jjd323's blog

Today I played a shortish session of NLHE, and a bit of stud 2/4. I felt like I had really poor focus during the stud game, but I brought out my A-game for the NLHE.

Top-class hand-reading isn’t just whittling down the possible hands your opponent could have on any given street, based on how he played up until then. It’s also about understanding why he played his hand that way. A fishy player won’t pot control on one street only to go bezerk and make a sick-thin value bet on the next when the board bricks off. If he checked the turn of a scary board it was because he was scared; he wants a cheap showdown. He isn’t going to “bluff” with a hand he wants to showdown. He is a fish.

A common spot I see people make lots of mistakes is after a passive fish bets the river. Hands with “marginal showdown value” aren’t in his range anymore. poof. Gone. You’ve got to get in his head and work out not just what hand range his betting pattern indicates, but also be aware of his intentions when he bets too. He bet the river? So, he either thinks his hand is junk, or it’s a “strong hand”. Some won’t even bet their junk. If you notice him missing obvious bluff spots, or thin value bets, you can get in his weak, fishy little head and assume he won’t be making these plays elsewhere either. A smart player will use that information to pick off bluffs in atypical spots, as well as make smart folds and save bets when he his hand can’t be good.