Reading your opponent online
February 14, 2007
Occasionally, in a poker game a small gesture is all you need to expose a player’s hand to an opponent. That is applied to a live game, because only then you can observe different gestures and other tells-tell signs, while in a game played online the chances of reading your opponent are extremely small.
If you believe your opponent is a loose player and in the end the game comes down between you and him, now it is the moment to pay more attention before you go all in. One of the things you know is that on the turn your opponent will go all-in. There is no doubt about that. During the whole game he swiftly jumped on each hand raising and re-raising pots and at the end of the hand he revealed pocket threes or 6-5 off suit. That’s our loose player…
In any poker rooms, online or land based you will find players capable to build around them a clever illusion of being loose players and in some way, they are able to keep their chips.
Loose players, who easily raise and re-raise, back up and take their time to play if they consider they have a winning hand. More important, they will do this if they consider they have a winning hand and have you think they are a loose player.
The important thing is that no matter how your opponent played until now, you must play your own hand the way you are supposed to and go from there. Let’s assume that on the board is a Q-Q and you are holding a J-J. You are wondering if it’s possible for him to have the Queen. Yes, it is. Watch him carefully from now on to observe whether he slows his game down at this point.
If he has been an eager little beaver up until now he could be holding a pair of Queens himself. Whatever you decide to do, always know where you stand. If you think you can win, you can go into the showdown and type for him that if he shows his cards you’ll show yours and with a bit of luck this will be the end of his game. Good luck!
