Poker Player Profiles

I wrote this page as part of an emphasis in playing a dynamic poker game. While understanding math and odds will get you far in poker and aid you in making the correct calls, sometimes you simply need to make the correct play to win money. Making the correct play is all about identifying and understanding each opponent you play with. This is why I cannot stress enough that when you are playing serious poker, you cannot distract yourself with other things that prevent you from observing your opponents.

Observation involves keeping track of betting patterns and behaviors that your opponents exhibit. There is no such thing as purely random play, no matter how bad (or good) your opponent. Knowing that, there will be some pattern or logic to their play. Your goal is to identify your opponent's patterns and use that against them.

The following is a listing of typical poker player profiles that I run across while playing on on Party Poker. This is not a comprehensive listing and should not be taken as such. Think of this as a guide to how you should start thinking about your opponents when you begin to classify them. Most every player can be shoved into a category and dealt with accordingly. Once you have the ability to observe, identify and understand your opponent, you will have a major edge. This is why poker is still a mind game, especially at the no-limit level.

	The Aggressive Maniac
Description	Raises a good deal of hands pre-flop and calls the rest. Bets almost every flop, especially when checked to him. If his bet is raised, he will usually re-raise and cap all to the river with no hesitation.
Strength	Through sheer intimidation, the maniac will take down pots when no one is brave enough to call him down. Players know that when the maniac in the game, they will have to go to showdown to win the pot. In a tight game, the maniac may actually win money by stealing the blinds and flops enough to make up for all the times he is called down. When the maniac does have a strong hand however, it is impossible to tell because his betting behavior will be the exact same.
Weakness	In a loose game with many callers, the maniac usually can't win by bluffing people out and ends up juicing the pot for the winning hand. Most people love the maniac in this situation because he bets without thinking. The obvious weakness is that this 'strategy' always loses money in the long run because it simply doesn't work. Also, the maniac is his own worst enemy by juicing the pot when he holds the weaker hand against an opponent raising with a stronger hand.
Fold	It is almost never correct to fold to a maniac when holding any hand with strength. The times you do want to fold is when the maniac is betting out ahead of you and you have potential callers behind you. Even if you know the maniac is bluffing, you don't want to be beaten by a stronger caller behind you, so position is important on a maniac.
Call	In heads-up position or late position against the maniac when everyone has folded , you practically have to call the maniac if you hold mid/bottom pair, pockets or Ace high. King high may be good too- use your judgement. Simply call their bets to the river and hope you stand up. You will lose often but usually win more often than you lose, so it's worth it. Calling a flush or straight draw to the river is recommended if you hold at least a Jack high. If the board pairs the middle or bottom card on the turn or river, it is advisable to simple call down to showdown after that. Same goes with 4 to a straight or a flush on board.
Bet	Any strong hand (top pair or better) should be bet out with with the hope that the maniac re-raises you.
Raise	When raised back by the maniac, there is usually no threat unless the maniac is a selective raiser. Your choice should be to raise him right back and expect it to be capped to the river. Not for the faint of heart, especially when the maniac may actually be holding a hand. If you are scared, call one raise and then bet out the next round and call one raise there too as needed. This juices the pot, but not enough to hurt you in the bankroll should you be wrong.
Position	Against a complete maniac, I would prefer sitting to the right of the maniac in order to see the action of the field before it comes around to me. In this position, you can always check to the maniac and let him bet for you and hide your hand strength. In terms of starting hands however, sitting to the right has issues, since you will have your blinds and other limping hands raised before the flop. If you are not the type to defend, you may wish to sit to the left of the maniac so you know ahead of time if he is going to bump the hand or not. The downfall, is that this leaves you vunerable to actions of players behind you.

	Ace Happy (aka Too much WPT)
Description	These are the players on Party Poker who generally play loose, but most notably play any hand with an Ace and raise all pocket pairs. While generally a caller or average player, when they make their Ace pair, they turn into the Aggressive Maniac. I call these guys Too much WPT because heads-up, no-limit poker as shown on the World Poker Tour compared to 10 person limit ring games are apples and oranges. Ace Happies don't know the difference, probably through no fault of their own. Pre-flops are generally any pocket pair and yup, Ace anything. Should usually call a pre-flop if you hold a strong hand.
Strength	Generally do play semi-good hands and bet according to hand strength. When raising, are hard to tell their hand strength very well because they have a tendancy to over-bet.
Weakness	Not understanding the value of the kicker card or over-realizing the value of pocket pairs makes them overly aggressive with those hands. If called/raised to the showdown, will usually find themselves beaten silly with a higher kicker or simply better hand against any good player. Often times however, will win with callers who show with mid or bottom pair.
Fold	When not holding overpair with a decent kicker (7+) it's usually a good move to fold. These guys usually don't bet out for the hell of it and have some kind of strength.
Call	Calling is generally the wrong move against this type of player unless you are on a draw. With an Ace on the board, you should grit your teeth and begin raising back with the belief you have the best hand. Without an ace on the board and getting raised back substantially with top pair, you may wish to halt and call down. If the Ace Happy bets often enough to be a bit of a maniac, you probably want to call with mid pair if you have a strong kicker.
Bet	Bet out any strong hand (top pair w/kicker or better).
Raise	As stated earlier, any strong hand deserves a re-raising against these players. Caution signs should appear however if you are still being re-raised by the turn. Your own judgement is your best tool in this situation.

