Or wait until you think you have him beat.Įverybody in Poker thinks he knows what a tight player is, but I’m going to define it again because so many people confuse the term “tight” with “solid”. That’s when you can try to bluff him out of the pot. It works sometimes, but should you jeopardize your money when you think your opponent’s got a good hand? Let him win the pot and wait till you think he doesn’t have much of anything. To me, that’s not being aggressive … that’s being stupid. There’s a very well known Poker player, a man who enters the World Series of Poker every year, who has a talent for figuring out exactly what your hand is.īut when he decides that you’re holding a Pair of Jacks (in Hold ‘em) and his own hand will not beat the Jacks, he’ll try to make you throw your hand away. But you can still figure him because it is very, very difficult for any man to conceal his character Of course, anybody with a lick of sense is trying to keep you from reading him. Try to bluff at him the first good opportunity, and see if he’ll call you or not what kind of hand he’ll call with, and what kind he’ll throw away. If you aren’t learning what you want to know just by watching and listening, create your own opportunity. That’s the way you get to know him and his moves. So you look at a man every time he’s involved in a hand. You listen to what your opponent says, but you watch what he’s doing independently of what he says because a lot of players talk loose and play tight, and a little later they’ll reverse it on you. Remember you have to do both, and relate the two. What’s his mood … his feeling? What’s his apparent psychological frame of mind right now? Is he in the Mood to gamble … or is he just sitting there waiting for the nuts? Is he a loser and on tilt (playing far below his normal capability) … or has he screwed down (despite his being loser) and begun playing his best possible game? Is he a cocky winner who’s now playing carelessly and throwing off most of his winnings…or is he a winner who’s started to play very tight so he can protect his gains?Ĭoncentrate on everything when you’re playing. More importantly, you’ve got to know what makes him tick at the moment you’re involved in a pot with him. More than any other game, Poker depends on your understanding your opponent. These are my notes which I intend to go back to later. It is not a complete summary of the book. Later I turn those highlights into a blogpost. Note: While reading a book whenever I come across something interesting, I highlight it on my Kindle.

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