Every good poker player knows, winning poker is about playing the players rather than the cards. That's what the professionals on TV do and that is what everyone should do to truly push the chance element aside and give skill a bigger role.
In online poker, playing the player is quite impossible though. This is another one of the factors that set online poker so clearly aside from live poker. When you play online, all you see is avatars, stupid nicknames and piles of chips on the table. Be my guest to play the player there.
At higher limits, the player-base is relatively constant. You'll probably run into the same players there time and time again, and thus taking notes on them will make sense. Most online players however, play low to middle limits/stakes where, besides the impossibly large number of players you'll have to take notes on, your efforts will also be hindered by the fact that these guys come and go all the time. There are simply too many players to take notes on, and the possibility is always there that once you take note on a player you'll never see him/her again. Another problem is that most people who squeeze money out of low limit games multi-table. While multi-tabling, you will certainly not have any time to check the notes you've taken on other players let alone put them to use.
Anyway, let's suppose you play in some high-limit game, where you have notes on most of the players you're up against. Based on the notes you have, you should be able to determine which of these guys are good players and which are weak. Do not commit the mistake I often find myself doing: play out fancy poker moves against opponents who couldn't care less. While at low limits most of your opponents will be like this (never attempt to bluff a multi-tabler) at higher limits, the opposition tends to get much stronger and the game tightens up. Save your fancy play for the good players. Nothing is more frustrating than hitting some newbie with a volley of subtle betting pattern tells, out of which he understands nothing and he makes the right call by ignoring them. Against guys like this, play your good-old, simple, straightforward poker game. Never fear that they'll have you read, since reading players and generally "playing the player" is not part of their arsenal.
Good players require a different approach. You need to confuse them, but in the same time you need to mislead them too. In a word: you need to bring your best play against these guys, but the good news is, good players are much more vulnerable to manipulation than poor ones.
The opponent you're most likely to make money on is the tight passive guy, also known as "weak-tight". This guy doesn't like to take the initiative even when all odds say he should. He'll just call instead of raising or betting, thus attempting to let others do his "dirty work". While there is good value in such players, do not underestimate them. Just because you just dazzled a reasonably good player at the other table with your fancy footwork, it doesn't mean the "rock" will play along as well. Such calling stations are very easy reads for good players because they never lie. Whenever you see one of these rocks is calling you in a determined manner, you'd better have a strong showdown hand or get out.
Certainly, the reads that are available to you will pretty much be limited to betting patterns in online poker, but regardless, you need to make every effort to play the player rather than the cards.
Newer poker rooms feature clients which showcase other tells as well. (like the double checking of the hole-cards, which is actually visible to opponents). The tells that this new generation of poker software brings to the game open a whole new world of possibilities for the savvy player looking to exploit his opponent's weaknesses.
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