Posted in Poker February 28th, 2010
Lets Have a Look at Various Types of Poker Opponents
A few common complaints from poker players are they couldn’t stay in the game because someone always raised on the preflop or answered before the river or some such rationalization. These are undoubtedly green players that lack the experience to be aware that one can pay close attention to their opponents and be able to classify them. These sad beginners not only fail to classify them, they haven’t yet learned the prototypical categories into which poker players can be sorted.
Ignorance of these categories leads to lack of flexibility: the uninformed player is confronted with an unusual strategy and simply doesn’t know what to do. The feels unprepared and is unable to adapt.
The more experienced you are the better you understand that poker is a game in which you can never possess precise information, where you have to improvise, use your instincts as well as precisely calculated tactics, and where you must be able to adapt quickly to any opponent’s tricks and quirks.
Because of all these, no player can ever be fully prepared and no one strategy can be foolproof. At the same time, if you should only remember this, you will already be able to face any new challenge with much more adequate means that surrender or paralysis.
Now it is time for the next lesson, that of learning to recognize the classic varieties of poker players. There are three main types: Maniac, tight and loose. To deal with each of them, you need to assume a particular attitude. For the most part, any time your opponent strays from the optimum path of the game, you stand to gain. If you are good, you will able to win over the maniac and the newbie. There will be times, of course, when you have a losing hand, but in the long run your gains will substantially overcome these losses.
The loose type of opponent is your bread and butter. They are easy and profitable. Such players play beyond the scope of their hands, they stay when they should fold and will answer any call with lousy draws and basically weak hands. Bluffing is not in their nature, neither is taking the most advantage of whatever good hands they may receive. Their good hands go unprotected. In technical poker speak, their parameters are likely VPIP over 40%, PFR under 10%, AF under 1.5, and WSD of over 40%.
The tight category of opponents is not your most profitable. These players will play only the hands they should and may be very aggressive while doing so. On the other hand, they are the easiest to read and protecting blinds is not their strong suit. In poker speak again, parameters are VPIP under 15%, PFR under 10%.
Any combination of the above types of categories is, of course, the most unpredictable of opponents. Here again, with luck on your side you will win more hands than you lose and come out ahead in the long run. Ideally, you want a maniac as an opponent, clearly the most profitable for you. Maniacs play whatever they are dealt and they live to bet, raise and re-raise. Some find this opponent overly stressful to play with. They should hang in there, though. It is not difficult to separate them from their money, provided their cards are okay and they hang in there until the final showdown.
Bringing up the end is the competent player. This is one to avoid if you can help it. It is much more difficult to make money off them. They tend to be tight aggressive players with parameters in the VPIP=20%, PFR=10%, and AP=2,5 range. As when playing any strong opponent, you will need to rise to the occasion and hope for a little luck to come your way.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
