Reading your opponent's hand in online poker

tscheniizu · Mar 19, 2019

Hi there,

Beginner-basic-question to improve my game..
I guess it's a very often discussed topic and I hope that there are not so many threads about it yet but I really need your help here (sorry, have been searching for a topic like this but couldn't find one...)

How do you know or guess what's in your opponents' hand? It's an important thing to calculate my odds and I'm honestly not very good at it. Ran into bluffs and in good hands as well when I thought of bluffs (as the hand didn't fit to the behavior.. was worth nothing 'til the river came) there - so I lost many chips this way.

Already heard about things like "Raises --> Asses or Kings, strong pairs..." and so on but in the end the hands are often completely different. I know that it might depend on the different types of players but if I don't know my opponents yet (new table,...), how to handle it?

Does it matter for my calculation if my guesses are totally wrong?

Thanks a lot for your patience and your answers.

5pAce_C0wb0y · Mar 19, 2019

tscheniizu said:
Hi there,

Beginner-basic-question to improve my game..
I guess it's a very often discussed topic and I hope that there are not so many threads about it yet but I really need your help here (sorry, have been searching for a topic like this but couldn't find one...)

How do you know or guess what's in your opponents' hand? It's an important thing to calculate my odds and I'm honestly not very good at it. Ran into bluffs and in good hands as well when I thought of bluffs (as the hand didn't fit to the behavior.. was worth nothing 'til the river came) there - so I lost many chips this way.

Already heard about things like "Raises --> Asses or Kings, strong pairs..." and so on but in the end the hands are often completely different. I know that it might depend on the different types of players but if I don't know my opponents yet (new table,...), how to handle it?

Does it matter for my calculation if my guesses are totally wrong?

Thanks a lot for your patience and your answers.

Forget being able to put a player on an exact hand. Instead concentrate on being able to narrow an opponents range. This takes a lot of off felt practice first to drum into your brain and be able to start applying it in game. I recommend searching YouTube for Sky Matsuhashi's 66 days of hand reading. This will show you the process and then you can start trying it with hands from your own hand history.

tscheniizu · Mar 19, 2019

Thanks a lot for your answer - I will definitely check it out!

Little question: Can players who only concentrate on their own hand - which seems to be done by many new players - be successfull? I mean - Checking the own hand and check possible hands (Flush while having three of a kind,...) after the river is a quite easy way to see if yours is the no 1 hand or if there are possible better ones...
Combined with some observations (bluffing a lot, playing tight or aggressive...) maybe...Only out of curiosity.
Guess it's quite risky sometimes and difficult to handle. Don't see a way to bet correctly.

Will definitely go for the "reading your opponents"-way and gonna read a lot of theory.

Thanks.

8bod8 · Mar 19, 2019

Online, you get little information about your opponent.
You can check leaderboards, or sharscope etc for longer term performance.
Your opponent read:
- collect information: how often does this person play, in what situation, with what stack, when does he/she/it fold, any relation between time and hand?
- from the information, see if your hand is better or worse, or can you make the other fold?

praevus · Mar 19, 2019

8bod8 said:
Online, you get little information about your opponent.
You can check leaderboards, or sharscope etc for longer term performance.
Your opponent read:
- collect information: how often does this person play, in what situation, with what stack, when does he/she/it fold, any relation between time and hand?
- from the information, see if your hand is better or worse, or can you make the other fold?

Exactly, you have to collect informations about your opponent when you play against him.

molokheia · Mar 19, 2019

Hi There
This is the most diffult thing of online poker
I only play online and i tell you: It is very difficult to read players
Yday was playing and near the buble had KK. Everybody went out except
one guy who called my All-in. He had A9 And he got two more nines and went to bed...
Rgds

eetenor · Mar 19, 2019

Hand ranges beginner

tscheniizu said:
Hi there,

Beginner-basic-question to improve my game..
I guess it's a very often discussed topic and I hope that there are not so many threads about it yet but I really need your help here (sorry, have been searching for a topic like this but couldn't find one...)

How do you know or guess what's in your opponents' hand? It's an important thing to calculate my odds and I'm honestly not very good at it. Ran into bluffs and in good hands as well when I thought of bluffs (as the hand didn't fit to the behavior.. was worth nothing 'til the river came) there - so I lost many chips this way.

