Thinking about your opponents hand against yours is just the start of your analysis in poker. To make yourself a winning player you’re going to need to size up weather your foe is good or bad.

In poker we talk about people being fish or donkey, sharks and cheaters but the animal a good poker should emulate is a chameleon. This tricky lizard can change colour adapting to an environment and a profitable poker player is required to do the same depending on weather they’re up against a seasoned pro, a complete fish and anything in between.

In reality this often means being aware that playing out of position is more dangerous if your facing a good player and 3 barrel bluffing a beginner NEVER works!

So in today’s we’ll discuss some interesting points when approaching various opponents.

Bluffing

Bluffing is straight forward against bad players. They’re really only thinking about their hand, so if you know they’re capable of folding and you sense they they their hand isn’t strong, then green light. Bluff. The trouble comes as I mentioned before when you fire a barrel and they call. Chances are they have a piece and won’t let go. Here’s where a lot of medium level poker player (Like Myself) make the mistake of representing a hand the beginner hasn’t even seen!

If your opponent is a good poker player they’ll understand board texture, pre flop action and will be able to narrow the hand you are trying to make them think you have. The most important thing about planning a bluff is that the hand story HAS TO MAKE SENSE! Say for example you check raise a villain on a Qh, 7h, 2c board and he calls. He’ll be narrowing your hand to a set, two pair, a strong Queen or may be a pair flush draw or nut flush draw. When the heart comes on the turn this is a scare card and a good time to fire your second shot. Hands like QJ are put to a decision and more often than not will fold.

Bet Sizing

To a bad player a bet is often seen simply as a bet, with little thought given as to what the sizing may indicate about the strength of your hand. As such, you should keep your bet sizing very straightforward. If you have a strong hand and feel your opponent has something then bet big, close to the full pot size, for maximum value. The same is true for when draws are on the board. Charge your opponents the maximum – if they have a flush draw they are just as likely to call a pot-sized bet as a smaller one because they are not thinking about pot odds or maths, only that they want to hit their draw.

Against good opponents you have to put more thought into your bet sizing to try to manipulate their actions. Over betting the river for value is one example, as a good player will instantly recognize that this generally polarises your hand into a monster or a bluff, allowing you to get paid off in some spots where a more standard smaller bet would have elicited a fold. Similarly, experiment with small bets of a third of the pot against aggressive opponents who are likely to view this as weakness and raise you. Put yourself in your opponent’s shoes and think what sort of bet size would confuse you in their position. Get it right and you’ll find your opponents making calls and raises in spots where they shouldn’t.

Position

Position is always important in no-limit hold’em, but against a bad player it’s slightly less important than against a good one. As your profit at the table is far more likely to come against bad opponents you have to make sure you are in as many pots against them as possible, even if that means you’ll be out of position for the hand. So, if a weak player raises your big blind you should be calling much wider than usual, as you have a chance to play heads-up postflop against him where he is likely to make big mistakes. Similarly, if it is folded to you in the small blind when a weak opponent is in the big blind you need to have complete rags to consider folding. It’s not often you get the opportunity to feast on the fish heads-up, so you can’t afford to pass up these opportunities.

On the contrary, it will be nigh on impossible to show a profit against a good player if you are playing the majority of hands out of position. Folding all marginal hands out of position against them and focusing on playing aggressively with regular three-bets from position is going to be the best approach. That way you can keep pressure on them and have the initiative in hands going into the flop.

Make sure you don’t get into ego wars with good players though, in position or not. You’re at the table to make money, not to impress people. Being out of position in a pot against a fish is still going to prove more profitable than being in position against a good player, so choose the opponents you wish to go to war with carefully.