[IzanDV]

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Basically how you would go about analyzing a tell or betting pattern and using the information you extracted to play optimally against that opponent.

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Everybody's play generally falls into one of four quadrants where one axis is aggressive/passive and the other axis is tight/loose. Put people into quadrants and keep shifting your read on where they are based on what you see at the table.

Aggressive means more inclided to bet or raise than to call. Passive means more inclined to call than bet or raise.

Tight means playing few hands. Loose means playing many hands.

Over the course of a session, categorize people as tight/aggressive (TAG), tight/passive (rock), loose/aggressive (LAG), and loose/passive (fish or calling station).

Each of these types of players are variations on a sterotype. If you get the type in your head, and if villain isn't changing gears, then you can use this sterotype to help make decisions in a hand. For example, if a Rock reraises preflop for 1/3 of his stack, then he has AA or KK. So, you might be able to fold QQ. If a particularly wild LAG reraises preflop for 1/3 of his stack, then he has TT-AA,AT/AJ/AQ/AK,and maybe worse, then maybe you can push QQ preflop and expect to be ahead most of the time he calls your all-in.

Once you get the hang of labeling TAGs, LAGs, Rocks, and Fish, then you might start watching how aggressive/passive a player is post flop vs preflop. The pokertracker numbers that people post quickly give a picture of a player with just 3 numbers: % Voluntarily Put $ in Pot (loose/tight); % preflop raise (aggressive/passive preflop); post flop (bet+raise)/call total aggression (aggressive/passive postflop).

Now instead of 4 stereotypes, there are 8. Each has a sterotype. PokerTracker, by default, has some nice icons for each type. I like to think of the icons. TAA, for example, is a bag of money or an eagle. LPP, on the other hand, is a fish.

TAA
TAP
TPA
TPP
LAA
LAP
LPA
LPP

Often, a player is aggressive preflop but less aggressive post flop, or vice versa.


Phil Helmuth has a book in which he gives all kinds of animals as devices for categorizing players. I didn't like his book, but the description of player types might be useful for you as a starting point.

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Great post

As a footnote, watch how much money is in the pot. When there's a lot of money in the pot there will be more value betting and in small pots there will be more tricky playing. Always calculate pot-odds when you're out of an hand. This will give you a lot of information about the strengt of your opponents.

As always in poker-skills: Take the baby-steps. I started out with just thinking about pre-flop hands. When I got pretty acurrate at that I started with post-flop hands, without thinking about starting hands. Combine those two and you'll get very accurate.