Putting opponents on a hand

I have been playing poker for about a year, mostly live one table tournaments with my friends and i consider my play relatively solid, but one of my weaknesses is that i am not very good at putting people on hands, does anybody have any tips in how i can encrease my reading skills?

LOL how about a book

No seriously some are obvious like the flush.. not always but 3 cards of the same suit especially on the flop normally means someone has a flush.

Most of the time though someone usually has TPTK(top pair top kicker)

When someone calls your raise or raises before the action gets to you think about what they might have based on what you have seen them do previously or if the player is unknown what you might make the same bet with in their position (stack size, table position, etc.). You don't generally get it exactly right, but you'll have a good range that you can narrow down as the board cards are revealed and the betting unfolds.

Practice when you're not in the hand and you'll get better at getting it right.

I find that it is nearly impossible to put an opponent on any one hand (there are exceptions to this), which is where the concept of range comes in. The idea is to figure out a range of hands that your opponent might have based on their betting/calls/raises.

once you get the hang of it, you can do stuff like this:

PokerStars Game #13574050585: Tournament #68062611, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (2000/4000) - 2007/11/30 - 23:59:46 (ET)
Table '68062611 160' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: l_JERRY_l (85136 in chips)
Seat 3: guesswho75 (10690 in chips)
Seat 4: Muriatila (54035 in chips)
Seat 5: azary2 (39604 in chips)
Seat 6: janusj (177875 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: BabyHumvee (128322 in chips)
Seat 8: VooDooVenne (135801 in chips)
Seat 9: britter2 (84468 in chips)
l_JERRY_l: posts the ante 200
guesswho75: posts the ante 200
Muriatila: posts the ante 200
azary2: posts the ante 200
janusj: posts the ante 200
BabyHumvee: posts the ante 200
VooDooVenne: posts the ante 200
britter2: posts the ante 200
janusj: posts small blind 2000
BabyHumvee: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BabyHumvee [2c 2h]
VooDooVenne: folds
britter2: calls 4000 Limper = Some sort of Ace or low-mid pair?
l_JERRY_l: folds
guesswho75: folds
Muriatila: folds
azary2: folds
janusj: folds
BabyHumvee: checks
*** FLOP *** [9s 5c Jc]
BabyHumvee: checks
britter2: checks OPPONENT DID NOT CONNECT MOST LIKELY has ACE-X
*** TURN *** [9s 5c Jc] 6♥
BabyHumvee: checks
britter2: bets 8000 WHY WOULD a 6H help a PF raiser?
BabyHumvee: calls 8000
*** RIVER *** [9s 5c Jc 6h] 4♥ (obvious blank)
BabyHumvee: checks
britter2: bets 8000
BabyHumvee: calls 8000 EASY CALL WITH GOOD READ
*** SHOW DOWN ***
britter2: shows [Ad 7d] (high card Ace)
BabyHumvee: shows [2c 2h] (a pair of Deuces)
BabyHumvee collected 43600 from pot
britter2 said, "gc"
BabyHumvee said, "ty"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 43600 | Rake 0
Board [9s 5c Jc 6h 4h]
Seat 2: l_JERRY_l folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: guesswho75 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Muriatila folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: azary2 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: janusj (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: BabyHumvee (big blind) showed [2c 2h] and won (43600) with a pair of Deuces
Seat 8: VooDooVenne folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: britter2 showed [Ad 7d] and lost with high card Ace

If all else fails, study their betting patters and tendencies

My best read.

