How do u know what players are holding?

mallrat12

hi all, still quite new to this and was wondering when people say they put players on certain hands is this something that comes from experience or is it just a skill that some people have. The reason I ask is that apart from when its obvious I generally don't have a clue what people have, anybody got any advice that could help out a novice!!!!!!

kirstii

I'd say it's a mixture of logic and experience, the more you play the game the more you will start to be able to put players on a range of hands, not specific hands, but a range with which their actions make sense.

Doesn't mean we don't get it completely wrong sometimes!!

DeucesLive

Well, for example, say there's 56J on the board, with 2 hearts. You bet half the pot, the opponent thinks then calls. You can now take the information on the board, along with the information pre-flop (if they raise or call a raise pre, you have a different range of hand). Now you are thinking possibilities are 34, 47, 78, any two hearts, or a jack. Based on the fact they only called, and there are obvious draws there, a jack with a strong kicker is unlikely, and a jack with a weak kicker is unlikely. You can't legislate for slow played sets at this point. Once you have this information, you can then take it away and decide at that point what your scare cards are on the turn- in this case, 2/3/4/7/8/9 could all be potentially damaging, but the bigger scare is probably a heart.

Now say a heart comes down, you bet bigger, and get raised. You have two choices now- they're representing the flush, and actually have nothing, or they've hit their flush. Over time I'd say the bluff is far less likely, so unless you have a solid hand with outs (i.e two pair, a set, or the A of hearts) you'd lay it down.

That's a relatively obvious example, the best way is examine how your opponent plays, watch how they bet, when they bet, how much they bet, what position they bet from. If they raise UTG, it's considerably stronger than a button raise, and reduces the hand range considerably. If there's a raise and a reraise, and an A and K come down on the flop, that is massively within their range now, and with a smaller pair (10's or J's, even Q's) you'd be thinking strongly about folding to any bet.

Like kirstii said, it's a mixture of logic and experience, and that's why some players are so horrible to play against (Gus Hansen, for example) because they are capable of throwing complete curveballs in at their leisure, making them a lot harder to put on a hand. And because of their instinct, the time you're calling their bluff is invariably the time they have the goods.

Talon

  In a nutshell you can over time learn to put 90% of players on a hand range by experience and watching them play a lot of hands. The only ones who you cant get any reads on at all are the top and bottom 5%.

 The top players vary their games to avoid giving tells away whilst still garnering tells from all around.The bottom 5% make bets and calls that make no sense because they do not understand how to play the game better.


With the 90% of us all you can do is take notes everytime you see a player and start to learn their tendencies. If you always play at the same levels then you will see the same faces over and over again thus you can learn the way they play the game. This way you can build up all the required information you need.

  Unfortunately for most of us this means a lot of work involved in writing and rewriting notes on particular players. But the effort is worth it in the long run because most players play in their comfort zone and use the same style and tendencies everytime.

 So my advice is to always take notes on players and reap the rewards later on.

Mr_Miyagi

ask them, most are very honest and just tell you.

Mohican

Betting patterns are also a clue. I've laid down AK pre flop to a min raise because all the other times he'd always bet 3x and it stunk of AA/KK. Hand played out and he showed AA. The best players bet their weak hands the same as their strong hands.

HITMAN_RV

In Response to Re: How do u know what players are holding?:

ask them, most are very honest and just tell you.
Posted by Mr_Miyagi

Haha, you are a Legend of the Highest Order Miyagi, I wish i could only see the answers as obviously as your good self Master!

Loving your work always! Am hoping to walk the rice paper of Life, as smoothly as yourself one day!
Teach me so i may better myself

The Hitman

mallrat12

Thanks everybody all advice is very much appreciated.

HITMAN_RV

In Response to Re: How do u know what players are holding?:

Thanks everybody all advice is very much appreciated.
Posted by mallrat12

Sorry, had'nt really given any advice, that given by others so far is good, taking time and reviewing hands is something I found very helpful, esp. if you have taken a beat, review & see if things could have been different with a diff action.

Also on various threads when hands are posted, read thru the comments by others, there are some regular posters, and some of the info is excellant, some good, and a little you may consider bad, but it is all learning!!

Good luck on the tables

Dave Hitman Harvey