How To Beat Poker

A lifelong poker player who moved online in 2004, Josh founded Beat The Fish in 2005 to help online poker players make more-informed decisions on where to play and how to win once they got there. If you want to beat online poker in 2021, and improve all areas of your life, make sure you are focused on the big three: Regular exercise; Good nutrition; Optimal sleep; Because I can promise you that the. “I don’t need a lesson on how to beat beginners at poker. They don’t know what they are doing!” Unfortunately, in poker that same inexperience can be to the new players’ advantage because in a single session of poker. Don't Play Every Hand/Do Fold More. Probably the number one mistake beginning poker players.

“I don’t need a lesson on how to beat beginners at poker. They don’t know what they are doing!” Unfortunately, in poker that same inexperience can be to the new players’ advantage because in a single session of poker, luck can work against you.

It’s important to remember that just like in any session of poker, you should be making decisions based on expected value. You can sometimes get unlucky against a beginner because they are not playing poker “correctly”, and this can be frustrating at times. However, when you’re playing against inexperienced players, who make many mistakes, in the long run you will make major profits.

Typical Beginners Tendencies

New poker players have easy to recognize tendencies in their play that you can captialize on. For this lesson, we will identify those tendencies using information from other lessons on Pokerology, such as our list of typical beginner mistakes. Then we’ll provide some effective poker strategies that you can use against these players, which should yield major profits.

The beginner who plays too many hands

This type of beginner is very easy to spot. They will often show down easily dominated hands like Ace-rag, K-8, Q-5, or any suited cards. They will limp into lots of pots and call a raise “just to see the flop”. Calling a re-raise out of position with a hand like K-J or A-rag is commonplace. Depending on if they are capable of folding or are a calling station, there are different ways to play them pre-flop:

• Capable of folding – if you have position, raise with a wide range of hands and bet the flop if they call pre-flop and check to you. If they call, they usually have a piece or a draw and you can slow down depending on your hand
• Calling station – consider limping behind pre-flop with hands you might raise other people in order to keep the pot small since you shouldn’t be bluffing them much pre-flop.
• Open up the range of hands that you would normally put someone on. Because they are new, you can’t assume they are always playing a standard hand for the situation.

The beginner who gets committed to a hand

Beginners tend to be calling stations and table sheriffs so look for them to call bets on all streets with easily beaten hands. For example, calling all the way with a hand like 7-7 on an A-K-T flop or calling large bets with middle pair.

• NEVER bluff a calling station – they will pay you off enough when you have a hand.
• If you have a strong hand, don’t slow play. Bet as much as you think they will call.
• If they ever do raise, beware, they usually have a strong hand so play cautiously. Often times, this occurs when they have sucked out to hit two pair.

The beginner who chases

The beginner who likes to chase can be easily identified. They will consistently call bets on draws without getting the proper odds (even gut-shot draws). They will chase over-cards and Ace high and will call quickly on a draw.

• Charge them to draw – as much as you think they will call. Don’t bet just to “protect your hand”. They will miss their draw more than they will make it, so make them pay for it.
• Tread cautiously if a flush or straight draw hits.
• If they seem to be chasing and make a big river bet when a draw misses, consider making the call if you have a decent hand.

The beginner who bluffs too much

Keep an eye out for the beginner who makes large bets or raises that don’t make sense. This type of beginner will continuously make plays at pots without regard to his table image. This player will typically try to appear aggressive and show strength with physical poker tells (if playing live).

• If you see a pattern, be prepared to go with your instinct and make calls of oversized bets that don’t make sense. While advanced players can often make a large bet representing a bluff, but this is not typical with beginners.
• Also note that beginners will often make large bets when they have a big hand as well, but the important thing here is observing a pattern of bluffing.

The beginner who plays passively

Be aware of the passive beginner who doesn’t play many pots and will often just call pre-flop. If they do raise pre-flop, they often check it down if they missed with over cards (i.e. Ace-King). They will often raise the minimum with marginal hands for fear of losing chips if they get beat – and will often fold to scare cards. Due to a lack of experience they play with a fear of losing and will only stay in a pot if they have a strong hand.

• If they have not shown aggression, bluff them at will.
• If they limp pre-flop or bet small, raise with a wide variety of hands.
• Stay out of the pot if they are betting strong or raising unless you have a very strong hand yourself.
• Bet scare cards (i.e. Ace on board or made flush).
• Use scary bet sizes that represent monsters (this could be overly small or big bets).
• If you are in the blinds, you can call a raise if they are in late position and bet any flop. You will know immediately where you stand and can often bluff them out of the pot.

