Who do you study at a table?

When you are looking at a table of people and they all play differently, then whom do you study?
You might have time to read them all but where does it pay to concentrate?

Of course the math is not really helpful if they all have money and it's a toss up if they all have the same money. What is helpful is their style of play.  You don't want to waste too much time studying the tight players, they are predictable. They play few hands, they fold often, and when they have a very good hand they bet hard and often.

Fish are predictable also, they play all drawing hands and bet when they have the nuts, calling other times. Smart fish cut their losses. Loose ones are easy to beat

What you want to find is the loose aggressive players. You want to concentrate on loose players that have recently won a bundle. Or lost a bundle. They are the ones that would be willing to call with second pair.  Trust me, I've played against them and I've played like that.  My biggest swings in emotion and winnings come when I play loose aggressive. LAGs can triple up in a couple of hands. It's really the way to amass chips in a tournament. These days lucky flops take out players more than anything else. Luck is a major part of it because skills are so close. LAG's make plays - button raises, position reraises, flop c-bets etc. - with drawing hands and then hit the flop or luck out on the river. Down goes the skilled player...

LAGs are the main reason I hate low stakes tables. I know I was one so I can't complain too loudly, but they make it hard to stand when they have no idea how lucky they were and yet they don't really care.  They can't see, in general, how foolish they were. If you want to understand a little of how it is you need at some point to take some money, kiss it goodbye, then sit down at the table with the plan to play aggressive, bluff, make position plays, and lose the money. If you win, you will understand how much better it is for adrenaline and skill. It's intense. But it doesn't last. You can't keep hoping for luck over and over.  Trust me I've been felted many times this way. But for me, I didn't care about winning or the money so much as using it to understand how to out-think even thinking players. It is the mental combat I crave, not an award much to my own downfall.

Experiencing it will make you a better player than just playing straightforward poker. You will realize whole new dimensions to the game. My personal problem is when I play at low stakes I don't take those morons seriously and then they felt me. Ok, so how can I reconcile these two positions; you learn lots and it's great to play but you hate them and they are stupid? Sounds like some sort of hostage syndrome, you love them and hate them. Well I will make an artificial distinction between them: there are good ones and there are bad ones and mediocre ones in the middle. There are players that think, and those that don't. Shoving bluffs get called many times. So separate out the unthinking mediocre LAGs from the rest of the continuum and those are the ones that inhabit the lowest stakes tables.  That's as far as that gets you playing on no thinking and luck.  They felt or get felted. Of course the reason why it's an artificial distinction is that when bad ones start out they are no more bright  than low intelligence cuttlefish. But the average ones learn some tricks, and stop losing easy money so fast.    And the best ones become famous players. But the dim ones are brain locked into a pitiable existence that doesn't change. They get lucky, they gain lots, then they lose it all. Rinse. Reload. Repeat.

This is a swarm of value you want in on, not just grinding against the regulars. 
You will be in position against LAGs every few hands.  They know people try to bluff them.  You can be patient and wait them out. But in order to be ready you need to have learned what they do and why. It's not just hand ran...

sorry multitabling...pokerstars or jokerstars  depending on how I'm doing...

hand ranges they are likely to be holding, that's the normal information you know in general - drawing suited connectors, when they squeeze - how much and what cards are present. But you need to know what cards they think are good ones to bluff, and what a hesitation means when they are acting. Sometimes hesitation means a super good hand, and most times it means whoa I am in big trouble. When you put the player's patterns together with the action and the cards it's easier to see what they are thinking and what they are preparing to do. Sometimes a loose player sees an ace on the river and you can see the idea that to bet at that ace might win the pot. They go all in and you call them with a Jack. They looked stunned. I looked stunned.  This is what happens when you try to flaunt your manhood instead of thinking. If you can see that, so can other people.  This is why I hate those nonthinking LAGs. - they are helpless in their foolishness.  Hate is a strong word for a Buddhist, I don't really hate them I just have real frustration thinking about how they are locked in a box.   When they make a bad play and get rewarded, they don't take the chance for a little soul searching. Realize how fortunate they were and resolve to change for the better. There's no adjusting to reality.  Why fix what isn't broken? So in the end it's karma that gets them.

