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POKER PATTERNS

One of the key characteristics of a good poker player is being able to observe attitudes of other players around the table and playing dominantly to be able to influence others into taking action according to plan.  That’s what you would call a smooth operator.  By dictating the direction of the game, you could make other players commit mistakes by making them think with certainty that you haven’t got a good hand when you actually do and vice versa.

Play as Dictated by Players

You will see variations of play in a poker table from time to time.  You get loose and tight players or passive and aggressive ones too.  There could be combinations such that you get loose-aggressive, loose-passive, tight-aggressive and tight-passive poker players.  By taking this into account, you should be able to predict with higher certainty whether your opponent will be more likely to call or raise your bet or even fold.  Be prepared too for players who come in at the table and start playing like a maniac, betting at every hand.

Clever Tactic to Win

Let’s take a fixed limit Texas holdem game I recently watched.  There was a poker player who joined a table.  He seemed a tight-passive player and waited for an entire round of betting before eventually posting a big blind.  This caught some players in a tight spot because it appeared to us that everyone was playing cautiously and tight when this one came to shake players into making a decision.  Not too many were willing to call it so this guy started getting some steals by calling a lot of hands early in the game but still remained careful to build an image of tight player to everyone else.

Slowly his play started to shift to snatching more steals by raising a bet more often and taking chances with flops.  This went on more frequently so everyone else on the table started playing more loosely by calling or raising bets.  While everyone else started shifting their plays, the player who started this started to withdraw and before everyone knew it, he re-raised the bet and he was taken as bluffing.  All other players continued making a call when he dropped his cards to the three other remaining opponents, he wiped them off and won the pot.

This tactic may not work all the time so be prepared to vary your play pattern.  This may also fail in no limit holdems but you can surely give it a try with fixed limit holdems.