observing your opponent

[EZgo]

I believe a big part of the challenge (for me at least) is concentration level. I like to approach every hand assuming I'm NOT going to play in it. That's my first assumption. I am then consciously focused on what can I glean from this hand about my opponents.

Pick a few (maybe 3 max to start) patterns that you're particularly interested in, and want to exploit. For example, does he always continuation bet; does he ever overbet the pot and is that a sign of weakness or strength; does he check raise the flop/turn/river; does he only raise preflop with a monster; etc.

Look for these three patterns in your opponents to your immediate left and right, and slowly expand it as you get comfortable with it. It's already been said a few times in this thread, but start slowly. Don't try to do it all at once -- that's asking the impossible. There's no substitute for experience here. You have to experiment with what works for you, and always be challenging yourself to improve. This is what separates the best from the rest.

A HUGE next step is trying to figure out what level your opponent is thinking on. Read their actions, and determine if they are just playing their hand, or are they putting their opponents on a hand (2nd level), or are they thinking about what their opponents think they have (3rd level). I can't go any further. Generally, if you're playing small stakes, you can tell who is simply playing on the 1st level, and it's easy to exploit that fact. Try to pick out the opponents that are playing at the 2nd level or higher, and these are the players that you can try more complex plays on. This is very difficult to do, but is necessary to really get inside your opponents head.