "by the numbers" rather than mixing things up in such a way that you keep your opponents on their toes.



As you play more and more poker, patterns will become much more obvious and more easily recognizable for you. If you want to become better at recognizing patterns in poker, the best way to do it is to play a lot of hands, and, more importantly, make sure that you're paying attention, even if you're not in the hand.



Eric "Rizen" Lynch made the final table of the PokerStars $200 (with rebuys) tournament on two consecutive Sundays in January of this year. He finished in second place both times, earning $28,000 and $25,600, respectively.