PokerStars Game #12720937834: Tournament #62797103, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2007/10/19 - 14:18:53 (ET)
Table '62797103 142' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Goozik (1360 in chips)
Seat 2: danat555 (1410 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: zipyflounder (1600 in chips)
Seat 4: jerseycat9 (1557 in chips)
Seat 5: jpmsr (1425 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: rogerqueen (2985 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: mcleaver (1665 in chips)
Seat 8: zerorespect (2480 in chips)
Seat 9: AlbanianGirl (1928 in chips)
danat555: posts small blind 15
zipyflounder: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Goozik [Ad Th]
jerseycat9: folds
jpmsr: folds
rogerqueen: folds
mcleaver: folds
zerorespect: folds
AlbanianGirl: calls 30
Goozik: raises 70 to 100
danat555: folds
zipyflounder: folds
AlbanianGirl: calls 70
*** FLOP *** [Qd 5s Tc]
AlbanianGirl: checks
Goozik: bets 100
AlbanianGirl: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Qd 5s Tc] 6♣
AlbanianGirl: checks
Goozik: checks
*** RIVER *** [Qd 5s Tc 6c] J♥
AlbanianGirl: bets 240
Goozik said, "Grr had u pegged on J10 too"
Goozik said, "Folding A10"
Goozik: folds
AlbanianGirl collected 445 from pot
AlbanianGirl: shows [Jd Td] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 445 | Rake 0
Board [Qd 5s Tc 6c Jh]
Seat 1: Goozik (button) folded on the River
Seat 2: danat555 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: zipyflounder (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: jerseycat9 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: jpmsr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: rogerqueen folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: mcleaver folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: zerorespect folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: AlbanianGirl collected (445)
Before you criticize that hand, yes I know I messed up by not betting the river.


How I made the read? Well really, watching the table is 90% of the battle. then knowing how that particular type of player(agressive,passive,tight,solid,etc) is gonna play a draw, or value call with any PP til you prove your hand, push with AK on a missed flop with a paired board.
But then the question is, how do I know what type of player is gonna play which situation in what way?
Answer for me at least, was to become that type of player. For a few MTT, or SNG or cash games. Whatever it takes for me to learn how to bet properly for differnt styles. I would play entire days nearly weeks at a time as a differnt "persona" of player. I would refrain from mixing up my play, stick to whatever I am trying to go with it, when I busted I opened up my instant hand history, took a look at my big pots won and lost. Took mental notes and some written ones as well of how I tried to get flush draws, open ended str draws, trips etc etc.

Some "persona" to try:
-Mr.Agressive- Aim for 30-50% flops seen, control the preflop action. Aim for 20-30 win percent of all hands dealt. Best way I found to try and do this was calling or continuation bet on flop. And force them out on turn w/out pushing. Learning how this "agressive" or "maniac" style is played will show help you learn to read those flop calls and turn agressive people. When you see how you are making a two bet approach you will spot the draw calls better, and this also helped me spot trips sometimes.
-Mr.Rock- Looking for top 10 hands only!!! Aim for 3-9% flops seen.
(If you honestly don't know what the top 10 hands are preflop look it up,learn it,memorize it, sticky it to your monitor w/ever you have to do to learn it.) Agressive preflop and flop with your monster hands for HU battles. Make the fold when the resistance is met and the board says so.
When you try playing really super tight, you will quickly see how the tight players at a table can have thier blinds taken away almost every round. Learning when you are called with PP is what I most got out of this.
-Mr.Swing- (does not work for turbos) First 20 hands of the event. FOLD!(Play Aces or Kings) take notes on other players at table, try to find the tight ppl, and the fish. For hands 21-41 Look to attack those ppls blinds that you were able to identify. By then you should have moved in a MTT and can repeat the process. In a SNG you should be nearing bubble play and can now play according to your notes and/or position.
This is a style I myself tried and ended up not liking to much, but I found when I did, I took some really good notes, then learned to exploit those ppl. So while this won't improve your card reading much. This is gonna help you learn to identify the people you are playing against, Then get you in the habit of taking in game notes on people, and learning to idetify people with-in 20 hands, which is about how long you usally have in SNG's b4 the table is smaller.(provided it's smaller buy-in) and in MTT this will help you get in the habit of FOLDING and not risking anyhting early til you have some targets.

One added thing that'll happen if you really try some differnt styles of playing, is you will be prepared to having to mix up your play late in MTT or on the bubble of SNG's. When you feel confterable with a playstyle that would seem to fit well into the current table,tourney,& chip position and you can mix it up and give it a shot, and have other "options" if you misread something and that style isn't working.

Hope that helps, sorry it got kinda long there.