When looking to analyze your opponent’s moves in online poker, you can use various strategies. Here are some of them.
Ways To Analyze Your Opponent’s Moves In Online Poker
When looking to analyze your opponent’s moves in online poker, a novice’s attitude towards this game is to rely on luck for success. However, a more thorough examination of the hands will provide the real benefit. Not only that but being more aware of what other players are doing can help you immensely.
A deep analysis of your games (and other gamblers’ games) will help you identify your mistakes and improve your understanding of them. This observation will also increase your chances of winning and give you an easy way to beat your opponents.
So, what can you do to better understand what you’re doing wrong? A few factors worth mentioning and inspecting can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Below are the most crucial aspects of the game you should be analyzing.
Analyze Your Opponent’s Moves In Online Poker: The Pre-Flop
Starting with the pre-flop is always the recommended choice. If you’re trying to change the pre-flop tables to better suit what your opponent is up to, or if its a blinds attack/protection situation, check whether the moves are accurate. You can always check with the tool if you are unsure.
Now, there are a few tools for this purpose worth considering. Most would recommend Poker Studio or Poker Stove for Limit Hold ’em. Regardless of which one you choose, they’re typically easy to use. Simply calculate your odds by entering your cards and the range of hands your opponent might be boasting.
Although this isn’t a perfect way to evaluate your chances of winning, it can still help you determine how likely you are to succeed.
Flop Analysis
At this point in the game, there’s already more room for you to potentially improve your hand. This game relies on chance, so you can calculate the potential opportunities that you’re not taking. It’s not a perfect calculation, but it definitely works as a good estimate.
You can use your opponent’s cards to estimate the likelihood of winning, then add the chance of boosting your hand and come to a decision. The chances of improving your hand in no-limit poker are almost identical, although you cannot compare them to the pot in play at the moment or the chip stack held by your opponent (unless you know you will make off with the stack).
Playing on the River
If you’re attempting to analyze your opponent’s moves in online poker, the biggest mistake is folding when you have a quite good hand on a river. Even if you have a weak hand, it is important to follow through when the pot odds are higher than 1-10. In case you hold a poor hand but your opponent is a weak player, you could try pushing back (a play often called a value wager).
In essence, you only need to keep in mind three things: your cards, your community cards, and how your opponents play. This, however, is easier said than done when playing. Luckily, online poker offers the luxury of reviewing past games with perfect recollection. That said, you should work on real-time analysis during the game to improve your skills. What you get from analying past games is learning from your mistakes, which is great, but corrections during the game are better.
Using Information To Your Advantage
You can gather data all game long, but it doesn’t mean much if you can’t leverage it in any practical way. This is why the application of the information you’ve accumulated is so important.
Here’s an example to illustrate this point. A crucial question when trying to analyze your opponent’s moves in online poker is what you should do if your opponent calls. If they call, it doesn’t really make matters clear. So, you should look at the turn to see what they intend. You lose if they raise again, even if it’s a small re-raise, and you can fold.
These kinds of moves reveal your opponent’s strength. So, suppose your opponent shows strength (e.g., raising on the flop and appealing unphased by a hefty check-raise). In that case, you should aim to get to the showdown as cheaply as possible. That lets you discover what cards they’re playing without taking too big of a financial hit.
This particular method is what some of the most successful HU (Heads Up) SnG players use all the time. Before the river, they call the first several hands solely to gather information. This move builds an image of a weaker player, but simultaneously provides lots of helpful information. Consequently, these players quickly progress and typically require just one hand to eliminate the difference in chips.
Bluffing Your Way To Victory
If your goal is to analyze your opponent’s moves in online poker, note that the game with inexperienced players is straightforward. All you need is logic and maths (and perhaps a readiness for some wild moves).
However, things get quite different when you have seasoned, intelligent opponents. In that situation, you need to get serious about your bluff game. Don’t let your opponents read you, at least not easily.
This is where something akin to a red herring is useful. Basically, you can mislead your opponent by signalling you are fond of bluffing. Once the player starts acting like you’re a big-time bluffer, you can take them by surprise.
For instance, you might raise your opponent during the pre-flop. Then you put half the pot on the flop. Next, you will bet the same amount on the turn. Finally, after pretending to think about your next move for a while, place a large bet on the river. Your opponent will figure you’re a complete bluff and expose you. However, play the same way when dealt a strong hand, and you’ll see your opponent will be the one paying dearly. As long as you don’t cross the line and get too cocky, this tactic should work almost every time.
Final Thoughts
The above pointers will give you a solid feel for your opponent, which you can use to better understand them. One of the key takeaways from all this is to think about the cards of your opponent more than your own. After all, it’s the comparison between your and your opponent’s hands that decides the outcome.
Never forget that poker is all about reading your opponents. No mathematician can explain how the best poker players can read their opponents’ cards in almost any situation. You can develop a sixth sense through long training, which should begin by trying to analyze your opponent’s moves in online poker. Good luck!
