Tentative Players May Present Opportunity

Tentative Players May Present Opportunity

Online Poker Strategy – You Can’t “Memorize” Your Way to Good Poker Play

Tentative Players May Present OpportunityWhen you are sitting at the virtual felt you are going to be in a continual process of evaluating those who oppose you. That is the major component that goes into being an effective player.

And that’s the thing about poker – there is nothing that you can “memorize” that is going to help you, aside from knowing certain percentages when it comes to the hand you’re holding. Most of what has to be executed is done on the fly; you have to make decisions quickly and with concern to very fluid circumstances. And much of your success depends not only on how good YOU are but how good your opponents are as well.

You are often going to find yourself going up against players who have much less ability and/or experience than you.

Let’s take a look at one specific situation you could regularly encounter.

Online Poker Strategy – Get a Gauge On the Other Players

You’re at a table and, as is usually the case, you’re trying to get a gauge on the other players. You’re dealt a J-5 offsuit. You bet before the flop. The small blind calls. Everyone else folds, including the big blind, so the small blind is the only player who remains against you.

Then the flop comes and your opponent checks. After that, you check. The turn card comes and your opponent, the one you have to beat, checks again. So now that’s twice in a row. Even though the turn card does not help you too much, you see an opportunity, because if what your opponent, who had to act first, did.

Online Poker Strategy – Are You About to Get Trapped?

Is he playing things close to the vest with a small hand, trying to draw as much of your money into the pot as possible before he lowers the boom?

That is a determination you have to make; one of those that is both critical and mandatory in the game of poker. What makes it especially problematic is that there is no hard and fast answer to this question. There are other factors involved, such as what you may have picked up about the player in previous hands, and what kind of stack you have relative to everyone else.

Online Poker Strategy – Take Down the Hand

But odds are that if you haven’t seen a raise by this time, it may not be a bad idea to go after it at this point. That way you’re going to force the opponent to act. Remember that when you bet, YOU are the one who is forcing the other player to a decision with his hand. And what he does is going to obviously tell you something. If someone is checking a couple of times, they don’t have a lot of confidence in what they’re holding. So you would stand a pretty good chance at sweeping up the pot.

So the moral of the story is that sometimes you can back down an inexperienced, tentative opponent with aggressive, confident play. Just know the potential “trap doors” that exist if you misjudge the situation.

Tentative Players May Present Opportunity

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Tentative Players May Present Opportunity
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Online Poker Strategy from Lucky99 | Tentative Players May Present Opportunity
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Sometimes you can back down an inexperienced, tentative opponent with aggressive play. Just know potential "trap doors" exist if you misjudge the situation.
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