My poker journey has had plenty of ups and downs, but I am gradually improving and I like to add a new trick or focus on practicing a particular skill every time I play. Recently I’ve started getting better at Targeting Opponent Hands. It’s a skill that doesn’t really help me win more hands, but it is a skill that can greatly increase the amount you win on the hands that you do win.
So what do I mean by targeting an opponents hand? It’s a skill that is related to Hand Reading where you are making a Bet that is of a particular size that you know your opponent will Call if they have one of the weaker hands you are targeting. As an example, say you have Ace King and the Flop has King, Ten, Four Rainbow (different suits). You might want to make a small Bet that someone who has hit the Ten or the Four or maybe has a Weaker King but will still Call and not be too scared by your bet.
Where this skill really pays off though is when you can target a very strong hand of your opponent that you can still beat because your hand is stronger. For instance, last night I had a hand where I Flopped a Full House...but I Checked the Flop, then Checked the Turn and allowed my opponent to hit a Straight on the River. Then I was able to target his Straight with an All In Bet on the River and get paid off. That’s because I knew my opponent would not want to fold a Straight after hitting it on the River since it was such a strong hand – I was able to successfully target his strong hand for a massive win.
You only need a couple of those big hands in a Tournament to get yourself to the Final Table, but the keys to this skill is knowing what sort of hand your opponent could be playing and understanding how much they will pay to see that hand get to Showdown.