Already heard about things like "Raises --> Asses or Kings, strong pairs..." and so on but in the end the hands are often completely different. I know that it might depend on the different types of players but if I don't know my opponents yet (new table,...), how to handle it?

Does it matter for my calculation if my guesses are totally wrong?

Thanks a lot for your patience and your answers.

Thank you for sharing.

Example of hand ranging basic idea.

You vs villain low limit game.
Flop Ah Kc 10c villain makes big bet, check raise, pot size bet or shove. Villains range is?

AA KK 1010 AK A10 QJ K10 Axcc Ax off suit.... value range J9cc Q9cc Qxcc Jxcc 98cc 97cc 87cc 86cc etc .....semi bluff range 45hh etc.... donk bluff range

That is a possible range in a low limit game with a loose aggressive player.

A loose passive player has only the best of his range for aggressive bets. The rest of his range is calls or checks.

A tight passive player is only raising AA KK 1010 QJ-- AK but not always.

The range changes based on the style of play for both you and your opponent. If your opponent is thinking that is. If not it is just OPP style that helps.

That is one way to range an opponent. Do they even think about what you have?

Ranging Opponents is where you should focus all your efforts right now.

xy23 · Mar 19, 2019

As you already read, it's mainly about putting your opponent's on a range. I know it sounds complicated and it kinda is but it's only been about 2-3 months for me where I began studying and focusing on ranges and it's already improved my game drastically. Keep asking questions here if you have any and good luck at the tables!

Kanaaduh · Mar 19, 2019

I think reading people is the hardest part for me. I was told to always believe that they have something, until they prove they don't.

roger perkins · Mar 19, 2019

you just have to give it your best guess. think how would i have played it if i had XX. you have to know what the villain did in similar situations. how fast did he act how fast does he usually act. what is his situation is he short stacked, tilted, a bully is he acting normally. reading hands is gathering as much as possible then acting on your gut feeling. it takes lots and lots of practice.

Cody5991 · Mar 19, 2019

I think more than actually knowing what is in other players hands you have to understand what other players habits are and what the best cards you can have given the community cards is....it can be very hard in a lot of cases but in many you should be able to guess atleast one of their cards

tscheniizu · Apr 9, 2019

Hi Guys,

Thanks a lot! I'd started to make notes for every single player, including behaviour and every hand I was able to see.

That's quite helpful as some reactions were predictable. Found my way to the final table in a very small tournament

marcumx · Apr 9, 2019

im always assuming villian has aces , kings, or AK, and then decide on his bet size on the flop. what i am doing is trying to guess in the acr freeroll on demand what someone has and so far have been around 40%

poker_bro · Apr 10, 2019

I use a hand reading trainer App from google store. Very helpful

HaroldHouse · Apr 10, 2019

Jonathan Little has a lot of free content on hand ranges. I think his webinar thinking in hand ranges is free now. You can search youtube or google him.

blueskies · Apr 10, 2019

Betting pattern is the best clue I think. And your prior history with the guy.

tscheniizu · Apr 11, 2019

poker_bro said:
I use a hand reading trainer app from google store. Very helpful

Which one would you recommend? Just found "Poker Trainer" but haven't tried it yet.

Erpherk · Apr 11, 2019

Everything on the table is info, what position the raise came from, how much was the raise, do they c bet a lot .. They will represent what they have a lot of the time and if you can figure out how they play hands and what ranges they are on you can make better choices on the flop turn and river.

poker_bro · Apr 11, 2019

tscheniizu said:
Which one would you recommend? Just found "Poker Trainer" but haven't tried it yet.

That one. They have also pot odds trainer, playing a draw etc. Very helpful.

Reading your opponent's hand in online poker

tscheniizu

Rising Star

5pAce_C0wb0y

Rock Star

tscheniizu

Rising Star

8bod8

Legend

praevus

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molokheia

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eetenor

Legend

xy23

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Kanaaduh

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roger perkins

Visionary

Cody5991

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tscheniizu

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marcumx

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poker_bro

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HaroldHouse

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blueskies

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tscheniizu

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Erpherk

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poker_bro

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