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May 15 – Live tells are underrated by a lot of younger players. There is a lot you can pick up if you are paying attention, especially preflop

The differences between online and live poker have been discussed at length especially over the past three or four years after Black Friday. In general, online games are tougher, more aggressive, and contain more fundamentally sound players. There are some people that can win live that would never be able to turn a profit online. These are so called “live pros.” How do they do it? They pay attention to small intangibles, like observing how their opponents act and what they give away in certain situations.

Live tells, of course, are the signals that people give off when they are playing a hand. It can be trembling fingers or the way someone’s eyes dart around when they look at their cards. A lot of younger players dismiss these signals and pay more attention to betting patterns. Although these mathematical cues are very important, if you can notice both you can add a ton to your live game.

One of the most obvious tells that you can pick up on, if you are a newbie to physical reading, is the way someone holds and looks at their cards preflop. A lot of nitty players make it really obvious when they are going to fold and, especially if they are to your left, effectively make your position one closer to the button. So, if you notice this, you can open a wider range. David Chan, an accomplished Los Angeles live pro, mentioned on my podcast, “Seat Open Poker,” that you can tell when a guy is going for a limp/reraise when he goes to grab multiple chips from early position, then only grabs one and casually limps.

David is also a habitual three-bettor in live games and, unlike other aggressive math-based players, leans on his ability to read his opponents when determining whether to three-bet bluff. If you pay attention, you will start to detect patterns not just with the preflop sizing amounts, but the way someone physically enters the pot. If you get really good at this skill, you can see how much extra money you can pick up through squeezing when you detect that others are weak.

May 12 – It is bad to make an “inducing” semibluff raise when you have a draw that has no showdown value

The concept of “inducing” involves making a bet or a raise that attempts to get your opponent to make an aggressive play that he otherwise would not. Expert players will size bets or raises in order to make their opponents “spazz” out when they know that they have the best hand. I have seen players, however, make the mistake of trying to induce with a draw; a hand that actually doesn’t have any showdown value unless it hits.

Let us take a look at an example of a hand I saw go down last week at the Bicycle Casino. With $1,100 effective stacks, a player in the hijack raised to $35, and the big blind, a player that defends wide and is aggressive, made the call. The board ran out 9 6 4. The player in the big blind checked and the hijack continuation bet to $45. The big blind thought for a while and made it $130. The hijack, then, almost as a reflex, made it $300. The big blind went in the tank for several minutes before pushing all-in for $765 more. The hijack instantly called. The board ran out 4 2 and both players waited and shook their heads. Finally, the big blind sheepishly turned over K J for king-high. The hijack froze and finally mucked his hand, showing 7 5. 

Now, it is a pretty rare to see no-pair/no-draw win an all-in pot when the money goes in after the flop. But it was pretty obvious that the big blind thought the hijack was bluffing him with the small reraise over the top of the check-raise, and induced him to rebluff.  However, this type of thing is exactly what you don’t want to have happen if you hold 7 5. It is an absolute disaster when semibluffing to make your hand look weak and induce action from another weak hand that would otherwise fold to normal betting. 

A better play for the hijack would have been to either three-bet the check-raise larger — basically committing himself, or, if deeper, to just call the check-raise and raise the turn. The second option is a bit more dangerous, and I would only suggest doing it if you have experience manipulating pots with deeper stacks.

The point here is that you want to take the line that gives you the best chance of winning the pot without showdown if you are driving a draw. Getting fancy with the way that you play a hand can sometimes blow up in your face — like it did for the guy with seven-high.

May 18 – Seat selecting is sometimes as important as table selecting

We all know that selecting the correct table can be paramount to maximizing your winrate, but have you ever thought about your seat selection in terms of money? Sometimes, where you position yourself at the table is actually more important than the table itself. 

It’s pretty obvious that it is easier to play against an aggressive player when in position (to their left). This is especially the case with deeper stacks where a skilled opponent can put you to the test with scare cards. This is even more true in a game like pot-limit Omaha where the nuts can change on every street. However, there are other variables in the game that actually might make being to someone’s right more beneficial.

Let us say that someone is a habitual sleeper/straddler or is opening a ton of hands. We have all seen these types before, they are usually guys that are drinking or habitual action seekers. In these cases, it can actually be beneficial to limp in with some premium and/or medium-strength hands in front of him to induce the raise and see what others will do behind him. It can also be very profitable to position yourself to the left of a loose opener and a habitual three-bet squeezer. You can virtually print money by cold four-betting.

There are many examples of how certain seats will affect your win rate in different ways. If you pay attention to the many variables, you will have a big advantage. ♠

Want Card Player and Bart to provide analysis on a cash game hand you played? Send full hand details (blinds, stacks, street-by-street action) to @CardPlayerMedia. If we choose your hand, we’ll send you a Card Player subscription.

Follow Bart for daily strategy tips on twitter @barthanson. Check out his podcast “The Seat Open Podcast” on seatopenpoker.net and his video training site specifically for live No Limit players ­—CrushLivePoker.com. He also hosts Live at the Bike every Tuesday and Friday at 10:30 pm ET at LiveattheBike.com.