This is most important topic I am going to talk about because this is the main reason people fail with poker so its going to be a little bit longer then the first two posts. We need to understand how to combat different opponents figuring out how these opponents play specifically, and who to target for profit and when to quit. Whoever is better at combating different kind of opponents is going to have the better poker career along with knowing when to target other opponents and using a system to quit. Its that simple. And why are some players better at it then others? They play more hands (experience) and they out work other players when it comes to off the table hand studying.
The best player in the world is imo Jungleman (Daniel Cates). And people complain hes to angry for poker to do it long term. Or I have even heard hes just on lucky heater( winning streak). But reality he has a relentless work ethic that not many have. He is the one of the few that can deal with anger but still lock in and time out the perfect bluff, value bet etc because of his study habits. I have heard from other players that he has his lap top open going over hands even while he is just eating breakfast. To get to this master level takes a lot of times and effort away from the table looking and analyzing not just at our game but the opponents as well.
So its good to study our own game but don't forget the opponents we are facing. So that is where the Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker comes in handy( if poker site allows them/hud). We can look a player up by their name and go over all the hands they have played not just against us but also other players. Then we can figure out what kind of player we are facing. And they're many different kind of players. We want to focus on the players that are giving us the most trouble on the tables and figure out what we can do to make their life hell, but also incorporate some of what they do into our own game because what they are doing is working if we have hard time combating it.
The biggest complaints I have seen is how people have a hard time with aggressive regulars( players that are not recreational). And these kind of guys can sometimes even act wild and goofy and berate us in the chat. And now we have to combat tilting along with this aggression. What I see people do wrong is get impatient and don't realize what level of aggression these players actually have. They make to many hero calls versus these kind of players in general. They think they can just wait for a hand and beat these guys. That is not the case. Most( including myself =))are just giving the image of being super crazy, but really when they put a lot of money in they have a big hand more often then not. They will notice we are playing very defensive and as soon as we show aggression they fold and don't pay us off.
What I like to do is play very aggressively versus them to give them the idea I am also fighting back( bluffing more early on) that I am this crazy player myself, but slowly work my way to showing down more value hands and bluffing less with weaker hands. Remember we just want them to have in the back of their head we are capable of anything, but we don't to turn into a maniac about it and be a reckless player. We just want them to think that. We want to see what level of aggression they really have. If a player is a super aggressive and constantly bombs away all 3 streets ( the board run out) by all means call down with any pair. But some are just aggressive pre flop, post flop maybe 1 street or 2 streets, but not all 3. Or some aren't as aggressive in other situations say out of position( they act first we get to act last) and they only seem to raise out of position when they have a big hand. We have to figure out where the opponent is aggressive to properly combat them. We want to play aggressively back at them as well to see how they respond to aggression, not turn into a defensive player right away. And the best way to figure out what they are doing is look up their hand history to really fine tune on what is really going on with their plan of action.
The next kind of poker regular players tend to complain about is the Nit( doesn't play many hands). These kind of players generally just wait for hands. And they only get their money in the most profitable situations. They are not gamblers at all so what is the best way to combat these players? First we need to figure out how much of a Nit they really are. If they are barely playing any hands and not do much post flop then we can be assured they are waiting for a strong hand and if they bluff its so rare they can't really exploit( take advantage) of us long term. When they raise we fold unless we have a premium hand. They are not playing enough hands to worry about playing a hand like AT vs them. What they want to do is get action when they do play a hand. Don't give it to them. What happens is over time they will get frustrated and have to start opening more hands or blind away all their money.
Our profits from these players will come in small amounts most of the time as they constantly fold waiting for a hand. So we want to make their stack slowly bleed down to nothing. If they show weakness post flop we can simply bluff them off hands if they don't like to hero call. When we do wake up with a big hand if they show strength play the hand fast and get the money in. They wont be messing around. If a bad turn card comes then it could kill the action versus the Nit because he is not a gambler and can quickly shut down.
The player poker players love to target is fish ( recreational players). What players do wrong versus fish is they don't know the kind of fish they are playing against. We have different kind of fish. Some play differently pre flop then they do post flop and vice versa. Its important to understand how they play throughout the entire hand to figure out how to combat them.