	Calling Station (aka Caller, Fisher)
Description	The wallflower of the poker table, plays most hands and rarely goes out of the way to make a bet and prefers to let others do the betting for him. Often, they'll showdown on the river with mid/bottom pair or a busted flush or straight draw even. These guys are the cash cow of poker and you want a few (but not too many) of these guys in every table. Pre-flops from callers are usually quite varied, because they don't the value of their hands. You may be liable to see anything from AA to 22 or AKs to A2s, but more often than not be prepared to see some real monsters coming at you.
Strength	The only strength a caller has is that the power of their hand is almost always unknown since they usually play most hands. You'll often see a caller who smooth calls re-raise after re-raise between two other players in a raising war and then shows a full-house when the other players are showing two pair or trips. Bluffing a caller is hard but not impossible as many of them will call you down the the river.
Weakness	The caller can never extract value from players. Since calling is the caller's MO, when they raise (this is where observation comes into play), strong players immediately know to fold or at least not raise back unless they hold the nuts.
Fold	Any raise made by a caller should throw up massive warning signs. Usually callers raise on the river after following someone's raises all game. Normally this is easy to spot because the raise will be accompanied by a flush or straight threat on the table. When there seems to be nothing dangerous on the board, you can almost be sure to see trips hit you in the face. Folding is recommended with an obvious threat when the caller is not a tricky player. Otherwise, you will kick yourself for hours if you folded a winner to a bluff or a weak pair.
Call	Rarely will you need to call a caller, because they're doing all the calling. If the caller bets out or raises, as stated above, folding is usually the correct decision if you aren't holding two-pair or better. A call can be made if you hold top pair with Ace kicker.
Bet	Normally betting is a tool that does two things: make people fold and juice the pot. In the situation against callers, you are only juicing the pot. Thus, you should only bet when you want to juice the pot- and you should only want to juice the pot when you are in the lead. That being said, if you are on a nut draw, you may wish to bet out to juice the pot if it will help your pot odds. In a niche situation when you are betting your draw out the the river and only callers are left, if you don't hit your draw on the river, bet out again anyways. You won't win most of the time because one of them will usually call you down, but you will end up winning a few of the pots when all the callers failed to hit. The few times you bluffed the callers out will give you a net gain over the times you've failed. Obviously, it's not in your interest to show your cards when you've bluffed in this situation
Raise	Raise a caller only when you have a substantially strong hand in relevance to the board. If the board shows three to a flush, you'd better have nut flush. If the board is paired, you'd better have the top full house. If it's rags, you'd best have top two-pair. Get the picture?

	Tight, scared
Description	Understands what are good pre-flop hands, so will not see the flop often and fold a lot. Once on the flop, this person usually only plays the strongest hands to the river and will never call except for a open ended straight or flush draw. Usually a consistent showdown winner, this person won't try to make any moves, call down a bluffer or try to play any kind of poker other than simply playing their cards. You can recognize this player because they don't see many flops and many of the flops they do see they fold. Most wannabe rounders and rocks fall into this category. Pre-flops from these players usually are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ.
Strength	These players play well in a loose game where players are not paying attention to each other. By playing usually only the winning hands, this kind of player can simply sit back and wait for good cards to hit and bet it down to the river and hope to win. Mathematically, these players have an edge over players who don't understand all the odds in poker.
Weakness	Their ability to only play their own cards is a glaring handicap for anyone observant enough to notice. Against a maniac or a bluffer, these players suffer horribly as they do not have the resolve to see an Ace high or low pair to the river. Their caution also holds them back from tricky plays like check raising or general slow playing unless they truly hold a monster. A strong player will usually be able to read this player like a book and play accordingly. However, a game can only stand 4-5 of these tight players in a game before completely drying up. Having 1-3 of these in a game is probably ideal
Fold	Almost anytime this player bets, it's a good time to fold unless you hold the top pair with a strong kicker. These kind of players are less interested in betting for value than to simply get people out of the pot, because they are generally holding the winning hands if they are betting. If this person called on the flop/turn and then bet out on the turn/river, that is almost a surefire sign this player developed a monster hand. Whereas a strong player would simply bet the turn if they already knew they would call (a somewhat tricky play), these players would be too scared of a re-raise to perform tricks like that. They bet because they were not scared of a raise and thus should signal to you great hand strength.
Call	Against these players, raise or fold should be your main gameplan. You only want to call when you are holding top pair with a questionable kicker (9+). In early position, you will want to only call a nut straight/flush draw (although, that said, re-raising an early position draw and betting out the subsequent rounds may cause this player to fold on the river. Your mileage may vary.)
Bet	Against tight players, betting is very key, because tight players always fold when they don't hold strong hands. Holding top pair, you will almost always want to bet with these kind of players in the pot unless you hold a monster. Letting these tight players draw is extremely dangerous because they are liable to hold any two face cards, suited cards or other threats. A bet is also an information gatherer, because a call from this player indicates strength, while a raise is almost always a major strength (and against more sophisticated players, a nut draw if they're in late position).
Raise	My option of choice when playing against these tight players is often to raise to see where I stand with my overpair and kicker. If the tight player holds a weak kicker, they will almost always fold. With an ok kicker (9, T, J) usually these players will call and often fold those on the river, the rest of the time calling with a Queen or King kicker. When I do get raised, I know for certain it is at least a King kicker with a good chance of an Ace kicker - which in case I know to fold. The thing is- even when I hold a moderate kicker like a Jack, I'll raise against these players on the flop because I want to: 1) get other players out, 2) induce a fold when they are actually holding a best, 3) gather critical information about hand strength and lastly 4) be the one in charge and bet out when I would have called my hand to the river anyways- a proactive caller if you will.

