Amateur Love Music

Getting Information

December 17, 2009 on 10:01 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

Poker is a game of incomplete information, so the more you can get about your opponents, the better edge you gain in the game. Since most online poker players know this, they will try to maintain a “poker face” and not give away information if they can help it.

How do you get information about your opponents? The first way is carefully observe which hands they play to narrow their range of starting hands. By focusing on this, you can confidently believe that one players never bets on anything less than a medium pair and that another player is as likely to bet on small suited connectors as on a big pair.

You can gain insights into hands by looking for patterns. Take notice is a player only raises with Aces or Kings from early position or if another player always raises from the button or when in the blind. This will make those players more predictable for you to read.

At live online poker tables, you should look for clues from body language. For instance, one player who plans on calling or betting behind you will always sit back a bit with arms resting on the edge of the table or else keep one hand on the table to fold the cards. A player may briefly grimace when looking at a poor hand, or quickly count their chip stack in anticipation of betting. Look for these types of subtle signals you can identify from those players to your immediate left.