To become a shark in poker takes years of practice. There are many aspects of the game that need to be mastered. Learning which hands to call and which hands to fold can make you or break you. Knowing how to calculate odds, bluffing, going all-in at the right time, making a good fold or a call and reading your opponents are all important attributes of the game. One thing that separates good a great poker players is the ability to read their opponents. If you know what your opponents have puts you at an advantage.
Daniel Negreanu who is a professional poker player is the best when it comes to reading players. How does he do it? How does he know what his opponents have? He often leaves people baffled when he calls out their hand. Trust me he is not psychic. It took him years to develop the skill. Here is a short clip of Daniel making a great read.
Link:(m.youtube.com/watch?v=aM4OggL5Iw)
Wow, what a great fold. To fold primetime hand like AK pre-flop is not as easy as it looks. Daniel was able to read the opponent's hand with some information from the opponent himself. The hand starts-off with a preflop raise from pocket sixes, then comes a reraise from pocket AA’s...Daniel looks down at AK. Since Daniel has a big hand he decides to four bet. This is a significant move that shows lots of strength. The play folds to the person holding Ace’s, who goes allin. Since Daniel four bet, any allin will signify the strongest hand. Although it's hard to put someone on pocket Ace’s, especially if you're holding an Ace as well, Daniel make the right move by folding because any other hand like JJ, QQ, KK, AK will just call the four bet. Since the player went allin, he pretty much told Daniel he has the best hand in poker. Daniel being the best in reading players, gets the message and folds.
Most poker player will tell you right off the bat what they have by making strong moves, especially if they are known to be tight players. Like an allin on a four bet preflop. So it's not that hard to make good folds when your opponents show lots of strength. The real difficulty come when you are facing a bluff and have to make a hero call.
One tool that I use to call a bluff is the person's body language. I look at the jugular vein. If the vein is pulsating at a high rate then the person is either excited or nervous. This doesn't mean that they are bluffing just yet. What I have realized is when people look nervous before the river card is exposed, they can be excited about their big hand and don't want the opponent to out draw them, so instinctively they are nervous. It's when your opponents are nervous when the river card is exposed and they make a big bet or go all-in….why is their vein pulsating on their neck if they have a strong hand? Since all the cards are exposed and the players already know the strength of their hand there is no reason why their neck should be pulsating out of control. This means that they are bluffing. I have tested this many times and have gotten consistent results. So next time your opponents go allin or make a big bet on the river and their jugular vein is pulsating out of control, then you can surely bet that they are bluffing.
Play Hard, Play Smart, and Learn to Read your Opponents