We all know what to do when the great cards come our way. But do you know how to correctly follow your reads on your opponents to keep from making big mistakes? By stopping and analyzing the known information we have in front of us, it can flip seemingly "no-brainer" decisions on their head. Our Ambassador and Poker Expert Katie Dozier shows us how:

You Tube

Would you be able to make the same play?

This is called Expert level of reading, lol!

Me hardly folding there as I am opportunity oriented player

Quite an interesting hand. I don't think I could lay down the KK in this situation. A strong decision. Thanks for the lesson, a hand dropped in time will save your nerves. Reading opponents is really very important.

To reach this level of play, you have to also abandon the mentality that getting AA or KK always entitles you to win the pot and that you got cheated if you didn't. If you don't improve post-flop, it's just one pair which can easily be beat.

Going on tilt and blaming the site for being rigged, the other players for being donks, etc. while doing nothing to analyze your own play is completely counter-productive.

Originally Posted by Propane Goat

To reach this level of play, you have to also abandon the mentality that getting AA or KK always entitles you to win the pot and that you got cheated if you didn't. If you don't improve post-flop, it's just one pair which can easily be beat.

Going on tilt and blaming the site for being rigged, the other players for being donks, etc. while doing nothing to analyze your own play is completely counter-productive.

This is such a great point, and I think a mistake that many of us do and have made. Everything in poker is situational. You cannot always expect the same outcome every time.

Awww, thanks so much for the nice comments in this thread, I really appreciate them all!

Originally Posted by Propane Goat

To reach this level of play, you have to also abandon the mentality that getting AA or KK always entitles you to win the pot and that you got cheated if you didn't. If you don't improve post-flop, it's just one pair which can easily be beat.

Going on tilt and blaming the site for being rigged, the other players for being donks, etc. while doing nothing to analyze your own play is completely counter-productive.

+1

Good video. Helpful advice , and again it takes a lot of patience to play those hands or not play them. I have lost more times with AA, and even KK - so I know hard it is to fold them. If I haven't gone allin , then I usually end up folding them to.
Going allin whenever one gets either of those hands or even other monster hands doesn't make a good player. It is just part of the game to watch the other players and see what they shove with, if the cards are shown , that auto muck isn't the best for others to see sometimes. But if you can see what they go allin with or even raise with , that gives you a better idea.

Thanks, Bev + vuk011!

Hi Tammy, a true professional. I lost with KK.

If we assume that the opponent has collected a set, then our outs are kings and spades. Two spades on the flop. However, the opponent blocks the flush with the ace of spades. I'd make a pass on the turn, maybe. I think you have studied those who played with you. It's a hard fold.

What a great read. I play against other opponents who try to pull the same thing and limp or min bet from early position with a monster. It's one of those plays that clever opponents will make because they see EP limps getting big raises from the back, this play will often work on players that don't pay attention. Nice work!

Competent fold. In this situation, I would not fold KK. One of the differences between professionals and amateurs in poker is the folding of strong hands at the right time.

when u catch on to that bluffin player especially if hes big stacked u can get him to push u in when you have the best hand

Thanks guys! The “villain” in this hand was def a winning reg that I’d accumulated thousands of hands with. It was also a good reminder to me to always just shove when we’re the one in villain’s shoes instead of trying to induce when it should look suspicious to anyone paying attention.

Really appreciate all the nice comments, you guys rock!

Sometimes fold is the most appropriate option, even with the hands KK ,although this is sometimes quite difficult to do

just go through this situation in caedschat league today, I had a KK and increased 1k my opponent called and the flop hit a J4A my opponent moved all in and I called and turned into a 29 and he had a JJ and lost the game at the It beginning not reads well my opponent

Awesome fold, I'm miles away of being a winner poker player. I'll keep trying

Originally Posted by rayrc

Awesome fold, I'm miles away of being a winner poker player. I'll keep trying

Thanks guys!


Rayrc: keep trying and I know you’ll get there! Thanks for your nice comment.

Definitely vital to pay attention to bet sizing tells. Particularly in the CC freeroll games with some moderate to inexperienced players in the field they don't mask the strength of their holdings when opening pots.

Awesome fold! Sometimes it might be interesting to just limp with KK. Now, knowing the profile of each one at the table is very important for you to make better decisions.

Originally Posted by acidburnfx

Now, knowing the profile of each one at the table is very important for you to make better decisions.

Very true, and thanks for your nice words!

I'm getting flashbacks from all the times I get my big pairs cracked. I also just got them cracked by a set of fives binked on the river in a flip. Also, what's the rationale behind limping here instead of raising if you don't mind me asking? Trapping?(which I like to do myself from time to time) Saving some chips for that hero fold?

