Making Reads - Big Poker

Email Address:

A lot of players in cardrooms feel the need to stare each other down when faced with difficult decisions. They nervously ask themselves:

“Did that player just hit the flush?”
“Was I being slowplayed on the flop?”
“Is he sensing weakness from me, or does he really have a hand?”

When faced with tough situations, a player instinctively looks to scope out their opponent. They see whether or not their opponent is shaking, where their eyes are, and their overall body language. If their opponent looks uncomfortable though, what does this tell them? That he’s uncomfortable with his hand or he’s uncomfortable being stared at, or both? While physical tells may help assess a situation and get a read, there’s a more important cue that should have been picked up on. That is their betting patterns.

If I have been sitting at a table for a while, I’ll watch hands that I am both involved in and not involved in. What I’m looking for is how a player plays a particular hand. This includes the way they bet as well as their body language when they bet. After a showdown where I see a player’s hole cards, I will re-play the hand in my head and see if I think it was played unusually. Suppose you’re in a $1/$2 no-limit hold’em ring game and witness the following hand:

UTG (under the gun, or first to act) raises to $6, UTG+1 calls, you fold some rags, 3 folds, CO re-raises to $10, 2 folds, BB (big blind) calls, UTG calls, and UTG+1 calls.

Board: Ah Js 7s
Pot: $41

BB checks, UTG checks his cards and bets $5, UTG+1 thinks for a bit and raises to $10, CO quickly calls, BB looks disgusted and folds.

Board: Ah Js 7s 4d
Pot: $71

UTG checks his cards again and bets $10, UTG+1 looks at UTG in a frustrated way and calls, CO slowly raises to $25, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls looks like he’s going to explode and calls.

Board: Ah Js 7s 4d 3h
Pot: $146

UTG checks his cards for the last time before betting $15, UTG+1 sighs and folds, CO thinks and announces raise to $55 very casually, and UTG says “if you have the straight, you got it” before calling.

Pot: $256

UTG turns over As Td for a pair of Aces, and CO turns over Jh Jc for a set of Jacks to take the pot. UTG looks very disappointed at the result and looks like he just got hit by a truck.

What conclusions can we draw just from this hand? Let’s look at each players’ actions on all streets.

Let’s start with UTG. He bet out every street, and the bet made was very small compared to the size of the pot. It seems like he was just betting and calling the raises because he had a pair of aces and wanted to get value for it but not lose anyone in the process by betting too much. He was just playing his own two cards; it’s not every hand he has top pair in a pot with hundreds of dollars in it. When the backdoor straight hit on the river, he thought his opponent might have a straight. No reasonable player would think that based on the way the hand was played. He also thought that if his opponent didn’t have a straight, he had the hand for sure. That is more evidence of him just playing his own two cards and not minding how other people are playing theirs. As long as this player is sitting in the game, he’s going to be losing more than his fair share of pots.

UTG+1 played this hand strangely. After raising UTG’s bet the minimum amount on the flop, he proceeded to just call the turn and fold on the river to UTG’s $15 bet in a $161 pot. It’s apparent that his hand was worth something on the flop when he raised, but worthless by the river. It matches the description of an oddly played drawing hand. He was a little irritated that he was bet into on the turn so definitely didn’t like the bet, so he probably raised the flop to try to get a free card on the turn for his draw. My guess is that this player is used to playing limit hold’em.

From this hand alone, I would assume that the CO has one tendency that is very common among many players: slowplaying the flop and raising (or checkraising) the turn. I don’t mind this type of play, but when the pot is multiway and large with the flop having a few draws, slowplaying is foolish. When CO chose to just call the bet and raise on the flop, he gave UTG+1 good pot odds to outdraw him on the turn. On the turn CO played slightly better by finally choosing to raise, but he didn’t even raise it a moderate amount to prevent UTG+1 to keep drawing at him profitably. I would remember how suspicious CO looked when he raised on the turn when a blank fell. Overall I see CO as a much better player than UTG, but not great at playing the odds and reading the board.

It is hard to say what BB called a raise and reraise preflop with to instantly fold on the flop. If he had KK or QQ then he played it very foolishly by not putting the 3rd raise in. Without knowing what he had, it is hard to judge what kind of player he is.

By combining actions and physical tells, you have deduced a few betting patterns to establish reads of each player involved in that hand. These reads should not be cast in stone though, because all that has been observed is one hand. Take them lightly, but use them. Here are some situations where adjustments can be made: