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Since the 18th century, poker has provided entertainment to several of its players anywhere in the world, not to mention even letting some bag enormous cash. Sure, you can play poker for the sake of fun. But you should know that this game is a battle with the strongest of opponents at the poker table.
Unlike casino slots, where you generally play alone (your competition is yourself), a game of poker involves interacting with other people who will do everything to become the poker champion. That being said, you must know how to beat them. Here are some proven tips on how you can beat great poker players.
The Basics
Be Aggressive, But Remember That Aggression In Poker Isn’t Equivalent To Skill
You will hear several experts tell you that the secret to beating great poker players is to be aggressive. This is true, yes, but playing aggressively is different from being skillful.
When it comes to beating talented poker players, be aware of two distinct types of players: the skilled regular players whose aggression is in perfect timing to veer you away from winning and the recreational players who think aggression is part of the fun.
The former is the most difficult to play against. Beating them requires a considerable amount of skill and patience. Meanwhile, the latter often makes all sorts of fundamental mistakes, such as playing too many hands and making silly bluffs from time to time. While it is easy to beat them, you’d want the latter to always be on your right.
To conclude, there are various strategies to use depending on the type of aggression a poker player exhibits. But they all boil down to using their aggression against them.
Avoid Being Predictable
Often, you won’t be the best poker player at the poker table, but this isn’t an excuse for being predictable. The most robust poker players usually feast on those with a consistent playing style. In other words, this can mean playing a lot of hands – an aggressive playing style – or playing very few hands or being tight.
Here’s the tip: keep your opponent guessing. Consider aggressively playing a weak hand if you have been folding countless times. On the other hand, consider slowing down and waiting for premium cards if you have been using an aggressive play style. Basically, it’s all about not letting your opponent read you like a book.
Also, using a randomizer when you fancy playing weak hands and bluffing can confuse your opponent. Yes, for real. That randomizer can be your wristwatch. When you cannot decide whether to fold a marginal hand or make a bet, look at your watch. If its minute hand is an odd number, fold. If it is an even number, bet.
Digging Deeper
Slow Play Your Huge Hands Preflop
It has been said that one of the best ways to confuse the most talented poker players with you is to begin slow playing with your significant pairs and strong aces every now and then.
Let’s be specific so you’ll understand this better. Instead of always reraising with ace and ace, king and king, queen and queen, or ace and king, why don’t you call to deceive your opponents? Interesting, right?
Here’s a scenario when this is very effective: when there’s another aggressive and good poker player to act behind you in the blinds. You can trap that fierce opponent likely to put in the light squeeze-reraise by simply calling the original raise with your tough premium hand. This lets you reraise it once again and amass a tremendous amount of money with the best hand before you even see a flop.
Mix Up Those Continuation Bets
Aside from slow playing, you might also want to just mix things up on the flop. Stay away for now from betting your top-pair hands against good poker players.
For example, say you look down at the king of clubs and queen of spades, then raise. Then,
after obtaining one caller, the flop comes the queen of diamonds, six of clubs, and two of spades.
Betting this flop often makes you predictable. But, if you could check back or check-call this hand from time to time as well, this can confuse a great poker player and cause them to bluff at it, or river.
You May Also Mix Up Your Raising Range
Another way to confuse the better poker players is to mix up your raising range, more so on the flop.
Here’s a typical move. Several poker players at the lower limits will just raise the flop with hands such as:
- An overpair to the board
- A hand with two pairs
- A set
- A monster draw
Again, playing this way makes you very predictable. More often than not, you’ll lose. But if you begin raising the flop with only two over cards or with an inside straight draw sometimes, you will be tough to read.
Barrel With A More Capacious Range
Another area that most poker players take at the lower stakes is the range with which these people barrel post flop. They bet on the turn once again, or river.
Moreover, they will also tend to keep betting on the turn with a really formidable range, as discussed earlier. Again, following this route makes you predictable.
You want to mix in a few more semi-bluff barrels occasionally with hands, such as an inside straight draw, two over cards, or a bottom pair, even.
But remember, you don’t have to do this all the time. The point here is that you must have at least a bit of your barreling range that’s a bluff. You’ll understand why this move is effective. Go ahead and try it.
Avoid Giving Off Timing Tells
Another strategy to confuse the great poker player is to be wary of all the timing tells you are giving off. Then, eliminate them. These timing tells frequently appear with players betting too quickly with their regular strength draws or mediocre hands. Such impulsive actions are very obvious to any intelligent player.
What you’d want to do instead is very simple. Timing is everything. For instance, take some three seconds before you act. Doing so prevents you from revealing your hand’s strength to really observant poker opponents. This will work regardless of whether you are playing in person or gaming online.
Avoid Giving Off Bet Sizing Tells, Too
There is a widespread habit wherein players give off tells that the talented opponents pick up via their bet sizes. More particular, these individuals stagger their bets’ size depending on their hand’s strength.
Sure, this can work, but if you are with weak players at the poker table. What you must do is to bet more with your strong hands against the recreational type of players, and less with your weak hands and bluffs. Why? It is because these types of opponents are not paying close attention to your patterns.
But, the great poker players do, which is why if you find yourself playing with them, you must more often standardize your bet sizing’s all the time.
Conclusion: It’s Still Just Poker
Nevertheless, at the end of game day, regardless of the type of poker player you are competing with, it is still just a game of poker. No more, no less. Even the pros lose sometimes, and in these scenarios, they may even tend to lose a lot. It’s part of poker excitement.
However, among the most beautiful (and frustrating, too) things about this game is that it is still all about luck. This is why you should keep those tips you learned above in mind when pitted against a superior poker player. Don’t overthink. Enjoy the game with them.