The beginner who bets based on hand strength

Beginners often bet larger with stronger hands and smaller with their weaker hands, especially on the flop. They will often limp or raise small with Aces, Kings and Queens because they think it’s smart to build the pot with a lot of people.

• Watch for predictable patterns and simply play poker based on the value of your hand vs. the hand you put them on.
• If they are betting weakly, they are likely weak and you can decide if you want to bluff or bet for value based on their psychological tendencies.
• Watch for a small raise pre-flop followed by very large bets on the flop. This is often a sign of a big pocket pair.

Hand Example

• No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
• Blinds: 25/50
• You and your opponent both have 3,000 in chips.

Reads

Your opponent has been involved in a lot of pots, limping into most and raising with his big hands. He’s already been going up and down in chips in the early stages of the tournament. Based on how many pots he’s limped into and the types of hands he’s shown down on the river after calling every street (i.e. top pair/low kicker, bottom pair, missed draws) you can tell he’s a beginner. The pots he has won were because his opponents were misplaying their hands by trying to bluff him or because he’s hit a draw to a flush or straight. When he did catch a card to make a draw, he immediately pushed all-in.

Pre-Flop

Your opponent is under the gun and, as usual, limps into the pot. Based on how many hands he’s played, this could be a wide range. One other player with 1,500 chips limps in middle position, and in the cut-off you look down to see :

Figure 1

How should you play this hand?

Well, based on past behaviours you know the UTG opponent wants to see the flop and will call most raises. At the same time, while AK is strong it will often times miss the flop and you will have a hard time pushing your opponent off if he catches any piece. Because of that, limping is an option as it will disguise the strength of your hand and control the pot size. So should you limp? In some cases, this might be an okay way to mix up your play, but “disguising” and “mixing things up” only have value against someone who is paying attention to how you are playing. In this case, the UTG player is a beginner and is only playing his cards. Another reason not to limp is the presence of other people in the pot. Your limp will encourage others behind you to limp and they can easily catch a hand. Ace-King is also too good of a hand to not raise for value.

So the decision is to raise, but how much? In this case, we know the beginner will likely come along for the ride but we also want the other players to fold. We would much rather play this hand against one person if we can. We also want to exercise some element of pot control because AK could easily miss and a continuation bet on the flop may not be as effective against the beginner. With the blinds at 25/50 and with another limper already in, I would raise to around 250. The button and blinds fold, the UTG beginner player calls and the middle position player folds. Perfect.

The Flop

The pot now has 625 and the flop comes . Then our opponent bets out 200:

Figure 2

This should be a good flop for us. He’d probably have raised pre-flop with AA or JJ and may have raised with AJ, so if he has us beat now it’s only with 44 or AJ. Based on the size of the bet, it’s most likely that he has a small piece of it. It’s enough to confidently proceed as if we have the best hand. Because of the flush draw, he would more likely have bet around the size of the pot with a set of 4’s or AJ. He could be betting on a flush draw, but most beginners with his tendencies would more likely check/call with a draw after facing a raise pre-flop. We can safely narrow his range to any Ace or a pair of Jacks (J8-KJ is most likely unless it’s suited).

How To Beat Poker Bots

Now, how do we extract the most from this situation? Pushing all-in at this point might scare him off so let’s eliminate that. Slow playing might be best against some players, but not against a beginner. Again, he’s not thinking about what we have. If he’s only thinking about the fact that he has a pair, he will likely call a raise. He’ll call thinking two things: 1. this guy is trying to push me around, 2. even if I’m beat now, I could catch another card to win.

So let’s raise. Based on the range we are putting him on, we know he’s likely drawing to anywhere between 3 and 5 outs (3 outs if he has an Ace with a smaller kicker and 5 outs if he has a pair of Jacks). In poker, we win if we can cause our opponents to make an incorrect decision. In this case, if he calls any raise it would be incorrect because he needs at least 8.17 – 1 odds. In this situation, I would raise to around 800. After his 200 bet and our raise, there will be 1,625 in the pot and it will cost him 600 to call giving him about 2.7-1 odds. Remember though, he is not thinking about odds; he’s thinking about how reasonable the bet size is to call and we want him to call the maximum.

How To Beat Pokerbros

The Turn

The turn is a and the pot has 2,225. Our opponent immediately pushes all-in for his remaining 1,950:

Figure 3

Wow! How can we get away from this hand? Well, it’s not as hard as it seems. First, we are experienced enough that we aren’t getting attached to our hand, right? Okay, so forget the fact that we have top pair, top kicker. Let’s keep narrowing down our opponent’s range of hands. We know he most likely has A-rag or a pair of Jacks. In previous hands, our opponent has not shown aggression unless he has a big hand or hit a draw and he has just called with his marginal hands. Also, because he’s a beginner there is no reason that we should think he is running some sort of advanced bluff.

