Online Reads

[Vito_Nuccio]

How do you read other players and gather vital information when playing online?

Obviously you can not see body motion, hear a cracking voice or look someone in the eye but you can gather bits of information on your online opponents. Here are some ways:

- Game Play. Watch how others bet and fold. Note who can lay down a hand and the ones playing to the deathy end no matter what. Peg the others for style and watch for patterns.

- Nickname. Some give away more information than others with names. Occupation or lifestyle is sometimes obvious. Age or birthdates appear in the numbers of a players name. Acronyms are also present, discern what they mean and process the data.

- Avatar. Same idea as name. Some players plop a picture of themselves. Others present pets or other things about their life or interests.

- Chat. You can definitely pick up information from player chat. Intelligence level usually sticks out like a sore thumb. Tilt level also can be determined.

- Participation. Try to determine how much this player is paying attention. Are they multi-tabling (search current cardroom, they also could be at others) or not paying attention due to some outside influence. The ones not following the game are the ones you can push around more, they may be good players, but must give some edge up with the lessor focus.

- Notes. All sites offer a chance to associate notes to other players with easy reminders when you play them again. Once you pin something on a player, jot it into their notes so if you play against them again, you will be reminded in your own words. A great underused online feature.

Now gather up your new found information ammo and go win some cash.

Later,

[liladypokerpro]

Typically, the most frequent online read I use is betting patterns. It's pretty easy to tell a weak player simply by watching their betting.

For example, last night I sat down at a .5/.10 table on Nordica, and after watching the first few minutes (waiting for BB), I noticed that most of the players at the table checked more often than not, and when they did bet, it was always minimum. This tells me there are likely a lot of loose / scared players, likely a lot of cheap fishing going on, and I noticed when another player raised more than minimum, the min-bettors/callers folded almost every time.

One guy in particular was very obvious, as his initial bet was large, about .60, then after the flop, he continued with 1.10, but then when a high card hit the turn, his bet decreased to .20, signaling to me that he was worried about that card, and when I re-raised big, he easily folded.

Needless to say after about 30-45 minutes of running over the table, all but one player left, and I had more than tripled up in this short amount of time. The wonderful thing about tables like these, is that they begin to think you are only a bluffer after you start winning seemingly every hand you enter into...which makes for easy big pots, because they'll call you down with anything just to try to catch you in a bluff.

Of all the read styles that work online, I swear by the betting patterns for mine.