Free Poker Tips and Mental Secrets for Analyzing Players
It is important to have the ability to sit down at any money or free poker table, online or live and study your opponents. I do think patience is the key ingredient when it comes to analyzing players and the most vital stage is when the game starts.
Why is this?
This provides you with you an opportunity to settle-back and take mental notes on the player’s actions. This is powerful during the first half hour of a free poker game in particular as many players like to go all in and hope they win the pot. I myself will only call these players with a high pair, or suited low connectors because I’ve played them before, and they will go all in with any two hand cards given.
What Do You Need To Read?
The notes you should take during the first half-hour or if moved to a new table in any money or free texas hold em game are quite simple.
Determine which players are playing carefully and which ones are playing loose.
Those who are playing loose could very well bet on almost every hand and call almost anything.This is very common in free texas hold em games where low risk eliminates good sense at times!
People that are playing careful will keep folding until they get the cards in hand they want or any pairs of AA’s, KK’s, QQ’s, JJ’s.
What about Bluffers?
This can be hard if you have not been paying attention to the overall game as can happen a lot with free poker or if you are playing multiple online games at the same time.
If you have been paying attention to the overall game you will possess more of a feeling as to who might be bluffing..
For example:
When you’ve got an ace and king of spades you’re feeling good about your whole situation. Now you wait for the other player to check or bet, to your surprise the player bets 400 chips when the pot is at 120 chips.
So you call the player and on the flop lands Queen of spades, Jack of Spades, and ten of hearts. The other player goes all-in in order to make you think he/she has the winning hand. You already know you got it won so you call the player’s bluff and go on to win.
This is very obvious but if you are facing a more conservative player then they might try to buy you in by betting low not over the pot before the flop and after. These Players know what they are doing and most likely will have a full house against your ace high straight. Now your experience comes into play…have you marked who is loose and who is conservative?
Practical Player Analysis Tips
1) Players who take a very long time and hold back are attempting to mislead you into believing they’ve got nothing and wait for you to make a bet worth calling. (Note: in free texas hold em the player may very well be taking a long time because he/she is playing multiple games.) Filter these players out as this might be a habit for them.
2) Be aware of players who anticipate until the last second and raise you all-in. They are attempting to buy the pot with a decent pair hoping you do not have any aces in your hand!
3) Everybody knows a chip bully. Every table has one. The only way to knock a chip bully off his costly chair is not to be distressed by his/her large chip stacks. Should you have it, go for it. Quite possibly, he/she is bluffing because, they want to pilfer the pot or blinds.
All Players Have Habits.
And from habits develop betting patterns - But What patterns might they form?
A bad habit (for them) you will see only too often is that some players will lose a large chunk of their chip stack. They get ticked-off because they’ve taken a big loss but rather than cut their losses choose to keep going, often all-in until they lose the lot or earn back some chips (rare!). These players have given up and gone on “tilt”. The best action to take is to call them once the time is right. So be patient and you’ll take their shirt!
Some players are extremely hard to read because they Know they’re being read and are always modifying their approach. They will repeat themselves at some point but these patterns are very hard to spot. These players will take up a majority of your time! When you can read players like these..well you are probably playing WSOP!
I hope this article will help you fine tune your skills and has given you some strategies you can use at the tables. Every player can be read but if you cannot read players you will make poker impossible for yourself!
If reading other players is hard or you are new to poker then I advise you get lots of practice in low risk games first. Try a free texas hold em site or play micro stakes on a money site before you start to use “real” money