How to Beat Bad Players
How to Beat Bad Players And Good Ones Too
Are you new to poker? Or have you studied and played enough to understand the rudiments of the game, so that all you need to hone your skills is a little more practice? If so, you may feel you have what it takes to beat weak players, but you might not have any idea about how to hold your own against stronger opponents.
Most weak poker players usually fall into the same camp. They are weak because they make one critical mistake above all others: They call too much. Instead of folding, they keep playing. They enter pots with weak hands that don't really warrant being played unless they're in the big blind and can see the flop for no additional investment. They call when you bet, and they tend to call as long as they have hope, and they seem to find rays of hope in almost every situation, even all realistic hope is gone.
Folding isn't much fun; in fact, it's no fun at all. But if winning is paramount in your eyes, forget for a moment all the social aspects that make poker such an enjoyable game, playing to win is frequently boring because the majority of poker hands you'll be dealt in any session are unplayable and should be thrown face-down in the muck. Every good player does that most of the time.
When good players get involved in what appear to be too many hands, they are either in a short-handed game, where more risk-taking is required and more hands must be played, or they're at a table full of passive players who seldom bluff and raise frequently.
Speculative hands can be profitably played in passive games because there's little chance of being raised, and there is generally a large enough number of opponents in each pot to provide the right price to overcome the longer odds of risky hands. It's almost as though you are always last to act, lots of opponents have already called the blind, no one raised, and you can see the flop for one bet because you have an opportunity to build a big hand at a bargain price. If you make it, you know that your passive, come-to-play opponents will pay you off to the bitter end.
Good players rarely deviate from this style and do so only when confronting tight, passive opponents who generally fold when faced with a bet or a raise. Against this kind of opponent, the value of the cards has no meaning whatsoever. What matters is how often the strong player can bet or raise with reasonable assurances that his adversary will fold to his unmitigated aggression.
Because most opponents call too much and stay in the pot far too long with weak hands, the best way to beat them is by betting for value, not by bluffing. Because they'll usually call when you bet, don't waste your time and money trying to steal the pot with a weak hand. Bluffing fails most of the time if your opponents call too often, and if your opponent calls each and every time you bet, bluffing will never work. Instead of bluffing, you should bet whenever you believe you have the best hand, because your opponents will probably call with losing hands. Good players fold much of the time. They fold when they have the worst of it, and they'll also fold to a good bluff made by a solid player who bets when the cards suggest that he's actually made a big hand. While a good player will not fold every time you bet into him, he will fold much more frequently than those weak opponents who tend to call too often. Whenever a good opponent has a strong hand, and that's any hand he believes is superior to yours, he's probably going to raise. He might even read you for a bluff and raise just to seize the momentum and perhaps even cause you to fold a middling hand.
There's a clear message in these betting patterns: Weak players call to often. Good players fold or raise most of the time.
But good players can be bluffed in a way that weak players never can, and they can be bluffed precisely because their selective style of play dictates that they fold most their hands and continue searching for better spots to risk their money.
This is where the art of poker comes into play, and it's an art that requires you to know your opponents. Some can be bluffed, while others will never fold if they have even the slightest inkling that they might win, never mind the long odds that are stacked against them. Remember that what works against one opponent might not work against another, and winning players know which tactics to employ against each and every opponent they confront.