watching other players

[check raiser]

I try to get tells, paterns and other info from the other players at the table. I can not seem to get info on all 8 players on a full table, and have been reduced to focusing on any fish that stick out and rocks that may be on the table. Do I even need to have details on all at the table? This is complicated when you have some turnover.

I wanted to know if anyone has any table and player observation skills they could share.

I play 1-3NL and have more winning session that losing, but feel I can only watch 4 or 5 players effectively.

I am a first time poster, but have read your advice for a while and it have been useful.

Thanks

[Percula]

What I do is harder to do in a low stakes game since there tends to be more players per hand, but give it a try...

Typically there are not a lot of players to the flop in a NL game. So when you are not in a hand watch the players in the hand. Watch each one as the action is on them for one round, watch them before their action on the turn, and after their action on the river. Sooner or later you have watched everyone before action, during action and after action. Don't forget to watch them after the showdown too, lots of information to be gathered there. Hear is a good read that has some good sections on information gathering/sharing... http://www.tommyangelo.com/articles/reciprocality.htm

I also tend to "size up" players pretty quick, a skill that takes a leather ass to get good at. Players that I have a solid read on, I don't spend near as much effort/time in observing them. It's pretty rare that I get a big surprise anymore, little ones are common. Time in the seat...

[Cactus Jack]

Make sure you get a read on the player to your right and to your left, first. Then, expand outward. It takes a lot of practice, as Percula said. Don't worry so much about tells. As a friend said, whenever someone's leg is bouncing up and down, it mostly means he needs to pee.

Mostly just judge their play--loose or tight, passive or aggressive, and expand out from there.

Enjoy. It's one of the interesting parts of the game.

CJ

[TacitMike]

I'm certainly no expert on this matter, but I've found it's far more important to categorize someone (rock, TAG, LAG, etc). Most of the time, that's enough for me, and maybe only once in a while do tells ever come in to play. I find they're a bit inconsistent, but maybe that's because I'm just terrible at picking them up.

[JulioYalil]

forget about tryin to get physical tells on all players at the table because by the time u finally figure it out the table will have changed. the only way to have physical tells on everyone @ the table is to have played many hrs previously with every single player.

that being said, try to concentrate at the players that r most important to u. start with whoever is to ur left. once u've got him/her pegged then move on to the one on his/her left. after that player then do the player to ur right. my point is to try to get tells on the players that act immediately after or before u. if u can't do more than 3, 4, or 5 players don't worry about it. u've already done more than everyone else at the table if it's low stakes. also understand that at low stakes the players make enough mistakes to make the game very profitable w/out ever havin to rely on physical tells at all.

[check raiser]

Thanks for the replys. I enjoyed the article Percula, especially found the section on 6th street very true. Its not just enough to get info on the players but to be aware of the info I am giving out.

[SellingtheDrama]

I tend to key on the most active players and the players that I initially think are weakest. I figure they are the most likely people for me to end up in a pot with, so I start there.

After that its just whoever I pick up information on, I pick it up on. I don't stress out over not getting every single player, but I get what I can, when I can.