Opponents hand...

So I was wondering how do you guys develop ability to figure out opponents hand ex Daniel Negreanu does it all the time(not always successful but pretty close). How do you train yourself? Does it just come with experience and amounts of hands played or there is a specific way you train yourself? Any good articles to read that can help me out with that? Thanks a lot

Time and experience have made the biggest difference for me. You start out only thinking about your cards. Then you start thinking about your opponents cards but suck as figuring them out. Then as you keep playing you start to get a sense of what cards people are likely to be holding based on their playing styles. So on and So forth. I don't think there is any book you can read that will make you suddenly get it, it is learned slowly.

it's all about a range of hands. Before any action, the range a villain can have is ATC. When a tight player raises all of a sudden that range tightens up considerably. You assume he no longer has 24o. As he makes more and more actions you can narrow that range more and more. Definitely something you have to learn from experience though. As you work on this skill it gets better and better. Books can help, but there is no substitute for experience.

zachvac said:

it's all about a range of hands. Before any action, the range a villain can have is ATC. When a tight player raises all of a sudden that range tightens up considerably. You assume he no longer has 24o. As he makes more and more actions you can narrow that range more and more. Definitely something you have to learn from experience though. As you work on this skill it gets better and better. Books can help, but there is no substitute for experience.

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agreed. Another thing that is important is learning to take good notes and going through the hand histories when players show down thier cards. How they bet certain hands, how they play thier different draws, bluffing frequencies, thier hands that they are playing from different positions, bet sizing, etc. etc. It can be a lot of work sometimes, but if you can pick up a pot or know when to lay down a good hand based on some of your notes it can help you a lot in the longrun

The best way to practice is, while you're out of the action, watch players play a hand and at the river, write down on a paper what you think they have. Often there won't be a showdown, maybe a bet fold on the river, but when there is a showdown you can see how close you were to reading them correct. After a lot of practice you can usually know exactly what hand a player has.

I have played alot of live poker as well as online and have become pretty good at guessing hands during live play. When I'm not in a hand I look for ways they play different cards and how they bet certain hands and if you are able to gather enough information, it's often pretty easy to predict your opponents two hole cards.

The best part of it is when you guess correctly, and say after the hand, "You had Ace King didn't you," and they turn over the ace king. The look and expression on their face just never gets old!

Against TAG opponents it is easy to find out the hands, but it gets alot tougher against LAG opponents...

When I am playing against LAG opponents it is always a little gambling going on...

Zach hit the nail on the head, its all about Range. On tv, when facing a big bet or re-raise you will often hear Negreneau or Hansen talk to themselves and say something in the lines of "you don't have this hand, definitely not that, maybe you have that, oooh that will be sick" see for yourself.

YouTube - daniel negreanu and gus hansen on high stakes poker

Well , i think its just a matter of time!
what I mean is, you should see how your opponet play at least a few hands before you know anything about the way he play .
you should focus on the fish first ( weak player).

If you cant tell who is the sucker, then you are the sucker!