When it comes to playing poker, a lot of it is all about seeing the right patterns in a player and working with that. Those who have not faith with ensuring that they do not have any tells will often have a particular system – they may bet high only when they are sure that they can win, for example.
You can use this to your advantage quite easily – if they do not bet high then it is likely that you will win, if they are at all unsure of their hand then they will easily cave under any high bet on your part. This means that even if you are bluffing and have a poor hand, you can make them think that you do have a good hand. Even if they are skeptical as to how good your hand is, if they do not know the odds and cannot read you, then they will probably be unwilling to continue as it is. This means that you can easily win the hand, helping you to win the game.
But if you play regularly with certain people then there are other things that you can notice as well. When I play with some of my friends there is one in particular who will only continue to bet if they have something in their hand. Even if it is just something low like a pair of twos, they will happily continue to try and out-bet and out-bluff people as long as they think they can convince us they have a good hand.
However, according to the online sources, this is predictable behavior, and so plays against them in the long run. Obviously if they continue to bet it can be hard to know if they have a good hand or simply have something that will at least score some points, but it lets me know two things – firstly that there is something they could win with, and secondly it gives me a better idea of what they have.
After the first three cards are laid down, I can bet fairly highly. If my friend bets and matches, then obviously they have something. If they fold, they have nothing. At the same time, if I bet low or simply continue to match other players myself, if they then fold I’ll know it wouldn’t have been worth it to play with continue betting against them anyway – any bluff I make would simply cause them to cave in, as the point in bluffing is to try and get as much money in the pot as possible, to win more.
At the same time, if the first three cards are poor and my friend only matches, I will know they have something, but not that good. If I have a three of a kind then it’s likely I can win, simply because they will have something, but that something probably isn’t very good – a pair at best. They will never bet when only having a high card, and I use that to my advantage and learn.