	Tight, Agressive/Tricky
Description	These players play a lot like Tight, Scared players when in comes to hand selection pre-flop, but after the flop hits, it's a different game. A bet can either mean strength or a semi-bluff. In early position and late position, a bet indicates strength or weakness. In mid position, a bet more likely signifies just strength. The reason this is, is that these type of players play aggressively and will often try to knock out players through intimidation, uncertainty and position. These players do ok in tight games and loose games, but usually are best in mixed games. Pre-flops usually indicate 99+ or AJ+.
Strength	Their table image is usually their biggest strength. When brought to a showdown, these players more often that not show a strong hand. Because of this image, they will try to bluff or steal the pot when they feel like they can. Trickier players will bet/raise low pairs or draws to kick out tight players and other callers, who probably have put this player on a strong hand. When players do figure this player out, even then they have a difficult time playing back against this kind of player.
Weakness	Maintaining a strong image while playing loose is a very delicate balance that many of these players over do. When they get too aggressive and fall into a mode of trying to bluff more pots than they should, they start loosing money, especially on loose tables. Whereas all poker players have an inner intuition (even online) of when another player is bluffing, most players will apt to fold either because they second guess their intuition, their intuition is usually wrong or they are simply too scared to play back. These aggressive players tend to play their intuition hard, which works great if your intuition is right more than half the time. This is why it's usually hard to see players of this kind of caliber. The rest of the wannabes are players who have the courage but not the logic and intuition yet.
Fold	As stated above, this player will be tricky and play their position. As a general rule, the earlier the position bet the stronger the hand. If they bet earlier and you don't hold top pair or a draw, my safe recommendation is to get out. Sames goes if they bet mid position.
Call	Calling will seem like a pain when playing these kind of players. Top pair with good kickers should be called. If they bet in late position, a weak kicker or mid pair w/high kicker may be called.
Bet	Against tricky players, the best defense is actually being tricky yourself. The hard part is not letting anyone on that you are playing tricky yourself. Betting top pair with good kicker is of course a standard move. If they are on the button or late and raised pre-flop, check-raising the flop or turn can be a better play. If drawing for the nuts in early position, you may even choose to bet out. You may get raised by top pair or his draw even, but your hand is relatively disguised and win get you many value bets when your straight or flush does hit. Another good time to bet is often on the turn when you were raised on the flop. If the tricky player raises you again on the turn, you can be sure he isn't on a draw and does indeed have a strong hand which you can thus fold to. This takes massive discipline however and I would imagine most players will not have the ability to lay down a strong hand on the turn.
Raise	Raising is actually one of the plays that will best deal with a tricky player. Raising obtains you information which is what you need to succeed in poker. If you suspect the player is raising on a draw play, you would want to raise him back of course. If he comes back at you, you have the hard choice of calling his raise and subsequent bets to the river or folding a good hand. A normal play often seen is raising with the flush draw in late position. Against a tricky player who bets late position, you may wish to even raise his bet with your flush draw in early position to scare or bluff him out. As a warning, this may also isolate you and him into a heads-up, as the rest of the players have to cold call two-bets. If he holds nothing or low/mid pair, I would imagine this player folding. Top pair would either bring you a call or a re-raise depending on the kicker. The lower the cards on the table, the better your chances of him folding on this play, because the chance of him holding a strong hand with rags on board is small. As a final warning, this player's weakness is being overly aggressive- don't fall into that same trap of being over aggressive against this type of player. Their bets are more often real than for show.