sixpeppers
Poker Zion Coach
Silver Level
Here is my first article post for the site, this is an excerpt from my up and coming book called Quantum Poker. To get on the mailing list and possibly receive a free copy of my book PM me or reply below. For great instructional videos from me and many other pro's check us out at PokerZion.com. Enjoy:
The Art of Reaction
After studying poker thoroughly for the past 7+ years I feel I have mastered the concept of reacting – *instantly and correctly adjusting to any strategy set forth by my opponent’s. While NLHE is obviously my strongest game, the concept of taking information in, processing it to determine its meaning, and then implementing a strategy to counter the strategy behind the information, is the same throughout all poker games (and many other games as well). Reacting is very common in a poker game, but people talk about reacting much more than they actually react. When playing live poker you will often hear things like “if you keep raising my blind…” or “if you 3bet me one more time…” These are often empty threats made by player’s who are either not willing to adjust or incapable of it. It is better to just pay attention, take notes, and adjust (without saying anything).
I often see people that are new to poker watching videos and trying to copy strategies or use charts to determine what hands to play from what position. This is a good start to being a great poker player, but in the end you need to tell yourself what hands to play based on the information you receive and the situations unfolding around you at the poker table. A beginning player will often sit down at a poker table with a generic strategy that doesn’t change much, regardless of a 3bet happy reg to their left, or a huge fish to their right. This strategy will win you money at the lower stakes, but in a tough game, or as you move up the stakes, you will have a hard time beating the rake without dynamically reacting to the opponent-specific information presented to you at each instance of play.
On your first hand of poker vs. a completely random table of opponents there is an unexploitable range that you can raise with from each seat and show a profit. This is the hand chart range, it describes a setting in which all players are playing perfectly. As you start to notice non-perfect plays, like limping, passiveness, overplaying/underplaying hands, 3betting with unusually high frequencies, playing too many or few hands, etc. you need to start adjusting from an unexploitable strategy to an exploiting strategy. By the end of a session you should be playing each opponent differently and exploiting any and all mistakes at every opportunity. You should know which players are horrible, which players are good, and which players may be adjusting to what they see at the table as well (that’s when the tricky part of adjusting to their adjustments occurs, later on down the road leading to game theory and Pareto optimal play).
Two people that I picked up some of my reaction skills from are world class tournament pro’s Blair Hinkle and Phil Ivey. I have seen both of them instantly notice a live tell or misclick type of bet and instantly and quietly react to it (usually by 3betting), whereas a weaker player would look at their cards and then make a decision, or even say something like “I think you meant to make it 600, not 1000,” then fold their hand. Hello, you are here to win, not be nice. Take advantage of the information and punish the mistakes, immediately. It is important to make sure your play is still a good play, but making an adjustment when given extra information like increasing the believed fold equity because someone bet really small, or skewing your opponents range towards high cards instead of pairs due to their tendency to limp big pairs, is going to improve your game by leaps and bounds.
I’m not here to tell you how to react to every given situation, just that you need to react, fast and correctly. Watching videos, getting coaching, and gaining experience, will teach you what to do under many different situation’s, but every situation is completely unique, and while it may be similar to something you have run into in the past, you need to determine both the similarities and differences in order to adjust your play correctly. If you notice a completely unbalanced strategy, you can continue to adjust your strategy to the extreme such as situations where min-raising the button in heads-up poker is the best option, or 3betting someone 100% of the time. A perfect example of this is noticing someone who is never raising big pairs in EP. You should 3bet their EP opens relentlessly in position (and occasionally out of position), because they will never have a hand that can take the heat. A lesser example is instantly assuming that a certain preflop open size dictates a certain hand range. If your opponent 3x opens, you don’t see their cards, and it looks like a standard sizing for them, then they 5x open and you see 99 at showdown, assume there 5x open range is middle pairs and adjust accordingly until you see something else. Even though you only have a sample size of one hand they did this with, you may have many hands that they did not do this with, which does add merit to the read. Also, a sample size of one is a sample size and should be used as best as possible to determine future tendencies.
During any given hand there is so much information being shared with you. It is important that at all times you are paying attention, taking notes, and making adjustments, in order to show a profit. And trust me reacting properly can boost your winrate A LOT! So next time you are in a game, pay attention to the actions of the people around you and think to yourself, okay he did that, what can I do to exploit that? Then… do it!
