Bug's Poker Tip #40

Slow Down, You Move to Fast.

It takes time to assess the lay of the land at a poker table. Said another way, it's going to take at least a half dozen orbits of the table to figure out who's who. Who is playing tight and who is loose? Who is aggressive, who is passive? Who's playing the part of a turtle in a fragile shell, and who is taking no prisoners? We all know that poker is a game of people played with cards, right? Well, if you don't actually take the time to figure out the tendencies of those people-- well, you're just guessing. And guessing ain't poker. At least not winning poker, that is.

I played a short 45-minute session last night as part of a simple bankroll building exercise I'm doing. One of the very first things I did wrong was get married to TPTK out of position early in the session against an unknown short stacker. He cold called out of the blind against my LP open, then went into check-call mode. By the time I was on fifth street I had no idea if I was ahead or behind on the rainbow board, but I had enough left behind to put pressure on the opp with a pot sized bet. Dumb. Villain snapped called and turned over a flopped set. In the ensuing 45 minutes I saw this passive villain call down with exactly two other hands, each the near mortal nuts. He was the very definition of a lowstakes nit, trying to see cheap flops regardless of position, and then playing a super passive fit-or-fold approach. If he made it past the flop you could bet he had at least two pair. If he didn't, then you were good-- even with air.

It took me nearly 30 minutes to dig my way out to book a small overall win for the session. It would/could have been a much bigger profit if I hadn't dug that hole right off the bat against this knowable unknown. Slow down and figure out your opponents before getting all your money into the middle. Your bankroll will thank you.

All-in for now...

-Bug

Player Types - Part 2

In my last post (here) I wrote that we can sort the players we face at a poker table into seven basic categories. These categories are based on two distinct preflop traits of the player: VPIP and PFR. One way to visualize this is to create a two-axis graph with VPIP along the horizontal X-axis, and PFR up the vertical Y-axis. Every player we face at the tables can be located somewhere on this chart. The more hands the player voluntarily gets involved with before the flop, the farther to the right they are on the chart. Similarly, the more aggressive they are before the flop, the higher they get placed in the vertical direction:

For example, a player who only plays premium, high-quality hands, but does so in a relatively passive (read: non-raising) fashion, is said to be a Nit or a Rock. This person would be found in the lower left of the chart. When a player like this actually does raise, you need to look out; he or she probably has a very, very big hand:

In contrast, so-called Break-Even or Recreational players typically understand that they need to play more hands than a Nit, but they sometimes go too far. They also know that they're supposed to raise, but they haven't quite mastered the skill of applying aggression hard enough and/or selectively enough in their game to win consistently. This type of player is usually someone who has read a book or two on poker, and is trying to play properly, but isn't quite there yet:

Then there are those players who take the idea of playing more hands way too far, but also remain relatively passive. These players are called P-Fish (for "Passive") or Calling Stations. Players like this usually can't be bluffed very effectively, so the way to beat them is to take them to value town with your good hands, and quit when you miss:

If someone plays a lot of hands like a P-Fish, but does so in an aggressive manner, we would call him or her an A-Fish (Aggressive Fish). At the extreme upper right hand corner of this group would be the so-called Maniacs. Like P-Fish, bluffing doesn't work very well with these types of players. Betting for value is usually a good option against them, but just as frequently you an let them bet for you; i.e., you can play more passively against them with your big hands, letting them bet and raise, and you just call down. At some point in the hand, when they feel pot committed, you can start raising, too:

In the upper left hand corner of the VPIP vs. PFR chart are the players that are Level-1 and beginning Level-2 winners. This is what is usually taught to new students of the game as the basic formula for winning. TAG (Tight-AGressive) or Reg (for "Regulars") are the standard terms used for these players. They play a selective group of hands, and when they do so they play them very aggressively. This is the most common way to play winning poker, especially at the low limits. It can be a bit ABC and, therefore, exploitable. These players are also bluffable:

