Putting Your Opponent On A Range Of Hands

A lot of critical decisions when playing either poker tournaments or hold'em cash games, requires you to put your opponent on a scope of hands. If you're able to do this with reasonable precision, your decisions at the poker table will invariably become rewarding over a period of time. However, determining your opponent's hole cards is certainly one of the more difficult aspects of the game to get really good at. Here is how you can start improving on it now.

The number one rule for reading your opponent's hand is to ALWAYS pay attention to the game, even when you aren't in the hand. This is significant online or in live play because it isn't just expressions or bodily tells you are observing but betting patterns too. When your challenger plays out of his normal pattern, then you must stop and ask yourself why. Frequently this means his hand is atypical too, indicating quite good, or rather poor.

Monitoring your opponent's positional play will allow you to make solid assumptions about the potency of his hand. If he plays a lot of hole cards, his positional play won't mean much, but if they are usually tight, solid hands from early position are the norm, loosening up to a wider range from later positions.

Watch your opponent's reaction to the flop. Staring at the board is frequently the result of his hand improving. Looking away, or a quick check frequently implies a potential draw or total miss. However, if he raised preflop and big cards land on the board, be careful of a trap.

Keeping an eye on the pot and relative stack sizes is hugely important. A normally tight player who is prepared to risk a lot of chips usually means they are holding a strong hand. If he seems determined to keep the pot small, then the pot is potentially yours for just a bet. Loose players are harder to read in this case, and it's more important for you to have a winning hand than to even anxiety trying to understand what they are playing.

Observe how the betting and aggression changes AFTER the flop. Keep an eye on conviction that turns apprehension, or the other way around. Run through qualifying your opponent's hand before they show their cards. Again, you don't have to be in the hand, but you do have to observe the flop and study the betting action. Repeating this frequently will permit your judgment of hole cards to turn out to be fairly precise.

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