When you first sit down at the poker table, it is great to be able to spot the weak players from the strong ones. By doing this you can build up an idea of how you are going to play your hands depending on whom you are up against in each particular pot. However, if you are not familiar with any of the players at the table, you may find it hard to form a good idea of how good your opponents may be within the first few hands. In spite of this, there are still a few things you can look out for to spot the weaker players.
Firstly, you will normally find that the regular winning players will sit down at the table with the full buy-in at all times. This is because as a long-term winning player, they will be maximizing their win during all-in situations. Therefore you should be particularly wary of players sitting down with the full buy-in or more. Nevertheless, you may find that a weak player has got lucky and managed to double up or more to give them a rather large stack, so try not to rely too heavily on your opponent’s stack size as an indication of there ability.
One of the best things to look for when determining whether or not a player is weak is the call-call before the flop. If you ever spot a player calling the blind and then calling a raise, it is normally an indication that they are weak and/or passive. This is because if they are calling the blinds, you can assume they have a hand that they would like to play with, but not strong enough to raise with. Then to call another players raise, it either means that they are entering the pot with a sub-standard hand or misplaying their strong hand. This is because it is generally the better play to raise if you are opening and entering a pot.
These small ‘tells’ are far from being concrete evidence that a player is weak, but they can used to help influence your mental picture of your opponents before you have the opportunity to really find out how they play. The best way to determine the ability of an opponent is to watch how they play their hands and take notes on what actions they made throughout. If you are able to master this ability to learn your opponent’s ability and style, you should find that you are on the right tracks to winning a decent amount of money from poker.
