Great
poker players can have many
characteristics but the one
that most of the population
is envious over is the ability
to read people. Reading people
can have many connotations
but in poker it most commonly
means calling bluffs.
The
ability to catch your opponent
in a bluff is a great skill
first off it means more money
in your pocket and everyone
wants that. Calling bluffs
is as hard as being a good
bluffer, and they usually
go hand in hand. However a
lot of emphasis may be put
on the innate ability some
players may have; but most
poker players didn’t
start out being great at calling
bluffs and no newer player
should expect if of themselves.
There are tons of clues to
help players read others at
the table and they should
be worried about learning
those skills than hoping to
magically become a natural.
Finding poker
tells is the biggest skill
to hone when training to call
bluffs. Poker tells are a
complete topic on their own
but in short they are when
your body deceives you and
allows a manifestation of
your emotion or knowledge
to express itself to the table
in some way or another. Poker
tells can include things like
sweating, blinking, and twitching;
these things can happen systematically
in correspondence with any
kind of thing. Perhaps the
opponent is sweating because
he just got horrible cards
or even because he got good
cards or perhaps because he
didn’t hit the flop
maybe he is twitching because
he knows he shouldn’t
be chasing you but is anyways.
Things like this may take
some time to discover but
at any level a poker player
should recognize the opportunity
for exploit this situation.
In many cases tells can be
associated with bluffs and
that is where it can help
the most!
Another point
of interest, especially regarding
online tells, is positioning
and bet pattern in any one
hand. Remembering who bet
when and how much is one of
the earliest struggles new
poker players can face when
first playing competitively
but with practice it comes
more easily. It is so important
because the way an opponent
bets can provide a lot of
information to you when playing
against him or even when your
not in the hand.
Every little
piece of information can help
you get more in tuned with
your opponents. For example
players may bet big before
the flop but then hold back
and just call after the flop
this can mean many things
depending on their play style.
If they are conservative players
that may mean they didn’t
hit and you now have more
reason to call him or her
on his or her bluff. Aggressive
players may over-bet and try
to buy the pot in which case
it would be in your interest
to call him on his poor bluff.
On the flip side
a player may have not played
ten hands and then all of
a sudden started playing big,
this may suggest he is a tight
player and just got the hand
he wanted which may be relatively
strong, in which case you
as the player should hold
off. What it comes down to
is the fact that no information
alone will help you call a
bluff but if you effectively
analyze all the information
available to you it can provide
you with the correct answers
to all your questions. |