The loose passive fish is probably the most targeted. They want to see a flop. But how do they play post flop? Do they fold or call down? If they tend to fold post flop we can play a much wider range of hands versus them but the main thing is don't get out of line. I look to play suited broadway cards(face cards) even with the weakest kicker(2) and just bet at them relentlessly. That way we block them having a strong range like something with K in it and have playable hand. We still want to play a solid all around game. Lets not raise a hand like 38 off suit and think we are going to crush these kind of players because sooner or later they will have a hand or might get fed up if we target them to much. Now what if they don't fold post flop? Then we want to merge( play big cards in the deck picture cards, mid to high suited connected hands TJs) our range versus them and not bluff as much only on decent board textures with equity(drawing hands). We can get 3 streets of value with a weaker value range as well.
We also have the nitty fish( weak tight). Just because they play a tighter range pre flop don't assume they also play weak tight post flop. It could be the opposite. Against the folding type post flop we can raise a polarized( high cards AK, low cards 56s) vs them and attack them post flop as they might hold on a street with a pair but tend to give up, but we don't want to raise hands that can go into reverse impled odds( our value hands is beat by their value hands K5 vs KJ and K is on the flop). Against the ones that don't fold post flop we want to play smaller pots versus them in general unless we have a premium, but when we do hit big hands to bet big. Since they don't fold post and they will hit more often then the loose passive fish with strong hand range, we exploit them by betting big and take a lot of their money by the river.
Then we have the aggressive fish. They play way to many weak hands and in general to aggressive with them. People tend to assume if someone is aggro pre and post flop that we just need to wait for a hand. Some are aggro until they get raised and most of the time they don't have much forcing them to fold. Against these players we can raise draws, and even small pairs since we can't take on multiple barrels, but could have the best hand. The best way to get value from our value hands is to trap( check call down) with top pair and middle pair type of hands where we can call multiple streets. And some don't care what we do they will not be pushed around so we can play our value hands fast. Being a nit comes in handy in these spots. We just have to wait for merged range( big cards) and when we have top pair be ready to go all the way with it.
Over time they wont be able to beat someone who has a better starting range and over time will be way behind in most spots even with their value range. The key to beating these kind of players is patience. They will be chipping away at us, but we are going to take down the big pots so don't get carried away with calling to many streets versus these players with marginal made hands or draws its just throwing away money. We don't need balance against these players because they play to recklessly and in the long run it will be one of our most profitable opponents.
The last player we are going to talk about is the Shark( player that crushes/ high win rate). That player above is aka OTBredbaron(Jonas Mols). He could be the best cash game player in the world with ring games. This is something I never see a poker article talk about. They talk about fish and regulars and just categorize everyone as playing a certain way. What happens when we run into a player that switches gears that can do anything at any time? This is the player that is well balanced. They are tough to figure out. They make poker a guessing game. We never know if they are bluffing or if they have big hand. They know when to back off and when to attack based on hand ranges. These are the players that know how to maximize profits in pretty much every table dynamic they are in.
So when we get to this level of play we now have to figure out what they are thinking about us. What do they know we are capable of? Are we well balanced with made hands and bluffs or we getting to carried away trying to out play them? We also have to look at the positions we are in and make sure we are repping the ranges(cards played based on position or action at table) they think we have. Against these players we need to play a more tricky style at times. We can also incorporate over betting to put max pressure so they are not in a profitable situation to hero call. If they know my range is weak but I have a big hand I might run a big over bet for value. Or if he thinks my range is strong and I actually don't have much I might run a big over bet and put max pressure on him as a bluff. They might hero call or fold based on the situation. Or I might simply trap.
A good example is say he raises UTG( first to act) in 6 max( 6 player table) and I have AA in BB( last place to act)I might just call and not 3b him so he can rep what I have in my hand. Say AK flops he might rep that and bluff all 3 streets since he was raising from the strongest position its a good spot for him to go all 3 streets. It might be a spot I will let him hang himself because he knows that I know his hand range is stronger from the UTG position. So against these kind of players we have to mix up our game and sometimes play some hands more tricky then usual. And when he picks up on it we have to balance it out by also raising AA too so its a guessing game for him as well. But we don't want to try to be to tricky. We still want to play solid poker we just want to give him the thought we are capable of anything. The more the Shark has to guess against an opponent the less they want to be involved in a hand with that particular player and will look for other players to target. And we definitely don't want them to focus on us so balance and some tricky play is key.