I can't fix them so learn how to exploit them. I try to make amends by writing it all down here and maybe they will read it?

You need to know if they semi-bluff or check raise only with a drawing hand, or not. Do they bluff raise the river? How often? People are predictable when they fall into patterns because they use what worked last time if they don't think it through every time. And people winning on luck fall into their own traps; that's the beautiful hubris of being a gambler.

Remember folding a hand is not a defeat. Gaining information by watching their hands, replaying the hands in your mind, folding to watch the action, and so on will gain you more in the long run if you learned from the information they gave you for free. Then when you have the right hand and remember those particular patterns it pays off then. Or, in other words, patience pays. Many times I sit down and some loose player has won a bunch. And then in the end, my stack is bigger and they are leaving for the door. I did it myself.  One time in Calgary I sat down with $100 and ran it up to $500 in a matter of a few hands. Then I got bored and pissed it away. I didn't realize why until later. I was satisfied that I could do it. I should have been more satisfied to keep it.

Plays you can't make

When it comes to being credible with your betting in poker, it must be understood what your table image is when you make a move. 

For example, if you have been playing loose and showing suited connectors at showdown then a tight player won't believe your top pair is a set with an all in re-raise on the flop. Of course if you have that tight image then your set will look like a bluff or top pair. If you have one table image, you can make people believe your or not believe you.  But you have to realize which one it is! I didn't look at him before making the play. That cost me a huge chip lead and I was in the top 100 at the time. Big mistake.

I reraised pocket aces all in with top pair Queens and he obliged me calling. Then  I looked at his stats and I realized he reraised me in position.  Then I looked at my stats and thought - exactly what was I representing?  What other kind of hand could he have? It has to make sense.

Now later on he raised me probably with Ace-medium and I made it look like I had a flush draw. Then when a fourth club hit on the river I made a desperation bet but weak looking like I was begging for a call and he folder overcards. I had a King. At least when I went all in last time I had top pair. So it was a credible play because I studied his hands: I realized he was a conservative player as per my book. I realized that I could make that play because I understood his patterns. A fast call on the flop followed by two more flush cards and blocker bet / value bet on the river. It screamed nuts. He is patient player and the pot wasn't much so he did what his pattern predicted he would do.

I am so tired of being felted by lucky morons on Jokerstars

I can't take it anymore, they are just so bad and so lucky. Russian players are the worst luckboxes. I can't help but think Pokerstars is crooked or they are cheating the game to win money. Jokerstars is the right euphemism for Pokerstars it's just so unfair.

I reraise 3 bet with KK and dummy Russian Mashulia7777 stops and thinks about it then all in with QQ. So already he proves he's not very smart. Perhaps he was checking my stats, well guess what another Russian wiped me out with quads. That Russian had KK twice in 4 hands. What a shock, Q on the river and he takes my money. Then he sits out and runs off. They are despicable skulking losers.

I don't want the insult of a crooked system and bad moronic players that get rewarded by stupidity. Seriously, they must know it's crooked they seem to know when to put the money in bad and suck out.

This is the dark side of online poker that all the glitzy ads and brand name endorsements do not tell you. The multi-table players get so lucky with cards you can't even trust AA is going to work. Frankly, AA and KK seem to run into the most suckouts online that you rarely seen with live cards. Skill accounts for nothing when they get low probability hands to win over and over.

I don't trust the random card generators on Pokerstars and Full Tilt anymore. The Russians will get lucky then run off with your money. I would not deposit with them anymore.

A Few Hands Too Many

Never play a few hands too many.

WSOP online poker by Playtika: Worst random generator = worst poker players

The online poker program, by Playtika, for the World Series of Poker / Caesar's Casino, has the worst random number generator (which causes the random card generator to function) is the worst poker game to play.

