How do my opponents think...?

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vis

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Hi,
First of, I'm new to this forum so if this is the wrong section or anything please let me know.

When I play online I'm having trouble 'labeling' my opponents. In the way they think and thus how they play their hands. I use holdem manager 2 with notecaddy and even with large samples a lot of times I'm completely lost.
Opposed to online, when I play live, I pick little pieces of information about my opponents up, like the way they play a certain hand obviously , how they talk about poker, how they approach the game etc. And use that to make my decisions.
Mostly when I play online and I see stats like 36/6/3,2 and get checkraised OTF holding TPTK following a potsize bet OTT and 3/4 bet OTR, I just assume he's a moron and I'll be the payoff wizard, who's the moron now?
Maybe I'm just running like shit these days but I feel like I've been paying these guys off alot. Just because I never ever believe them somehow online or can't paint a picture of my opponent based on their stats.
By the way; I rarely take notes because I play on partypoker and their software is shit so its useless.

Any (useful) input is welcome!
 
akaRobbo

akaRobbo

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vis said:
Mostly when I play online and I see stats like 36/6/3,2 and get checkraised OTF holding TPTK following a potsize bet OTT and 3/4 bet OTR, I just assume he's a moron and I'll be the payoff wizard, who's the moron now?
Maybe I'm just running like shit these days but I feel like I've been paying these guys off alot. Just because I never ever believe them somehow online or can't paint a picture of my opponent based on their stats.
Click to expand...

Whenever you're getting check-raised, even just raised by a fish (36/6/3,2 stats you mentioned), you're probably in big trouble. They are loose-passive, they love checking and calling, and rarely raise or fold. Im not surprised TPTK is losing against fish check-raising you, they'll have the nuts almost every time.

What stakes are you playing at? If its micros then don't try and play too complex tricky stuff, dont try and pull off hero calls or big bluffs against these players. Their play is that bad, that if you just keep to ABC poker you will beat them easily. When you have a good hand, value bet every street and dont be worried about them snap calling, just be wary of raises.

Good luck
 
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sleepymike

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vis said:
Hi,
First of, I'm new to this forum so if this is the wrong section or anything please let me know.

When I play online I'm having trouble 'labeling' my opponents. In the way they think and thus how they play their hands. I use holdem manager 2 with notecaddy and even with large samples a lot of times I'm completely lost.
Opposed to online, when I play live, I pick little pieces of information about my opponents up, like the way they play a certain hand obviously , how they talk about poker, how they approach the game etc. And use that to make my decisions.
quote]


What helps me is labeling people (at online tables) with names of people I play a lot with live, that way I get a better sense of how they may be playing.
ie: he plays just like Jack, what would Jack do in this situation.
Click to expand...
 
NCDaddy

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I tend to have this same problem. Online, I've tried to not label so much but rather take extensive notes on hands that stick out. (I know you said you didn't do that...but maybe find a different method since PS is a POS?) I don't use a HUD so I don't go by #'s in that respect. I've found that if I make a quick judgment and label someone too early, I could be wrong and it ends up biting me in the tukus in the long run. Especially if you play on Bovada...where you kind of have to make a quick judgment due to the anon factor..you really have to be very very observant and take notes. That's just me anyway.
 
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vis

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Thats why what I got notecaddy for, to take my notes.. At leats that was the idea. Does anyone know what notes I have to look for in order to get an idea of how someone thinks?
 
NCDaddy

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Ah..missed that in your previous post. Sorry - coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

I think what you do is after some good note taking look for betting patterns or things that look odd based on the play of each hand. From that you can make a judgment and label accordingly. Each player will be different in that some patterns or red flags will show sooner than others. Betting patterns, at least online, can be a huge bank of information.
 
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DenverDave

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Look for hands that seem less than standard. Opening with hands OTB then calling a 3bet that would be out of their PFR stat. I hate that when someone is loose/tight, 40/10 and then opens with 56s and flops an OESD or non nut FD. Or hits the flush and then checks the flop and will call to river. Things like that.
 
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Sneaky Feet

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I don't know if this helps or not but what I've started doing is adding an asterix every time I play against a villian. That way I know how complete my notes are which allows me to play them accordingly.
 
Arjonius

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The utility of labeling opponents depends on how good your labeling system is and how accurately you can apply the labels. For instance, simply labeling all weak players as fish is better than not labeling them at all, but not as good as discriminating between different sub-types of fish.
 
Keith_MM

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you can take notes in HEM and helps as you can add to those notes with post session reviews or have those notes available during post session review. Letting software take notes for you is ok for giving general impressions of how they play ( an extension of HUD ststs) put may not give you specific leaks until; you have a big sample on a player.
 
Aces2w1n

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Opponents all think different about the game. Fun, Serious, Think about every single card different. Different Strategy.
 
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BlakeBrown

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I take good notes on most players as I am playing them, most sites will let you do this... It does not take long and pretty soon you start running into players that you have notes on and it is good money... For example, I ran into a player online that I previously took notes saying that the player bets the pot every time they have a good hand and bets 2/3 to 3/4 when they do not... I know this is a fishy example but guess who got paid off for taking notes :proud:
 
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