Taking that all into consideration, there is a high likelihood that he has sucked out and we are now beaten. His most likely holdings are A9, J9 and 99. We still have outs vs. A9 and J9 and we are drawing dead to 99. There is now 4,175 in the pot and it costs us 1,950 to call, giving us 2.15-1 odds. Clearly, we aren’t getting the right price to re-suck and we should fold. We fold, confident in our read and our opponent shows us for two-pair.

Conclusion

Next time you’re playing against a beginner; make the effort to observe their actions. It shouldn’t be difficult to get a read on them, because as we’ve shown in this lesson beginners have easy to recognize tendencies in their play. They won’t be making advanced plays on you, and what you see is what you get.

It’s very important to realize that they are not playing you; they are only playing their cards. Therefore you should play “ABC” poker against these players because they in turn won’t realize that you are running some advanced play on them. Be careful not to get caught up in fancy play syndrome. Beginners don’t think about what you are thinking or what hand you are representing – they just know that they have a pair and that could be good, so they will call any bet.

If you remember this then you will make money against beginners in the long run.

By Donovan Panone

Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.

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• »How To Confuse and Beat Good Poker Players

Playing poker against opponents who are lesser-skilled than you is a recipe for success. Not all your opponents are weak, however, there are some very good poker players out there. These stronger players are not limited to high-stakes games, good poker players frequent even the low and micro-stakes.

It is easier to win against weak players. They do not think deep enough about the game to warrant any out-of-the-box thinking. Value bet when you have the good, fold when they show strength, and you will not go far wrong.

Beating good poker players requires more creativity. They are less likely to pay you off and more likely to put you in tricky spots. Good poker players are more observant, meaning they pick up on betting patterns and tells. You need to be on your game to beat these opponents and beat them consistently.

Keep Good Poker Players Guessing By Mixing Up Your Continuation Bets

We spoke about continuation bets only a week or so ago. They are a powerful tool that every poker player has in their arsenal. Mixing up when you continuation bet and when you do not is one way to confuse good poker players.

Let us take a look at a simple example. We raise preflop with As-Kc and one opponent called. The flop comes down Kd-5c-2s, what do you do? Your first instinct is to continuation bet, but doing this 100% of the time makes you easier to read. Good poker players will stop paying you off. Instead of automatically making a c-bet, consider checking and reevaluating once our opponent acts. Keeping opponents second-guessing themselves is a great way to dominate them.

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Consider Slow Playing Big Hands Against Good Poker Players

Few poker players suggest slow-playing big hands preflop, but it is a necessary evil. It is tempting to always three-bet with aces, kings, and queens, and do so for value. Think about just calling when the raises come from good poker players.

Stronger opponents raise with a wider range of hands, hands that they do not want to play in a three-bet pot. They fold a large percentage of their raising range, which leaves you to collect a small pot.

Do not always flat call their raise with a monster, but be prepared to do so. Just calling with strong hands preflop keeps your opponent wondering what you have. They never, initially at least, think you called with pocket kings, for example. Once good poker players know you are capable of flat-calling with big hands, it opens to door to other opportunities. They do not know if you have called with As-Ac or 9d-7d. Likewise, your three-bets could be with anything if you are prepared to only call with a monster!

Do Not Only Raise With Strong Hands and Draws

Poker Bad Beat Jackpot

Lower-stakes players play a more straightforward form of poker. Their raises tend to mean they have an overpair to the board, at least two pair or a set, or a big draw with plenty of outs. Remember our article about playing draws aggressively?

Mix up the hands you raise with and include both bluffs and semi-bluffs. Consider raising the flop with two overcards, for example, raising As-Ks on a Td-6c-3s flop. Raise it up with an inside straight draw occasionally. Good poker players take notes on what they see so the next time you raise on the flop they wonder what on Earth you could hold. Your chances of making money increase when your opponent does not know what to do.

Use a Standard Time For Acting and Watch Your Bet Sizes

Avoid giving off timing tells, especially in the online poker world, by always taking the same amount of time to act. A quick check is almost always the sign of a weak hand. Conversely, a fast bet is almost always a display of strength. Choose a number and wait until you count to it before acting. Keeping your time to act standardized prevents opponents from getting reads from you.

Similar is said for bet sizing. Weaker players bet bigger with strong, made hands, and smaller with bluff and draws. Good poker players mix their bets up, No-Limit Hold’em is “no limit” after all; you can bet what you like!

Always bet the maximum that a recreational player will call. These opponents call you off lightly so extracting value from them is a must. Mix things up against good poker players by sometimes betting small/large with big hands or bluff. Keep them second-guessing and wondering what is happening at their table.