Real Poker: Are You A Creative Player?

Card Player Magazine, available in print and online, covers poker strategy, poker news, online and casino poker, and poker legislation. Sign up today for a digital subscription to access more than 800 magazine issues and get 26 new issues per year!

How creative are you in poker? Are you someone who just follows a system that you read in a book or heard at a lecture? Most people seek to learn that way. They listen to someone they think is knowledgeable and follow his logic, mimic what they’ve been told. However, no two situations in poker are identical, and formulaic thinking often misses the optimum answer.

I’m defining creativity as putting together unique thoughts and information to create original plays based on specific circumstances unique to a given player or situation to deliver additional edge. Of course, you must develop the abilities to put together the accurate thoughts and actualize the play.

The best poker players are very creative. They locate and utilize edges unseen to their weaker opponents. They are aware and open to how their opponents think and emotionally react. They don’t think in simplified terms such as tight or loose, aggressive or passive. Rather they think in deeper terms of how their opponents specifically think in select situations and design counter-plays. They acquire that extra bet, win that additional pot in situations that are unseen by their opponents. And most opponents never even realize that it’s being done to them!

Is your opponent a fearful one? Or a never back down type of person? Those different character traits dictate different plays in identical situations. Under those circumstances designing the best way to milk a good holding for its optimum value will greatly vary, and your fold equity is significantly changed too.

That’s a simplistic example; you can go deep down the rabbit hole with people’s thinking and deeper yet with their emotional responses. But you must be open to and aware of their thoughts. Discern the distinct subtle things each individual does rather than categorize them into general groups. You must both read hands well, so the plays you make are correctly timed, and learn the correct counter-strategies to the plays you read your opponent is making. Learning this will take intense focus, and you’ll spend a lot of time and effort without finding anything useful. But when you do find something useful, its value can be immense, particularly if it’s against an opponent you play with regularly.

Firstly, you must ask the right questions. How would they play their overpair range in selected spots? Is it different on uniform boards than dry boards? At what point will they fold one-pair? What range of hands does your opponent(s) play in the manner he’s played to get to this point? How can you best optimize playing your holding in this situation? The questions are as endless as the plausible scenarios.

Consider all the plausible different hands in your opponent’s ranges. Keep in mind a play that may be optimal against one portion of his range may be atrocious against another portion. You must blend the EV of ALL the possibilities in order to quantify the play’s value.

Once you’ve become aware of a characteristic, you need to contemplate how you can exploit the newfound knowledge. What counter-strategy works against that characteristic? For example; does he test bet and fold to a raise? If so, raise with your non-showdown hands. Once again, you must blend all components of the current situation in order to determine the value. If he makes the same play with his big hands, your play loses value.

Consider situations in which you can gain or save EV from his betting strategies. Can you increase your hand’s value by betting differently? Better yet are there situations in which you can take a pot away from him? If you are playing aware opponents which you continuously play, never let him know what you’re doing, you’ll want to continue to utilize these plays until they achieve a counter-measure.

The value of this is immense. Practice reading people’s minds. It will take a large amount of effort to get good at it, but the skill’s value is worth the effort. Once you’re good at reading their minds, their hand range will narrow as your reading hand skills improve. Spend your time at the table thinking about counter-plays to situations that present themselves. Don’t just consider situations you play; consider all situations. What should John have done to optimize his hand’s value? Should Sue have bluffed the turn? As you develop these thoughts, your creativity improves. You’ll see deeper into situations, and you’ll perceive more effective plays.
And, most importantly, you win a hell of a lot more money! ♠