Reading Is Fundamental

I have always felt that reading players was one of my weakest skills in the game of poker. I have never really tried to ascertain if someone was making a big bluff on the river to buy the pot or if they were raising or re-raising pre-flop with rags. My philosophy always has been, “Do I know what they have in their hand? No. Do I really care? No.” Into the muck the hand would go. I guess I’ve always just tried to play simple, fundamental, ABC poker and just play solid hands.

I must have graduated to another level because for some reason, last night I seemed to have a read on the table and on players that I have never experienced before. It was similar to Spiderman’s senses tingling when he knew that something was awry. An example was when I picked up Queens in the big blind, first player to open raise made it  3 times the live straddle. There were two callers before it got back to me. Usually with 3 other opponents going to the flop I wouldn’t hesitate calling with any pair because of the pot odds and implied odds to potentially flop a set. For some reason I stopped and looked over the table to see where the original raise came from. The gentleman who open raised was an older gentleman, and the most solid rock at the table. His raising range had only been extremely strong hands. The lowest his range went to that I had experienced was JJ, at the lowest. This player never even raised pre-flop with AK. I’m immediately realizing that my Queens my be in bad shape since I’m only ahead of one hand in his pre-flop raising range. I threw the hand away. Showdown at the river turned out that he had Aces.

It’s funny how I’ve always tried to establish my own table image. I got a great education on figuring out the image of other opponents. The adjustments that I was able to make accordingly made it a profitable night at a casino that has historically been the toughest place for me to win at.