Live play Tendencies ....

[PantsOnFire]

My short list:

1. Weak means strong and vice versa is a fairly reliable tell. You need to be sure who is doing this consistently and how they are portraying it.

2. Players behind you pf will make obvious gestures if they are going to fold. Look to your left and figure out the tight players that take an early look and then hold their cards in a certain way ready for release. They are giving you the button.

3. There are some very talkative players at the table. If they suddenly shut up, watch out.

4. I may be off here but I have found that most live players don't like to be bluffed so I reduce my bluffing frequency, especially on the river. Stealing a large pot is especially difficult. I still do basic bluffs like cbet and bet a checked button.

5. When the flop comes, whether you are in the hand or not, watch the players and not the cards. It will become obvious what some players are thinking about a flop by how they react, which could be a range of things like staring at the flop (usually missed it) or glancing quickly at their chips (usually hit it).

6. And the oldest one in the book which is obvious everyone should know not to do it or use it a reverse tell. There are 3 flush cards on board and a player checks his cards. It is almost certain that he doesn't have a flush.

7. Some players at the table will be good. Don't use the above on them and only play against them with good hands and position. You have A9s? Just fold against these guys. Your source of money is the other players.

[SellingtheDrama]

I think 2 and 3 are hugely important.

2 is good for chipping away small pots - I would also expand it to post flop. You can often tell that people whiffed the flop and have mentally checked-out of the hand. 95% of my bluffs come here; most often on the turn after a checked-around flop (but I will do it on any street that I see it probably working).

4 - I dunno about this one. People will call down more live (passive calling station tendancies are common), and those guys are tough to bluff unless they give off the tell above.

6 - totally varies by player - you almost never see someone with a made flush, but they'll generally have one high card in the color (if its three hearts, they generally have a big heart or diamond).

[mxp2004]

One more thing occurred to me about live 1/2 NL play: because lots of players don't play with regard to pot odds, their bet sizing is all off and is something that you can exploit. For example, preflop, a raiser may make it $15 to go w/ AA and get 4 callers. Although there's $75 in the pot and 5 players, the raiser will often lead into highly coordinated boards for only $25 because that seems like a lot of money to him. You can take advantage of this tendency if you play solid position poker and keep track of the pot odds being offered to you that your opponent is ignoring.

[El_Timon]

On the same line as the last post: the min-raise. I've seen it used both with a monster and as a scared bet. More often than not it means a monster, but you have to learn to identify who min-raises with a hand like TP/weak kicker.

From my experience, the average live 1/2NL player is weak-tight/loose. Sizing your bets and playing in position are very important, both to get max value and to bluff effectively. There is a good chapter On Sklansky's book on NLHE about this topic, I highly recommend it.

[PokerintheI]

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One more thing occurred to me about live 1/2 NL play: because lots of players don't play with regard to pot odds, their bet sizing is all off and is something that you can exploit. For example, preflop, a raiser may make it $15 to go w/ AA and get 4 callers. Although there's $75 in the pot and 5 players, the raiser will often lead into highly coordinated boards for only $25 because that seems like a lot of money to him. You can take advantage of this tendency if you play solid position poker and keep track of the pot odds being offered to you that your opponent is ignoring.

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1. As a continuation to this line of thinking, (because I see it constantly) a lot of the weak tight/loose recreational players will continue betting $20-30 on the turn and river whether the pot is $50 or $200 with a big pair or even something near the nuts. Because, as the last guy said "$25 is a lot of money".

2. Most of the more passive players are terrified of betting their top pair unless they have the ace kicker. They will call it all the way down for some huge bets, but won't raise with it.
* Most recent example is a lady who check/called all the way with QQ on a 10 high board because "I knew that as soon as I bet the A or K would hit the board."*

3. Related to the first two: check/call, check/call, bet usually means a strong hand, not that they are betting a busted draw.

4. The average (even above average) Live 1/2 player has no real concept of how to extract value from huge hands post-flop. They usually just jam the pot as soon as possible and rarely give the pre-flop raiser a chance to bet at it. So, a $30 bet into a $10 pot or AI for $150 into a $40 pot often means they crushed the flop. This saves me a lot of money on continuation bets and pocket pairs post flop.

[Jauron]

1. They didn't travel all the way to the casino to fold.
2. Most decisions about the entire hand are made on the flop, so if your bluffing and get called on the flop strongly consider giving up.
3. A large portion will stack off with TPNK, they are never folding 2 pair or a straight. Per above if you have it jam the pot on the turn and river.
4. As someone said the game is much much bigger, standard raise is 5x-10x the BB and even those are usually multi way flops
5. Most players do not change gears, if they start out playing one way they almost always continue to play the same way.
6. Players value bet/raise on the river without much so blocking bets tend not to work.
7. When a player move it in, they usually have it.

[Rottersod]

Live players tend to believe that 2:1 odds means they should call. They have no concept about putting their opponent on a hand or range of hands that would crush those odds. As you get closer to the river you can take advantage of this by sizing your bets correctly.

Live players have no understanding of position. Yes, they know what it is but they have no idea how to use it to their advantage. The first time you see some guy get up for a break on his button you'll break out in a smile. You'll see players raising ATo preflop UTG+1 all the time. And you'll see them get 6 calls and the last 3 callers will all say the same thing: "Now I have to call because of pot odds."

[BrianBigNFun]

The huge preflop raises always amused me- (15-25 dollar preflop raise at a 1/2) I once started consistently making raises to 6 dollars preflop in a Borgata 1/2 game and soon (after about 15 minutes) I had the whole table gearing down their raises. It seemed like they were sheep looking for a leader. Then a wild cannon sat down and started to raise it up big every hand and soon the others went back to their old ways. It was kinda funny to watch.

[El_Timon]

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You'll see players raising ATo preflop UTG+1 all the time. And you'll see them get 6 calls and the last 3 callers will all say the same thing: "Now I have to call because of pot odds."

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This one makes me laugh a little on the inside everytime they do it. 92o on the BB, 5 callers to the UTG raise: "pot odds, call!!" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[BrianBigNFun]

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You'll see players raising ATo preflop UTG+1 all the time. And you'll see them get 6 calls and the last 3 callers will all say the same thing: "Now I have to call because of pot odds."

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This one makes me laugh a little on the inside everytime they do it. 92o on the BB, 5 callers to the UTG raise: "pot odds, call!!" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Yeah, poker theory discussions at a 1/2 table can be a riot to listen to.