There is an old poker saying that goes “you don’t play your hand, you play your opponent.” What the author of these words of wisdom neglected to tell us, however, is that getting a good read on other players and classifying their style of play is one of the hardest things to learn how to do.
The ability to study the opposition and assign them a specific classification is invaluable to a poker player as it provides some of the best information you can have when deciding how to play a hand.
Categorise Your Opponents by Style
While it is possible for the best players to figure out extremely subtle details about the nuances of their opponent’s game and style, you are a long way from being ready to get that detailed. Your time would be better spent trying to assign a general classification (aggressive, weak, loose, timid, maniac, calling station, etc) to most of the players at your next couple of sessions so that you can start to improve your abilities.
Pay Close Attention
In order to give a reliable classification to any player, you need to pay extremely close attention to them at all times. If you only casually observe their strategies and behaviour you won’t have enough information at your disposal to make a correct classification. You need to see how often they fold/check/raise, how often they make bad calls, how many times they have the best hand at showdown, if they slow-play a lot in late position, etc. All of these little bits of info will aid you in figuring out what kind of player they are.
Taking Advantage of Note-taking
It is strongly recommended that you utilize the built-in note-taking tools that all online poker rooms offer, as you can write down and save your observations of other players and have immediate access to this information at all times.
If you make a note on an opponent about how they have been caught raising pre-flop with junk hands and then see that you have made three other similar notes on this same player previously, you can now confidently classify them as loose. The same theory applies to classifying players that over-bet the pot, check-raise a lot, fold to any bet, etc.
There is no better way to extract chips from your opponents than to turn their own tactics, strategies and quirks against them. Continue to study and observe your opponents and they will quickly reveal their poker mindset and playing style to you, whether they notice it or not.
Also, check out our piece on determining your opponent’s hand strength (Determining Hand Strength – Intermediate), as the tips there will definitely help you strengthen your ability to classify players.
Key Points
• Study your opponent’s play at every stage of a round (pre-flop, post-flop, etc).
• Based on their actions, begin to assign them a specific style classification (loose, aggressive, weak, etc).
• If possible, use online note-taking software to keep a long-running series of notes on opponents that can be used to constantly adjust and improve your classifications.
Chris
- Chris Laquinta is a magazine editor, content specialist and poker fanatic with 10+ years writing experience and over 1,500 published articles. Chris is a naitive of Southern California, where he spent his entire life learning gaming concepts and theories from relatives that had been former professional gamblers. He currently resides in Torrance, CA where he works as a professional content writer and part-time SNG professional.