Wow the hand of KK incredibly well played, few players have the reading to play like this, great video, very didactic.

Of course, reading the hands of opponents is an important element in a successful poker game. If you learn to read the hands of your poker rivals correctly, you can assume that poker success is in your pocket. And this video really helps with that.

This video blows my brain... Everywhere, in all manuals and strategies, it is said that we should pre-flop raise with AA. Player 3 did not do this; he was limping preflop. This already makes the whole hand - not right. By the way, in the end, player 3 was punished, allowing the player on the BB to get thrips from the flop for free.

Of course, we must track and flag players with such irregular lines of the game.

Although I already have made a comment on this video, here's another thought, associated to a news post I commented on earlier:
Why the heck slow-play Aces? I think that slow-play pre-flop is a disaster just waiting to take place! Suppose Katie wasn't the psychic, and went along to showdown, the A2 villain would have been even happier.
Opposed to the other strategy video, that Colin uploaded for us, where slow-playing after the flop is a chip-eater, that move was pure suicide.
One more time, congrats for the read, Katie!

The key point is that when you really have a read on your opponent this fold becomes easy, because you literally know your hand is beaten...
Unfortunately I don't have this skill level in getting reads. I once had a guy in my weekly home game that was reafable like an open book. Even I could figure out precisely when he had a really strong hand. Against him i won a lot of chips, but also made some laydowns with super strong hands because i was so sure i was beaten by something even better and the times he showed his hand uncalled i was usually correct...
Hopefully I can soon spice ip my reading skills at the tables when i start to work as a dealer in the local casino. It's a great opportunity to work on it without having to put any money at stake

Fantastic, it helped me a lot to see it, I think I have to improve my game a lot, unfortunately I have a lot of flaws in my game, lately I also had a bad run, thanks for the video I will put into practice what I learned

Originally Posted by Katie Dozier

Awww, thanks so much for the nice comments in this thread, I really appreciate them all!

Thanks for the clip! If possible, do you have this same game with your Poker Tracker statistics lined up underneath the players? Or, do you have similar games where you can justify your play based on the "statistical profile" of a player that is visible?

I'm a micro player who sometimes binges on PStars satellite games (spins, small MTT's) like I'm doing presently during this Bounty Fest. To go deep into a big game I need to make the most of my marginal hands and because I am "unknown" to the regular big players I may be underestimated here and there. Along with Shark Scope and Poker Tracker, I do my best to suss out "who is playing off who" and learn by example on the fly to size my bets and correlate them with semi and pure bluffs. The good hands usually are easier to work with.

In your clip, had you bet out, what would have been A2's threshold to fold if you were to guess? I would have gone that route first to get him out. AA would probably have tried to trap me by calling or slightly raising..I've had AA vs another AA and had sometimes won/lost due to a flush after some interesting betting.

As a final note regarding poker playing AI, have you heard of "Pluribus?"

Any comments would be appreciated and hope to meet you at the tables!

Originally Posted by Polytarp

Thanks for the clip! If possible, do you have this same game with your Poker Tracker statistics lined up underneath the players? Or, do you have similar games where you can justify your play based on the "statistical profile" of a player that is visible?

I'm a micro player who sometimes binges on PStars satellite games (spins, small MTT's) like I'm doing presently during this Bounty Fest. To go deep into a big game I need to make the most of my marginal hands and because I am "unknown" to the regular big players I may be underestimated here and there. Along with Shark Scope and Poker Tracker, I do my best to suss out "who is playing off who" and learn by example on the fly to size my bets and correlate them with semi and pure bluffs. The good hands usually are easier to work with.

In your clip, had you bet out, what would have been A2's threshold to fold if you were to guess? I would have gone that route first to get him out. AA would probably have tried to trap me by calling or slightly raising..I've had AA vs another AA and had sometimes won/lost due to a flush after some interesting betting.

As a final note regarding poker playing AI, have you heard of "Pluribus?"

Any comments would be appreciated and hope to meet you at the tables!

Unfortunately I don’t have the clip with my normal stats as I no longer have those hands in my PT4 database as it was on a different computer than I use now. Suffice it to say I knew exactly which reg was limping and iirc had over 25k hands with them—this is the type of play where I had to be totally sure of their play in order to make the correct fold

I would never bet out here as I’m playing shove fold 99.99% of the time with my stack here. Otherwise I’m presenting the opportunity for another person to sniff out my big hand. So this is a raaaaare exception where I don’t simply shove pre over a limp, as I think it is important to balance my range and do this with huge hands in addition to the many weaker holdings that I would shove were this not a reg suspiciously limping before me.

