Poker Profiling

Over the past 8 years I’ve been playing poker for a living, I’ve come to see similarities with my career and the careers of others. Some of them in real life, some of them in the realm of television and movies. For instance, I used to watch the TV franchise CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. They take small bits of information and from those bits of information piece together a case against a suspect. I take the little bits of evidence from a poker hand and use them to piece together my opponent’s holding. In the TV show The Mentalist, the main character uses his words and intelligence in order to manipulate others into giving him information. I do that, not with my words, but with my actions at the poker table.

In Criminal Minds, the Behavior Analysis Unit is made up of profilers. These are people who take the research they’ve done in the past and the information they’ve found at crime scenes and combine all of that to create an accurate profile of what they expect the killer to look like. I am clearly not dealing in matters of life and death at the poker table, but I use this skill quite often when dealing with people who I’ve never seen before. It’s important to have some base to start from when playing poker against someone you’ve never played with and then to adjust from there based on how you see them playing. Sometimes you have very little to go on, but you can use any piece of information you have in order to gain a bit of an edge. Over the years I’ve been playing, I’ve noticed some things that are pretty reliable. Allow me to share a few of them with you.

Posting Impatience

Some cash games require new players to post a blind in order to receive a hand. For instance, in the $20-$40 game that I sometimes frequent, if you are a new player you have to post $20 to be dealt in. This is true no matter what position you’re in (unless you are in between the button and the small blind, then you can’t be dealt in). In a full game, most people wait until the button passes them to post in the cutoff in order to avoid paying both blinds for the first round. They also get the maximum number of hands for that $20. In games with open seats or players taking a walk, many wait until it’s their big blind. They do this because they can pay an extra $10 in order to get the button and because it doesn’t make sense to post behind the button when they will only be getting four or five hands for that price.

In other cash games, like the $5-$5 NL game or $8-$16 LHE games I’ve played in, they let you come behind the button for free.

In either case, you see players who are impatient and will post the extra blind from middle position or not take the full free round they are allowed. They want to get in on the action right away. If they don’t have enough patience to wait for the first hand, do you think they are going to have the patience to play a tight, disciplined game? It’s not very likely. People are usually pretty consistent. Their impatience when deciding when to get into the game is usually an indicator of their patience when they have cards in front of them.

Mr. Nice Watch

The majority of poker players like to be comfortable at the poker table. They wear jeans and t-shirts, hoodies, gym shoes, etcetera because they know they might be at the table for quite a while. The unwashed, unkempt masses greatly outnumber the dapper manicured men at the tables. As a result, you can take a bit of information from these nicely dressed gentlemen. A nice suit and a nice watch are indicators of a substantial bank account. The vast majority of people playing poker haven’t made enough money from the game to afford a Ulysse Nardin or Patek Phillipe watch or a different Armani suit to wear every day with their monogrammed shirts. These people have been successful in other walks of life. As a result of dedicating all of their time and considerable mental energies to other pursuits, they may not be as sharp at the poker table as they are in their other business ventures.

These guys tend to play too many hands, bluff a bit too often and call down too often. This is a result of making their way through the testosterone minefields of the American and international business climates. The egos in those arenas put the ones in the poker world, outside of Palo Alto, California of course, to shame. They bring their egos to the games they play in and to every venture they get involved in. This ego can be damaging to a poker player. Poker players have to deal with defeat on a constant basis and come out on the other side with no change in their emotions or actions. This is simply not true for people who have been very successful in the business world. They have become successful by learning how to win, whereas an integral skill of a poker player is losing well.

Besides these indicators, there are many more that will serve you well when trying to figure out an opponent. Younger people tend to be better, more aggressive players because they’ve focused much of their lives on learning the game. Women tend to be a bit more passive overall, especially in NL games. East Coast players tend to get less value from their medium to strong hands and slow play their gigantic hands. West Coast players tend to overbet the pot and play a bit loose with draws. Every bit of information you can gain is worth money to your bottom line. Don’t be afraid to profile at the poker table to get that extra bit of information. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG