Crush Online Tournaments via tells and scouting
I was thinking about what I could offer for value as a good poker tip for my first post at 4 King Poker and decided to discuss online tells common in tournament play.
I always enjoyed playing tournaments on medium sized sites such as Absolute Poker, Poker.com etc, as you get to see many of the same players day in and day out and get to know their playing styles. With many average players it’s extremely easy to pick up tells that will clue you in to exactly what the player has in his hand.
The most common tell though that I’ve been able to pick up on is regarding the size of a continuation bet.
A long time ago I had picked up on a trend that the majority of pre flop raisers put a continuation bet in on the flop of approximately 2/3 the size of the pot when they miss the flop, Examples: they have pocket 9’s and the flop comes up K 10 2, or they have AK and the flop comes up 9 High.
This is a very easy tell to pick up on but before using it to determine how you will play the rest of the hand you must understand that tells are only one of many tools in poker, this information should be taken into account with a variety of other info and not be used solely to determine you play.
I’m not suggesting going all in every time someone bets 2/3 of the pot as a continuation bet in a tournament because blindly doing so you’ll go broke quickly. What I do suggest is to study how each player acts (take notes either mentally or in a note pad) on the flop after they were the one who opened the pot for a pre-flop raise. Look for trends that will help you get to know the players play book and note things that stand out such as: Uses slow leads, checks big hands, bets 2/3 continuation on missed flops, etc.
If you play with the same group of players regularly (which is common on most medium sized sites) these trends will soon develop into tells which will give you a massive advantage over the opponents at the table.
The first thing I would start with is noting plays on the flop for all the regular players as having an edge playing after the flop with these players will give you the biggest advantage over these players.
Once you’ve determined trends and developed a good understanding of the other players post flop play book, start taking notes on there starting hand ranges and look for any variations in their preflop raises. Example: I know quite a few players who make this 2/3 continuation bet on missed flop and will always limp with 22-99, raise 4x with TT-QQ, raise 3x with AA, KK and raise 5x with AK. While these players play a fairly solid game I’m sure they don’t have the slightest clue that a few observant pro players at their table totally have their number and they might as well just be playing with their cards turned face up.
The next thing to start noting is what this player is capable of, example I’ve been able to put a player on AK and I’ll raise them big with 6 4 on a 3 7 9 flop and have them turn around and move all in on me. I’ve had this happen numerous times and many of those times I’ve been so priced into the hand I’ve had no choice but to call. Be sure you know who is bluff-able; some players are not willing to be bluffed and will decide to commit all their chips blindly.
Also keep in mind to update your notes daily.
At one site I used to play at 3 years ago, I see that the worlds biggest fish who was dead money to almost all of our $50 SNG’s is now the top tournament player on the site cashing big in MTT and dominating the $200 SNG’s regularly. I got a chance to talk with this player recently and found out he had cashed for $14,000 at Stars and faced the fact that he was a losing player who go lucky to get his money back and decided to start learning poker.
The best way to go about getting started is to closely observe who you believe to be the best players at the table. Keep an eye out for any potential trends, when you spot what you might believe to be a trend go back through your hand histories and confirm if what you suspected to be a pattern holds up during the previous times you’ve player with this player. Tools such as Poker Tracker make this much easier.
Now even if you decide not to use this information to pick up tells on other players, at least the fact that scouting takes place has been brought to your conscious level. Keep in mind if you play the same way all the time certain players who have scouted you will be able to play you as if you had your cards face up. The most successful tournament players are those who mix it up and are able to take down pots with any 2 cards, and fold when they're not going to be able to pick up pot.
Anyways to many readers this information might seem elementary but hopefully it helps someone who reads it.
If anyone has anything to add on the topic of tells, or wishes to share their scouting methods or ask questions about scouting I look forward to your responses.
Good luck at the tables,
Jim
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