I have seen so many 60% hands lose to 10% hands, that it can't be a fair deal. I would recommend you not spend your money on this game. If  you are stacking up by paying for chips then be warned it's not a fair game.  That's how you know it's not working; the lowest probability hand keeps winning so people call with worst pair, no pair, for all their chips over and over to win hands that should have folded.  You can't keep calling all-ins with Queen-deuce offsuit over and over and expect to win.  For poker players that just want a thrill then that's fine. But don't practice the same way with real money.

While poker is a game expected to be played by different skill levels with expected better odds for the better players, this game by Playtika is crooked so any player is likely to lose more chips than gain them regardless of skill. This might just be the business model: make a crooked game to get people to keep spending $.99 for new chips knowing they can't keep them all. Rinse. Repeat.

How is this a crooked game when all players suffer the same bad beats? Easy. The online game generates fake AI players that play with the same bad decision making that get lucky and take your chips. And then they disappear. So the chips are taken from real players and deposited back into the houses bank. What an evil business plan by bankrupt Caesar's Casino.

What this poorly-done computer game has done is teach people to play poker so poorly that I dream for the days these players try the same decisions with real money on a table.  Yum yum.

The problem is directly resultant of stupid decisions getting rewarded again and again makes the game unplayable. You may as well flip a coin. At least the coin is fair.

Do not learn to play WSOP by Playtika and then try to play a real game of poker. 

Example of Psychological Counter Strategy

0.0.1 Counter Strategy

Here is an example of counter strategy - not playing the percentages and likely hand ranges like everyone teaches but instead playing player psychology. A tight Russian player raises from early. There is a middle caller who’s also a regular. I look down at  

 I am in the small blind so I think about calling. I recognize the first aggressor is normally tight so I don’t position reraise. I just call to see the flop and hope for a monster.

 

Naturally I am ahead of both players with the nuts. I know that tight Russian #1 might have a pair of aces. Other player has unknown since he was calling. I am sure if first aggressor has aces that he will lay them down to protect his stack if he thinks he'’s behind. 

 

There is a flush draw so I want to protect my hand. But more importantly, I want to trick them into thinking I am bluffing. There are two spades and the most likely play is reraise with two spades. Now, here is the psychology. The tendency is to protect an overpair. The tendency of all these pros is to assume the player has flush draw with an all-in. And the most important tendency is: someone goes all-in on a draw only and not a made hand. They always assume someone is bluffing if they go all in. If you had a made hand you would not want to push people off the pot. That makes them blind to the possibility that they are beaten. 

I am in the small blind to I am first to act.

I lead into the pot 60%.

That bet leads to a pot-sized reraise from the first aggressor. The middle player also calls which is confusing but OK.

Without much time, I reraise both of them all-in. That also looks suspicious, I am acting in the way they expect but not in the way they think.

The tight Russian calls without thinking. The other pro thinks about it for a moment and calls as well.

That was the entire hand, the rest is unimportant. Whether or not I win this hand, the point is I got two professional players to commit their stacks on the wrong impression. They turn over their hands. They made a wrong decision and were the ones behind, but were made to think they were ahead.

Tight Russian has  

  and the other hapless pro has

so at least he was drawing to win. But he's a 30% at best.  This is how you can triple up against "good" players.  It's not about ranges in any one hand, it's about out thinking them. They do the same action over and over and over. They aren't even thinking anymore.

Tight Russian is drawing dead. Hapless pro is drawing to the full house. Board runs out: 

I tripled up

      ♢

Get a chip lead, then go conservative

I was watching a rerun of the old 2013 NBC National Heads Up Championship, and it occured to me that Liv Boeree has forgotten how to play the cards at all.  She ran up a huge lead by aggression, which was well deserved apart from a flopped full house.  But then instead of tending the three to one chip lead she continued to make aggressive moves on her opponent.  She didn't need to.

And then she ran into on better hand and lost.

The reality in online poker is you make moves to get ahead and limit the chances you will be eliminated, then you sit on that lead until you get the cards to put your opponent away. 

Making moves when you are ahead is a pure luck play, you can't win every hand. That's why you need to make moves to begin with. But that's not the way to win.