reading help

thunder1276

thunder1276

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Ive been playing poker for a few years now, so i dont consider myself to be any sort of beginner but i cant seem to be able to make reads on people. I think my success has been mainly because my fundamentals are good but i can never really put people on a hand. does anybody have any tips that would make this a little easier.
 
SavagePenguin

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In order to get reads on people online you need to be playing against people who have some sort of understanding of the game.

Then you can put them on a range of hands, and extrapolate what they are likely to play.

You also pick up patterns that people do, like bet amounts.

If you play a lot of freerolls or micro-stakes tournaments you are often against people who do not understand the game or do not care. They do really crazy stuff so reads are very difficult or misleading.

That is, they don't understand position or the gap concept so the strength of their hands is masked by ignorance.
 
thunder1276

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Arjonius

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It's not a single leap from reading no one to reading everyone. Rather, it's a process. One way you can start improving is to pick a player or two and try to guess their hands, preferably every hand they play, not just the ones against you. Watch for what they show down with after limping, calling and raising, and in which positions.

It can also be a useful learning exercise to watch games you'd normally play in, or that you just busted out of. As above, start out by trying to figure out how a couple of people play, not the entire table.

Loose players are harder to read because they play more hands, which means they have broader hand ranges, so you might want to start by choosing people who are tighter and thus more predictable.
 
fletchdad

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It's not a single leap from reading no one to reading everyone. Rather, it's a process. One way you can start improving is to pick a player or two and try to guess their hands, preferably every hand they play, not just the ones against you. Watch for what they show down with after limping, calling and raising, and in which positions.

It can also be a useful learning exercise to watch games you'd normally play in, or that you just busted out of. As above, start out by trying to figure out how a couple of people play, not the entire table.

Loose players are harder to read because they play more hands, which means they have broader hand ranges, so you might want to start by choosing people who are tighter and thus more predictable.

^^^This!! Good Advice!

SavagePenguin post and Slycbnew's link also spot on. I had (have) the same problem as well, and it gets better with patience and work. The concept of start with one player, whether u r playing or not, is a real good one.
 
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budebuzz

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I have a few ideas on reading people, mostly in live games because I play mostly free rolls on-line and it's harder to do that unless you can see betting patterns. Live poker of course you see the person and get visual reads, lately I have gotten better at reading position bets, something you can detect on-line also where the bet is by position and how the table is being played, I can catch a lot of these and take advantage of that. Simple example is everyone folds to button, button raises to take the blinds. So if you are middle position and see this happening you may be able to raise depending on the players to your left betting style and take the pot pre flop.
 
Dreams of Tragedy

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in a live game. reading people is very easy, but online it is very hard to read people.

When i play live I don't even look at my cards untill it my turn to bet, the reason is that i watch other people reaction when they get there cards. Another way is to look them in the eyes and see it in there eyes.

Online you have to rely on betting patterns and the time and amount of the bets made.
 
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