The Art of Reaction
After studying poker thoroughly for the past 7+ years I feel I have mastered the concept of reacting – *instantly and correctly adjusting to any strategy set forth by my opponent’s. While NLHE is obviously my strongest game, the concept of taking information in, processing it to determine its meaning, and then implementing a strategy to counter the strategy behind the information, is the same throughout all poker games (and many other games as well). Reacting is very common in a poker game, but people talk about reacting much more than they actually react. When playing live poker you will often hear things like “if you keep raising my blind…” or “if you 3bet me one more time…” These are often empty threats made by player’s who are either not willing to adjust or incapable of it. It is better to just pay attention, take notes, and adjust (without saying anything).
I often see people that are new to poker watching videos and trying to copy strategies or use charts to determine what hands to play from what position. This is a good start to being a great poker player, but in the end you need to tell yourself what hands to play based on the information you receive and the situations unfolding around you at the poker table. A beginning player will often sit down at a poker table with a generic strategy that doesn’t change much, regardless of a 3bet happy reg to their left, or a huge fish to their right. This strategy will win you money at the lower stakes, but in a tough game, or as you move up the stakes, you will have a hard time beating the rake without dynamically reacting to the opponent-specific information presented to you at each instance of play.
On your first hand of poker vs. a completely random table of opponents there is an unexploitable range that you can raise with from each seat and show a profit. This is the hand chart range, it describes a setting in which all players are playing perfectly. As you start to notice non-perfect plays, like limping, passiveness, overplaying/underplaying hands, 3betting with unusually high frequencies, playing too many or few hands, etc. you need to start adjusting from an unexploitable strategy to an exploiting strategy. By the end of a session you should be playing each opponent differently and exploiting any and all mistakes at every opportunity. You should know which players are horrible, which players are good, and which players may be adjusting to what they see at the table as well (that’s when the tricky part of adjusting to their adjustments occurs, later on down the road leading to game theory and Pareto optimal play).
Two people that I picked up some of my reaction skills from are world class tournament pro’s Blair Hinkle and Phil Ivey. I have seen both of them instantly notice a live tell or misclick type of bet and instantly and quietly react to it (usually by 3betting), whereas a weaker player would look at their cards and then make a decision, or even say something like “I think you meant to make it 600, not 1000,” then fold their hand. Hello, you are here to win, not be nice. Take advantage of the information and punish the mistakes, immediately. It is important to make sure your play is still a good play, but making an adjustment when given extra information like increasing the believed fold equity because someone bet really small, or skewing your opponents range towards high cards instead of pairs due to their tendency to limp big pairs, is going to improve your game by leaps and bounds.
I’m not here to tell you how to react to every given situation, just that you need to react, fast and correctly. Watching videos, getting coaching, and gaining experience, will teach you what to do under many different situation’s, but every situation is completely unique, and while it may be similar to something you have run into in the past, you need to determine both the similarities and differences in order to adjust your play correctly. If you notice a completely unbalanced strategy, you can continue to adjust your strategy to the extreme such as situations where min-raising the button in heads-up poker is the best option, or 3betting someone 100% of the time. A perfect example of this is noticing someone who is never raising big pairs in EP. You should 3bet their EP opens relentlessly in position (and occasionally out of position), because they will never have a hand that can take the heat. A lesser example is instantly assuming that a certain preflop open size dictates a certain hand range. If your opponent 3x opens, you don’t see their cards, and it looks like a standard sizing for them, then they 5x open and you see 99 at showdown, assume there 5x open range is middle pairs and adjust accordingly until you see something else. Even though you only have a sample size of one hand they did this with, you may have many hands that they did not do this with, which does add merit to the read. Also, a sample size of one is a sample size and should be used as best as possible to determine future tendencies.
During any given hand there is so much information being shared with you. It is important that at all times you are paying attention, taking notes, and making adjustments, in order to show a profit. And trust me reacting properly can boost your winrate A LOT! So next time you are in a game, pay attention to the actions of the people around you and think to yourself, okay he did that, what can I do to exploit that? Then… do it!
