Adjusting to Different Types of Poker Players

When you first learn the game of poker most players are taught that there is a “right” way to play, and many poker players stick to this very general ABC strategy when they are playing cards, especially if they are playing online and multi-tabling. However, the real “right” way to play is to be able to slightly alter this basic strategy based on your specific opponent(s). Now this doesn’t mean you’ll be playing all over the place, what it means is that the frequency you do things like, bluff, value-bet, continuation bet, attack the blinds, and so on will change. In this article I’ll outline all the different changes you’ll need to make to your game based on who your opponent is.

Good Players

Good players are perhaps the easiest to adjust to, since the best adjustment is to not mess around with them. Because of this, your first adjustment against a good player should be to respect their play. Here are a couple of the different “Good” players you will run into:

• Adjusting to a loose/Aggro

The best way to deal with a loose agro is to play a lot of hands that can flop big. Hands like suited connectors and pairs make it easy to know you have the best hand/monster draw, so there is no wondering if you should continue on in the hand. These hands are also easy to muck when you miss.

• Adjusting to a Tight/Aggressive

Against a tight/aggressive player you should be playing a very small range of hands pre-flop. Additionally, you should be attacking on ragged boards and anytime they show weakness.

Decent Players

Decent poker players are actually the easiest players to manipulate; they have just enough poker knowledge to be a danger… to themselves!

• Adjusting to a Nit

Nits are players who play only the top hands and while they are likely to fire a continuation bet on the flop, they are very unlikely to continue betting without a hand after this point. The best strategy against a Nit is to always play in position, and utilize plays like floating.

• Adjusting to Bluffer

Bluffers are fairly tight/aggressive players who just bet too much after the flop. These players need to be handled in a very passive manner. Think of them as your dog that has gotten loose; if you go charging after him, he’ll just run more, so you have to cautiously approach him in a benign way. Let the bluffer do the betting for you, if you start firing back they’ll just give up their charade. It’s also a good idea to make it seem you are really thinking about folding.

Bad Players

Bad players require very little adjustment on your part -since these are the players that the ABC strategy is designed to exploit-but there are different kinds of bad players!

• Adjusting to a Calling Station

Calling stations are great, but make sure you’re not bluffing; continuation bets and firing second and third barrels are useless. You should also be willing to value bet more often considering some Stations will call down with Ace high and other nonsense hands.

• Adjusting to a Maniac

Maniacs are just the opposite of Calling Stations and can be handled similarly to a Bluffer, with one exception: When you actually have a hand against a Maniac it’s ok to push back early on in the hand because unlike Bluffers, Maniacs don’t like to give-up. A maniac always thinks they can push you off a hand, so by building a pot early you are forcing them to commit a lot of chips to their next bluff.