Betting Patterns

doulikewaffles

doulikewaffles

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I'm really trying to get an advantage on my opponents...anyone know how to read opponents as far as the way they bet certain hands?
 
T

ThunderPT

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You just have to be observant and try to find patterns. When a players shows down his hand, run the hand from the beginning in your head now that you know what he had and remember the way he played it. After some hands, you may notice some patterns like, when a certain player raises pre-flop and then bets half of the pot on the flop, he missed his hand. When he hits on the flop, he either bets more, or checks intending to check-raise. This is good information to have and you'll be able to steal in these situations. You may even start calling his raises with rags pre-flop knowing you have an edge over him after the flop.

You may notice this other player will always bet half the pot after the flop when he was the pre-flop raiser, regardless of whether he hit or not, but will slow down and check the turn if he gets called. With this player, when he fires a second barrel you can be sure he's strong and if he checks you can probably bluff him out of the hand.

Just be observant.

Beware that the other players will probably start adjusting their game as soon as they notice you have a read on them, like, the first player would start to make half pot continuation bets with strong hands to trap you.
 
lektrikguy

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If the flop comes out and someone instantly bets out without seeing the flop first you know he has a good hand, but probably not a great hand. He's on a high pair or AK,maybe something high and suited. If you can hit a set you may be able to get a raise or two out of him easily.
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

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There's really no single answer to this - you've got to observe all of your opponents carefully, pay attention to the hands that they show down and make notes when you spot a pattern.

Some players like to minraise big pairs preflop. Some limp-shove them, some open-shove them, some bet 3BB and four-bet if raised, some bet 3BB and flat if raised. There's a whole mess of options there and that's just one very simple category.

Always try to put your opponents on ranges (as opposed to specific hands) too. Again, I'll go with the preflop example: a reasonably tight villain opens for 3BB preflop from the cutoff. What do they have? Even if we've seen them do this with KK before we don't know enough to say they have exactly KK. It could be 99+ / AJ+ / KQ or something like that.

Observe your opponents closely, pay attention to what they show down and take notes.
 
Pokerstudent

Pokerstudent

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If you are trying to learn betting patterns, then NO hand is a break for you. When you are in a hand, obviously you are paying attention. When you are not in a hand, you are studying the hands and ANTICIPATING what they have. You will be wrong a lot to begin with. But with practice, you will start to nail their hands because you practice.

Just like they say above, you will start to see new players make the same typical moves and realize what type of player you are playing. That's why it is funny when new players say that full ring live play is boring, I chuckle. I often wonder.....Do you have a read on EVERY player at the table? I call it "Guess Their Hand". If you can start to do that, I believe your hand reading skills will go through the roof!
 
fletchdad

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I think it was Harrington on Holdem where I read this. Start with the player to your left. Observe him, try to get a feel for what his range is UTG to BB. See how close you are every time he shows. When you start to see that you are getting him down, include the player to his left. Same thing. Then include the player to your right. Make this something you consciously do every hand, every game. The more you do this, the more you will see yourself improving. Keep adding players to your list as you go. As pokerstudent said, every hand, whether you are in it or not, is important. It is even easier when you are out of the hand, as you are under no pressure to make decisions, and it can be fun to try to put all the involved players on hands. And, also as mentioned above, do this religiously and you will see improvement, probably sooner than you think.
 
Arjonius

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One thing I try to watch for is differences in bet sizing so that I can try to correlate them to different hand ranges or parts of ranges. As a fairly simple example, if you notice someone c-bets half pot sometimes and 2/3 at other times, it may help narrow / define his range. If you see that after betting 2/3, the person consistently shows down at least top pair, that's pretty helpful info. People shouldn't do things like this, but they do anyway. Some even do them knowing they shouldn't.
 
Poker Orifice

Poker Orifice

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Are you referring to tournament play.. (nlhe).. or cash tables?
If MTT... there's lots of stuff to watch for (ie. do they play their draws fast?).
One typical betting pattern by weaker players when they're weak is (ie. if AK miss or something like that).. they'll cbet flop.. let's just say for this example.. 4bb.. ~2/3 pot.(4bb). then they barrel the turn but only bet the 'same'.. 4bb... then same on river.. 4bb.. this is almost always weak.
 
dresturn2

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i like to start out with if they bet when they hit or not, if they bet their draws....what they raise with in certain positions things like that and i assign a color to them on fulltilt
 
bonflizubi

bonflizubi

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pereflop raise sizing will tell you so much more than anything in tourneys.

anyone open raise more than 3x is scared money.. or,
if you see a 4x open say... make a note. see if later they raise for only 3x or less say. I'd lay good odds they are raising more with better hands.

So take notes on minriases, >3x raises.. and certainly anyone that regularly 7x's pre (yes I've seen it in tnys. Hopefully you'll see a showdown or two and be able to correlate things...
 
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