I was playing a bit lower than usual tonight, as I’m wont to do when on a downswing, and that means that I was up against a lot of players I’d never seen before. When trying to get a read on unknowns at a 6-max table, there are some really basic questions I am looking to answer about their level of knowledge and the plays in their arsenal. I’m thinking of stuff like the following:
1. Does he 3-bet light out of the blinds?
2. Does he 3-bet his button aggressively (especially important to know at Deep tables)
3. Is he capable of making a light 4-bet?
4. Does he know what a squeeze play is? Does he make squeeze plays? Does he play back at squeeze plays?
5. Can he fire multiple barrels?
6. Does he check-raise bluff dry flops?
7. Does he isolate limers
Usually, it takes some substantial observation to figure this stuff out. But sometimes players are nice enough to choose screennames that make their level of knowledge very clear. This is just giving away free information and helping me play better against them. For instance, here’s a hand I played against “MyNameisBusto”.
For those who don’t know, “busto” is slang for a poker player who has lost his bankroll. It’s very likely that a player who chooses a name like this is a serious player, quite possibly a professional. Moreover, the fact that he chose to take his screenname from popular poker culture suggests that he’s somewhat immersed in this culture, probably as an active participant on 2+2 or another big poker forum. Thus, I’m going to expect him to be up on popular plays like the squeeze play, the continuation bet, and the CiB:
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
UTG ($1721.30)
Hero ($951.30)
Button ($798)
SB ($847)
BB ($269.60)
Preflop: Hero is MP with Ac, 7c.
UTG raises to $14, Hero calls $14, 1 fold, SB raises to $72, 1 fold, UTG folds, Hero calls $58.
Flop: ($162) 6c, 6s, 4c (2 players)
SB bets $100, Hero raises to $279, SB raises to $458, Hero raises to $879.3 (All-In), SB folds.
Final Pot: $1499.30
I would usually throw this away pre-flop against an unknown, but since I figured this guy’s range could be quite wide, and we were deep, I planned to take it away post-flop. Then I get a sweet flop, and I nearly made a pot-committing raise on the flop, but then I thought, “Let’s see if I can get this guy to make another crazy play.” Sure enough, he clicked it back, then folded getting a gazillion to one, allowing me to win a huge pot with no showdown.
Do you mind if I link this to my blog, i think the couple of things that you look for when sitting down at a table of unknowns is a pretty good check list.
Please do, I’m glad you found it helpful. For a more in-depth discussion on the subject, you might want to look at two my recent poker articles: Your Opponent’s Arsenal Part 1: The Flop and Your Opponent’s Arsenal Part 2: The Turn and River.