So now that we know how to combat all of these different players and the study habits needed to make a career out of poker, the next question is who do we are target? People always say they target fish. That is true attacking fish can make a nice profit, but they have a limited bank roll. To be honest we just don't have as many fish as we did during the poker boom. So fish is part of what keeps our poker career going.
But if we want to make serious money and move up in stakes we also want to target regulars. They have much bigger bankrolls. Some regulars do a lot of bad things or are easy to figure out. Since they constantly reload these are the players we want to target. I open up a lot of active tables going on and watch people play. Even if the best heads up regular in the world is having a match and is losing and having a bad day and I see his level of play is not up to par( some signs of tilt)I will sit him and play him. That is the key is seeing a sign of bad play. Why? Because when people are losing it doesn't matter how good they are they make a lot more mistakes and the A game they usually incorporate turns into C game or even worse. I have cleaned out some very good players in my life time. I sat them when they were having a bad day, maybe it was from tilt, losing or just a family argument. Doesn't matter, I just see that they are not playing at a optimal level its my chance to take them on.
One thing I do want to say. If a player does not want to play I don't harass them. There is lot of other good games to find instead of bugging them for a game. Even if they do play they will most likely hit and run(quit ahead after profit). Trust me its not worth the time and effort we could use to find players that will play.
So now we know who to target and when to go after certain players, we also need to know when to quit. This has probably ruined most if not all of poker players careers that had to retire. People take this way to lightly and think its no big deal thinking I can just walk away whenever I want. It is not that easy when we become emotional from things not going our way. And this kind of situation might not be from just one day, but be built up from months to years of playing. So people say if they are in a profitable situation ( fish, reg on tilt) they will continue to play even if they are losing and things are not going their way. Sometimes we might move up(higher stakes) to play a particular player and it will take a bigger hit to our bankroll if we lose. Or sometimes we are not playing our A game and start to chase losses.
If we are not playing at our optimal level it does not matter who we are playing it is not the most profitable situation anymore. Now we are gambling. Our emotional side of our brain starts making decisions instead of our logical side of our brain and we no longer are in control of what we are doing anymore. The next thing we know we lost way more then what we should of and realize its to late to leave and lose it all. So this is a good rule of thumb I use and I promise this has worked great for me. If I am not on my A game and not making the right decisions as I normally do as soon as I see a sign of it I have 2 buy in loss rule. Within the next 2 buy ins if I can't turn things around I quit. I may come back hours later or just quit for the day. That way it still gives me a chance to get out of the tilt(something that have to work on dealing with) and its like a warning to my brain. Get back on my game or be prepared to quit after 2 more buy ins. What usually happens is I focus back on my A game and play well because quitting is dreadful. But I have quit before and I am sure I would of lost a lot more money if I kept playing.
So this is what it takes to actually have a real career in online or even regular poker. Its not merely as simple or as hard as people think. A lot of this is psychological ware fare not just with the opponent but with ourselves. If you as a player can work on everything I have taught in all 3 lessons and be dedicated to have a poker career I have no doubt in my mind you can make a living at poker. I honestly don't think I am even that talented at poker as a lot of other guys I have played poker with and even studied with. Some guys are on a super genius level. But I have out lasted most. And made a lot more money then most.
The reason I decided to write this article is because this is not just poker this is actual life. If you can make a career out of poker that means you can master who you are as a person not just with math and numbers, but also mentally. You may not like where you are at in life now or you may love it. But if you can succeed in poker you will grow into a much better person overall not just for you but for everyone around you. Anyways gl with your poker career and hope this helps guide you the right way without you taking a big hit to your bank roll through some poker teaching scam.
pictures:
Superman- www.aamorris.net
White Flag- Before The Cross
Target- The American Association of Individual Investors
OTBredbaron- https://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles/pokerstars/OtB_RedBaron.aspx
Fish- OddsNPots
Doug Polk- PokerTube
Hellmuth- Wikipedia
Jungleman- PokerPlayer365.com