I believe Pluribus is the NL bot that won a match earlier this year, pretty wild!

Everyone, thanks for your continued nice comments, I appreciate it and am glad you enjoyed the hand too!

Awesome reading! Some players with short stack in those situations usually limp in early positions with strong hands, but you did an incredible aces reading. I think I couldn't have folded the kings despite the suspicion.

A really good video. It shows how to avoid a mistake I have don over and over.

Last night i lost with a pair of KK, i went all in and the 2 remaining players followed.
The first player had 88 and the next had 9 and 10 of hearts, and at the river there was 3 hearts and the last was an 8.
One player with 888
One player with flush
One player with KK
So i was busted.

Originally Posted by lucas24

Awesome reading! Some players with short stack in those situations usually limp in early positions with strong hands, but you did an incredible aces reading. I think I couldn't have folded the kings despite the suspicion.

Thanks very much!

Originally Posted by Anders1616

A really good video. It shows how to avoid a mistake I have don over and over.

Last night i lost with a pair of KK, i went all in and the 2 remaining players followed.
The first player had 88 and the next had 9 and 10 of hearts, and at the river there was 3 hearts and the last was an 8.
One player with 888
One player with flush
One player with KK
So i was busted.

Thank you and I hope you have better luck next time!

Originally Posted by Tammy

We all know what to do when the great cards come our way. But do you know how to correctly follow your reads on your opponents to keep from making big mistakes? By stopping and analyzing the known information we have in front of us, it can flip seemingly "no-brainer" decisions on their head. Our Ambassador and Poker Expert Katie Dozier shows us how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DY7W_JnFrg

Would you be able to make the same play?

Are you an online version of Mike Postle?

Jokes aside, good fold and good read obviously.
Would you say that UTG will limp QQ as much as AA here? Would he limp AK/AQs? If he has those in his limp range from UTG, isn't betting kinda mandatory?

In this instance this was the correct play, cause we saw the cards, would you be super surprised to see A2 vs QQ here?

For making that move you need to have notes off the vilain,you have to know him, because is you going to interpretated that move acording to a rangue is more likelly that he is limping with middle pokets or middle suited conectors. That is a move that some players like to do because they dont wanth peaple folding his shove(the correct play with 10bb).

Hi!Not always opponents will have such hands.without having information on opponents I would not lay down KK.A good lesson a lot of instructive - what we meet every day-it's a game!live and learn!Good luck to everyone!

If we want to be great players we must take great decisions. The correct reads are very important because we know what really is going on and can boost our stack or save them like in the video.

thanks for the video, Katie. your ability to read the opponent just hit me in the heart. I have never folded such hands, and have suffered many times for my folly. your actions make me look at my game from a different angle. I hope I can do it.

Incredible hand KK, A2, AA and wins the worst A2, good reading on the flop by the SB to throw the KK.

Well, the limp on the preflop is good, if we are ready to give up, the fold on the flop is also good, but really if you take a break and analyze the situation, then the fold is not so strong, but it is not easy. Great distribution from the pro!

really nice hero fold, i admit i would raise this KK on small blind, hahaha i need to learn more how read the preflop action to be able to avoid this possibles mistakes
two observations on this hand
how the guy with 1421 of stack still in the tournament,
if i'm the player 3 i shove this AA easily, slow playing this hand is not good

Reading opponents ' hands is an important element of the game! I happen to throw off AA and KK, it all depends on the flop and turn, and on the river it is already difficult to throw off!

Having solid reads on your opponents definitely makes decision-making so much easier. Great advice for sure but (unfortunately for me) not a luxury micro stakes players have most of the time. Can't wait until I can play some higher stakes.

What a great Hand high level of poker!! hehe me personally I'm leaning to fold these premium hand when is obvious that you're beat had some similar situation where I think ''is obvious he has Aces or trips or straight and I still pay with my pocket KKs xD'' but like I sad I'm working thanks for teaching us this Katie !

White magic is crucial in some spots

Hello, very good explanation, it is very difficult to fold this type of hands, but you have to learn that this type of hands also lose, in the video it is a very wet flop, where Katie passes, very well played, where the first player to speak Upload and the same. Where Katie throws her hand. Very good reading and a great example for those who are learning to play.

It was amazing!!!

In this situation I do not see that difficult to fold KK there, because it is very possible to lose with a limp of the utg and the player of the big blind has seen the free flop, which can easily make me assume a hand like the one that just has achieved Of course, that fold assumes that it has a lot to do with the information about rivals.