Player Styles Chart

Reading Players is about attempting to discern what another player holds or intends to do based on their actions, mannerisms, betting patterns or anything logical or intuitive.

1. Kinds of Reads

Reads provide a player with a general idea of an opponent's hand strength, or even exactly what hand a player likely holds.

There are many different kinds of reads in poker, including those based upon:

On any given hand, it's generally impossible to use all of the above methods to determine an opponent's hand strength; however, over a series of observations of a given player, it's certainly possible to "size them up", gaining enough insights into the player to understand where you're at in a given hand.

Now, let's examine each of these areas in more detail.

2. Understanding Player Styles

Learning to quickly read a poker player's "style" is one of the keys to boosting your profits.  There are four poker playing styles, which can be readily determined based upon observing: 1) how many starting hands the player typically plays and 2) the player's betting patterns. 

Let's start out by understanding the diagram shown in Figure 1.1 below.

A player who plays few (typically only premium) starting hands is termed "tight", whereas a player who plays many more starting hands is termed "loose".  The next factor to consider is their betting style; that is, whether they tend to be more "passive" and just check/call a lot and rarely bet or raise, or they're instead much more "aggressive", tending to bet and raise quite often.

As we can see here, the combination of the number of hands played and betting style is used to "type" a player.  Watch players closely and you'll typically see a pattern emerge in their overall play style.  Recognizing when their play style suddenly shifts can be very telling.

Figure 1.1 shows a "target play zone", the overall area that good players should strive to maintain their play.  Many pros play Tight-Aggressive, with occasional forays into the other quadrants to mix things up and keep everyone off balance.  A few pros play Loose-Aggressive, keeping everyone off balance with lots of bluffs steals and an occasional real hand.

Let's discuss each of these styles in a bit more detail, ensuring you can recognize these styles of play (including your own style)
 

Loose-Passive (Amateur)

This is the typical "amateur" play style, since these players like the action and just want to play and have fun, playing just about anything that's remotely playable.  These players are sometimes referred to as "fish".  They'll often just Check or Call with even marginal hands like Ace-trash, low to medium pairs and they'll call just about anything, hoping to pull something out of thin air.  These players are also sometimes termed "calling stations", since they'll call just about anything.

Bet into these players whenever you have a decent hand.  If you bet too much, you'll probably scare them out, so bet just enough to keep them in the hand, contributing to the pot size and "milking" them for whatever chips you can get them to put in at each stage (flop. turn, river).

Be careful trying to bluff these players, as they're "calling station" tendency could backfire - if you do bluff them, attack them aggressively with a significant Bet / Raise to effectively bluff them out.
 

Tight-Passive (Tight)

These "weak" players are typically easily beaten.  They just hang out waiting for great starting hands and big flops, and they they come after everyone all of a sudden.  When these players seem to suddenly "wake up" get out of their way unless you have a strong hand, since they probably have a good-to-great hand (that's about all they'll play, since they don't like risk-taking).

These players can "survive" a long time since they don't risk many chips at all.  These players are very easy to bluff out of a pot, since they're risk-averse (avoid risk-taking unless they have a real, strong hand).  These players tend to play "honest", almost betting in proportion to the strength of their actual hands, making them fairly easy to read.
 

Loose-Aggressive (Maniac)

This style is typically referred to as the "maniac", since they'll aggressively bet or raise with just about anything and they play far too many starting hands, using their aggressive betting style to make up for their lack of good hands.

Be very careful when you encounter these types, as they can quickly injure you.  Since they play so many hands, you never really know when they have a trash hand or a monster. 

Pro players like Gus Hansen are able to use this style effectively, because of their experience and extremely sharp abilities to: a) play post-flop, and b) read other players hand strength and tells effectively.  Most amateur players who try to use this style can be beaten several different ways, as we'll discuss in a lot more detail in the "Beating Aggressive Players" lesson.  (basically, remain patient and figure out how to get under these players' skin and trigger their aggressive response systems, doing so when you're holding a great hand, and they'll often bet heavily into you, exposing most or all of their chips to you!)
 

Tight-Aggressive (Solid)

So, now it's time to discuss the generally preferred style of no-limit Hold'em play: Tight-Aggressive.  These players choose their starting hands carefully, and instead of "limping in" (check/call) to see a flop, they'll almost always either Bet or Raise significantly if they do play the hand, or just Fold without seeing a flop at all.  Once they make a bet, they'll often make a "continuation bet", no matter what the flop texture looks like to see if they can win the pot right then and there.

On the Turn and River, they'll usually make aggressive Bets/Raises when they hit their hand.  These players are typically only risking their chips when they have a strong hand.  When they do bet, they bet heavily and quickly build a significant size stack by winning just a few key hands.

This style is also easy to spot, so you'll quickly get typed by the other players using this style.  To address this, you must occasionally shift quadrants (as shown in Figure 1.1) to throw players off, and deliberately playing as if you're a "maniac".  For example, you occasionally play hands that you wouldn't ordinarily open with, such as 6-7 suited connectors, and you play them from good positions (e.g., on or near the dealer button). 

Shape Shifting

Figure 1.1 above shows a "Target Play Zone", the areas you should spend most of your time playing.  Note that it's important for you to "shape shift" occasionally in order to keep opponents off balance and guessing - this is often called "shifting gears", preventing too much predictability in your game and distorting your table image.

Another way to shift your shape and confound opponents is to occasionally substitute a "trap" play wherever you would normally have placed an aggressive Bet or Raise.  This is a good move, but one that should be used rarely (10% or less), and whenever you sense weakness in your opponents, feel you have the best hand (e.g., nut flush or nut straight) and need someone to make the 2nd-best hand in order to keep them in the pot with you.  This move works especially well against maniac and other aggressive players, who will use aggressive betting to push people out of pots.

The key is continuing to shift gears as the game progresses, keeping everyone off balance.

Truly understanding these poker player styles is essential to winning.  Knowing your own style and current "table image" is important as it'll help you predict your opponents' moves, and ensure you profit and win bigger.
 

3. Player's Skills Levels

One of the things you can quickly look for is a player's overall experience level, which translates to how sophisticated their level of play is likely to be.  For example, you spot a player who's obviously a beginner and you realize they're playing hands out of position, playing improper starting hands, checking/calling a lot, etc.  It's likely that a player like is playing on a very simplistic level, so you're unlikely to bluff them easily, for example.  They may not be able to lay a weak hand down, so bluffing against them is probably a bad idea.

On the other hand, let's say you observe a player who is able to make a good lay down in a tough situation, raises in late position a lot, folds under the gun a lot, raises when they come into a pot more often than not, etc., you've probably spotted a more experienced player.  You can sometime successfully bluff this kind of player out of a pot, as they're capable of reading you to some extent, will tend to relate your bet size with your hand strength, etc.

Be careful to observe a player enough to be certain what skill level you're up against.

4. Tells

Tells are hints that provide you clues to an opponent's hand strength.  For example, in the casino you observe a player's hand trembling when they're gathering up their chips.  Then they carefully place the stack on the table in front of them.  You had noticed this player typically just tosses their chips into pot, and every time you saw them do that earlier they didn't have a very strong hand (they're aggressive slinging motion was an attempt to act stronger than they were).  The trembling hand is another piece of information that often means they're holding a monster hand (according to Caro's Book of Tells - a classic book you should read).

Online, you don't have these physical behaviors to observe.  Instead, you have other things you can observe.  The timing of their bet (how fast they act), whether they appear to be using checkboxes or not, chat windows, etc.  For example, a player who quickly checks is likely to be weak.  I have found a player who takes longer to bet is more often strong.  However, I've also found different players have different habits of online play, so you have to observe them and pay attention to these details in order for them to truly be useful to you.

There are plenty of other articles on poker tells, so we're not going to go deep on them here.  Just realize that you need to learn to use poker tells to add a new dimension to your abilities to gauge opponent hand strength.  More importantly, you need to understand poker tells to understand what kind of tell signals you're giving your opponents, so you can minimize them.

5. Betting Patterns

Perhaps the most important aspect of playing poker is the bet.  When a player bets, they're communicating with you.  Learning the "language of poker bets" is one of the most important skills you'll ever develop and refine.  By combining the size of an opponents bet (or lack thereof, in the case of a check or call), you gain valuable information about their hand strength.  By further combining this information with their player style, you gain even more insights.

For example, we're in a sit and go tournament and there's 5 players remaining.  The blinds are 100/200 with 25 antes.  People are beginning to steal pots to get the blinds now.  This is typical in sit and go tournaments.  An experienced player in late position (e.g., button or cutoff) fires out a bet of 600 - 3 times the big blind into an unraised pot.  What do you suppose might be going on here?

I would think it's highly likely this player is on a steal.  Why?  Because every player generally only gets strong starting hands once every 2 to 3 orbits (my experience).  Could it be that this player is stealing?  Certainly.  Also, I've observed this same player make this exact same raise and walk away with the blinds twice in the past 3 orbits.  So, I decide to "re-steal" this pot.  Everyone else folds, then it comes around to me (in the big blind).  I re-raise the pot to 1,200.  After a long pause, the opponent finally folds.

What just happened?  I recognized the player's betting pattern and experience level.  I've seen this player stealing blinds before, and I feel he's on another steal.  So, in effect I "check-raised" him.  He had "crap" cards, so he delayed, delayed, delayed and finally folded, as if he had a tough time folding his good hand.  I know he had little to nothing.

What if the player had re-raised me back to 3,600?  Well, unless I had a strong hand with some good outs (e.g., high pair with some a flush draw on the board), I'm folding!  Why?  Because this player's bet has told me he's very serious about this pot, and he's now communicated that his hand strength is extremely strong (he likely picked up a hand, finally).

You must piece multiple pieces of information together to make these kinds of decisions.  It's the combination of information that ultimately enables you to make better decisions and get a better read on opponent's hand strength.

6. Opening Hand Requirements

Another way to home in on a player's hand is to understand their range of "opening hand requirements".  A player's style is one factor that governs their range of opening hands played.  Tight players start out playing just premium hands (AA, AK, AQ, big pocket pairs, etc.).  Loose players can be in a pot with almost any two cards.

Game situation also affects the range of opening hands a player will engage with.  Early in a tournament, a tight player will typically only be playing premium hands.  This can be very helpful to understand.  For example, you're in a hand with a tight player and the flop texture shows a potential low gut-shot straight draw.  To make this particular straight, this tight player would have to have a hand like 5-7.

Knowing this tight player is only playing premium hands (and is not currently in a blind) easily leads one to conclude that they are almost guaranteed not to be holding 5-7, especially in a pot where they just called to see a flop.  In this situation, I would instead put them on AK, AQ, KQ, KJ, K-10, maybe J-10 or even a small-to-medium pair.  Why?  Because they're a tight player who only plays premium hands!  I seriously doubt they're holding 5-7.

If they suddenly bet 3 to 5 times the big blind, after calling pre-flop, what would you think they're holding?  I would probably assume they had a small pocket pair and just hit their set.  They're betting because they have a real hand.  They had no hand pre-flop and just made a strong hand.  Another factor I'd consider is how "honest" they've been playing.  Is this an Honest, tight player who seems to only play real hands, or is this a Dishonest and sometimes "tricky" player who could be using their tight image to bluff me?  In any event, I'd probably fold unless I had the 5-7 and made the straight.

On the other hand, if they checked to me, I'd fire into that pot immediately with a "feeler bet" - a bet designed to gain additional information on THEIR hand strength, or to win the pot outright.  9 times out of 10 this tight player will fold immediately.  If they call this bet, I'd then become suspicious that they're trapping me with a set or other strong hand (if they're an experienced player).

Loose players are much more difficult to read.  Since they're opening hand requirements are, by definition, much broader, they could be playing with almost any two cards - even 7-2 offsuit!  These players generally "play the player" as much (or more) than they play their actual hands.  They'll usually put you to the test with a big bet, a raise or even a re-raise.  When playing against these types of players, to get a read on them you'll have to bet into them and then judge their reaction.

Game situation also affects a player's opening hand requirements.  For example, later in a tournament when the blinds and antes are becoming significant, everyone's starting hand requirements are opening up a lot.  Better players are entering pots with just about any "heads up hand" (hands you'd play in a heads-up match, like any pair, any hand with an Ace in it, suited connectors, perhaps even any two suited cards).

7. Honesty Level

I like to peg a player's style of play as either "Honest" or "Dishonest".  Honest play is where a player's bet size generally represents their hand strength.  Bigger the bet, stronger the hand.  Dishonest play is where a player's bet size bears little to no relationship to their hand.

Honest players rarely bluff.  They simply play the hands that are dealt them.  They tend to be Tight.  These players are only playing the better hands that they get and are "risk-averse".  They are conservative by nature.

Dishonest players bluff more often, they steal pots, they trap some and they play more pots in general.  These players tend to be Loose.  They play a much broader range of starting hands.  Their betting patterns do not necessarily represent their hand strength.  These players are generally much trickier and more wily.

8. Logical Deduction

Putting multiple pieces of information together to reach a logical conclusion about the player's hand strength; e.g., board pairs on the turn, and an opponent goes all-in (they just hit trips, a full house or four of a kind, or a flush or straight if possible, and this is a basically "honest", "tight" player -- FOLD quickly, unless you can beat one of those strong hands!)

It is essential to learn to take multiple measurements (player style, betting pattern, current bet, opening hand requirements, honesty level, etc.) into consideration in order to play top poker.  The more of these factors you learn to combine together, the more accurate your logical deduction capabilities will be.

9. Intuition

Intuition is something that's not readily learned or taught, the "gut feel" factor (or perhaps some form of extra sensory perception that's not readily explained); e.g., I feel they're weak, based on how they're playing overall right now; I feel they're probably bluffing/stealing.

These types of reads aren't something that can be taught -- you either have it, or you don't.  It comes from deep experience - playing thousands and thousands of poker hands.  After a while, you gain enough experience with different complex situations that the brain is able to sort things out.

Our brains are capable of processing extremely complex thoughts.  The brain is basically a biological "neural network" - a bunch of chemically-connected, associated neurons that connects various memories together.  When presented with a given situation, these neurons automatically fire and our internal neural network quickly reaches a conclusion, having taken many different factors into consideration.