To the right of the TAGs on the chart are the so-called LAG (Loose-AGressive) players. Most professional players and solid Level-2 players adopt this style of play, as it's more profitable (and less exploitable) than plain ABC TAG play. On the other hand, it's much harder to play this style, and you have to be really good at reading your opponents' hand ranges. The variance can also be more extreme on your bankroll via a LAG approach:

Here are all six basic types shown together:

But wait a minute. Didn't I write that there were seven types of players based on VPIP and PFR? Yep, I sure did. The seventh player is the true master of the game. This is the villain who actively changes his style of play to counter the way his opponents are playing. I call this type of player the Gear Change Specialist, or GCS, as they can effortlessly shift gears, moving their starting hand requirements between tight and loose, and their aggression between aggressive and passive to suit the current table dynamics. If they find themselves at a table of Nits? No problem, they adapt by playing somewhere between LAG and Maniac. Their opponents are Recreational players? Again, no problem, they adopt a basic TAG style. They're surrounded by Maniacs? Again, no problem; they simply tighten up their range and play more passively.

When players first start out, they almost always play a Nit or P-Fish style, with an emphasis on the latter. As they get better, they transition to Rec style, and eventually, TAG. Then they begin playing LAG, but frequently go back and forth between TAG and LAG as their bankroll gets beat-up and they learned the winning LAG style. And finally, at the higher stakes, winning players either stagnate at TAG or LAG style, or they truly advance their game by morphing into the GCS style. IMHO, this is where you should strive to play... and if and when you do master Gear Change Specialist style, you can exploit and attack the other six styles with ease.

All-in for now...
-Bug

Player Types - Part 1

Poker is a game of incomplete information. We have limited facts upon which to base our reads. People are actively and constantly trying to deceive us. We don’t always know why someone is betting, checking, or calling. Are they bluffing, or do they have the goods? Do they want us to bet, or are they afraid if we do? Everyone wants you to believe the opposite of what they’re actually doing. In other words, poker may be a game of incomplete information, but this is just another way of saying that it is ultimately a game of deception.

To cut through all this duplicity and start putting players on hand ranges, we have to start by sorting our opponents into different categories. The problem, however, is that there are all manner and variety of players that we encounter at the tables. There are reckless cowboys, timid calling stations, clueless amateurs, and skilled young professionals. Ages range from the very young to the very old. Skill levels also vary, as do the amount of table time a player has under their belt. Some players are aggressive, while others are passive. Some play straightforward ABC poker, while others think FPS and bluffing should be part of every hand. Some players fold nearly every hand that they are dealt, while others almost never fold before the flop.

It seems that there are as many different types and tendencies of players as there are people. Yet if we could somehow sort all these different players into a few basic categories, we’d have a leg up on the process of putting these players on hands. Professionals do this initial “sorting” based on a number of factors, but chief among these are the actions they observe their opponents make at the table. A good pro can figure out what category a player fits into in just a couple laps of the table. They then continuously refine and adjust these initial reads from that point onward. In other words, they pigeonhole their opponents, which allows them to start to understand the types of hands these opponents are likely to play in various situations. As the game progresses, the professional is able to make more and more accurate reads based on this information.

So if we want to learn how to do this "sorting" of players, how do we get started? What are the basic categories of players we'll face? In my humble opinion, there are seven basic subsets into which we can slot our opponents. And these seven categories are based primarily on two actions* that are very easy for us to observe and take note of at the tables: 1) how many hands they play; and 2) how aggressive they are with these hands.

These two numbers are of course "Voluntarily Puts Money Into the Pot" (VPIP) and "PreFlop Raise Percentage" (PFR). In the next blog post (here) I'll tell you what the seven categories are, and I'll explain how these two numbers factor in. Then we can start assigning hand ranges to each player type, and then start formulating ways to counter and attack them.

Understanding who we're playing against--and what their strengths, weaknesses, traits, and tendencies are--is one of the first steps in learning how to beat them.

All-in for now...
-Bug
*There are obviously other important factors we’ll add to these two as we learn how to make reads (e.g., tricky vs. straightforward, positionally-aware vs. not, playing with "scared money" vs. not, etc.) but we’ll start with these two very basic factors at first: VPIP and PFR.