How to Spot & Exploit Weakness in Cash Games
November 4, 2009
Winning in poker is not only about mastering your own skills and strategies. It’s not only about having a good hand and making the big bets. It’s also about knowing other players’ strategies. It’s about knowing who is strong on the table and who is weak. Not only wars are won by striking on the weak links, poker too is a game of exploiting weaknesses of other players.
Players on a poker table can be categorized on the basis of the nature of their game play. Players can be tight by making their bets very restrictively. Players can be loose by pushing too many chips on to the table. Players can be aggressive, by hurrying into the game and taking others with them and players can be passive and just follow the mood of the table. Observing this nature and then making your strategy based on your observation improves your odds.
The thing is that every player, no matter what strategy he uses, has his weaknesses. It’s only about knowing them and then waiting for the right moment to exploit them to the fullest. The timing part here is the most important because it’s not only you, how has the brains. Other players have it too. So you have to be sure to time your ‘exploitation’ at the right time.
Another thing to remember is that the longer you wait the bigger the pot gets. With every round of betting, the pot inflates. So, you don’t have to strike too early and win the meager amount and you don’t have to wait too long and loose it all.
Every type of player has his strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the tight players, as they are very restrictive in their game play are harder to make out. They don’t give away their hands easily. So, the only practical way to handle them is to steal their blinds. Try stealing from the blind and them the dealer and the player seated on the left to the dealer.
Loose players are the opposite of tight players. They are very free making the bets and thus they are the ones who raise the amount of the pot. They will be playing the bad cards you can use this as their weakness by playing tight. You have to wait for such a player to play the good cards and at make you moves then. This may time, but this is the right thing to do.
A passive player may be loose or tight. In case he is loose, he will be calling on everything. The right thing to do with such players is to make yourself a good hand, bet on it and then the loose player that’s playing the weak hands ends up folding.
Aggressive players are the opposites of passive players, as the name suggests. They are always eager to bet. They want to get over with things quickly so that they can play more and more games. They will try going in with whatever cards they have in their hands to try their luck. They are usually just playing for the luck part of the game. Play wisely with such player cause you never know what they might have. Just wait for them to make the wrong moves.
Here is a website I found that has some more great poker tips. Have a look for yourself.
