Player Personalities

How about an article on player personalities and how to beat them?

Here is one I saw a few of tonight... (I just recently moved to No Limit and am never going back!)

The Loose/Aggressive Overbidder

Description:
This guy thinks nothing of betting $10 to steal a $2 pot, or going over the top with a re-raise several times the size of your bet/raise. Loves to jump in at the slightest smell of hand weakness. Plays more hands than he should because he feels he's likely to steal the pot anyway. Over the short run he can build up a nice stack, but when things go against him he goes down hard.

Playing against him:
o Don't call his outragous bids/raises with draws. If he takes a couple small pots from you early, marks you as a victim and gets cocky it can set you for the big grab.
o Don't expect to get cheap draws when he's in on the pot. Adjust your calling calculations appropriately and tighten up a bit when he's in on the hand. When you come back at him, bring a stronger hand.
o Remember that loose players get good hands too. Don't underestimate him and expect risk when going back at him.
o This guy is a real sucker for slow play. Give him a good smell of weakness and see if he takes the bait.
o Watch for a change-up in playing styles. A strong player might behave like this for a short while to take advantage of a passive table or get players to call more of his bets.

I hit one guy like this twice for big pots and then had him outright fold to me after a flop in fustration!

I hate those crazy betters! Last night, I was playing with a guy that raised pre-flop (while everyone else called the BB) to $15 for a $1.25 pot! He had JJ. And you're right. They do tend to play more hands than they should.

I like your tips for playing against them. Very sound.

So many articles to write!!!

Yeah, this is one important aspect of the game I'd like to tackle. I've been meaning to write some stuff on table selection, player personalities, taking notes on players (in PartyPoker), etc.

This will be something we get to eventually.

Glad to hear you moved to no limit, I'm sure you agree that's where the easy money is.

What notes do you use?

My current system is first line:
loose or tight - How many hands are they playing? Have they gone around the table a couple times only playing blinds? When someone quiet gets active, I get concerned and will even throw away a playable hand to stay out of the way. On the converse, I label someone loose when I see them play a lot of hands and show sucker hands on a showdown or two (Ace or King low offsuit, low suited connectors, suited rags, etc. outside of the big blind.) Just need to be careful not to confuse a tight player on a rush with a loose player.

then a slash

passive or agressive or very-aggressive
How often to they steal pots? Do they open the post-flop betting on second pair? Check on the river with a good chance of winning? Bet high enough to give draws bad pot odds?

After the first line I note any interesting behavior I see. However, if they show an odd hand I usually ignore it as they are probably trying to send a reverse signal ("see I play rags too", "call my next big bet because I bluffed this time and might do it again", "I mean it, really!") For example, if they limped in on a Monster hand, raised a baby pair from an early position or have a bad habbit of sticking around for a draw on bad pot odds (call station.)

Exactly, I've been thinking about putting together a systematic procedure for my notes - haven't gotten to that yet. I'd like to use a single letter code for the different characteristics that interest me, to make note-taking as quick as possible. I do look at:

loose/tight
passive/aggressive/over-aggressive (overplaying his hand)

Beyond those two major classifications, I'll note:
attempts bluffs, what position, and note the bet
straight up
check raises and when
calls big bets pre-flop w/ junk (i'll increase my pre-flops when I find this)
bets on bottom or second pair and how much
limps in w/ monsters
incorrectly calls draw hands given poor pot odds
raises or re-raises on draw hands
what they have if they go all-in pre-flop

I end up writing paragraphs on some players, and it just isn't efficient. I need to work on a system. Sometimes I just write, "this guys sucks".

How about something like this?

Prefixes in order/groups:

O< Weak player
* Strong player

L - Loose
T - Tight

P - Passive
A - Agressive

~ - Chameleon

$ - call station
% - folds easy

suffixes:
++ very strongly exhibits charactoristic
+ strongly exhibits charactoristic
? charactoristic in doubt
-- charactoristic in doubt
- exhibits charactoristic a little

examples:
O< L P $
*++ ~
L? A+
T P %
T- A

Ooooh... I like.

Just read that briefly but looks pretty awesome. I gotta run, but I'll spend more time later to digest.

Nice post, thanks Fnord.

Hey, Fnord.

You play at PartyPoker, right? I believe I was sitting at a table with you the other night.

<FirstName> Fnord was your player name. Unless that's another Fnord.

M2: Everything is true.
GP: Even false things?
M2: Even false things are true.
GP: How can that be?
M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it.

Above all, you must ask yourself; have you driven a Fnord lately?

EH?!?!

I really find this system works really well.

Has anyone considered using an excel spreadsheet for tracking players. I have not tried this yet but it seems like it would be a quick efficient way to keep track as well as a way you can bring up past info an a player at your table keep track of every time you play and when you join a table maybe you will fined you have notes from a prior session.

Just an Idea.

This is my first submission to the site I just found it last week and have found many useful hints. I will be getting myself set up on PP soon. Hope to take some money. Very Happy

My system seems to be about the same as ttanaka's. One thing I do that has come in handy is I will write down EXACTLY how a player bets a monster hand like KK or AA. For example:

$2.5 preflop, raise all-in post flop = AA.

I've found that many players follow the exact same routine whenever they have monster hands.

I will also write things like:

-plays anything suited
-plays and preflop bets any Ax
-will call any bet no matter how big with a flush draw
-good player
-sucks
-50cent bet = 2nd or 3rd best pair
-pot size bet = top pair high kicker
-busted me by slow playing trips

The problem is I end up writing paragraphs. But it doesn't bother me too much.

Actually, I've gathered quite a bit more experience since I posted that, Humphrind, and I can now see the value in doing so. Such a bet is simply protecting the mediocre pair and hoping to take it down pre-flop.

Thanks for sharing your thought on the matter. As good as any of us think we are (including myself -- though, I certainly don't feel I'm any better than anyone else on this board), we should keep an open mind and always continue to learn and grow as a player.

i hate agressive ones, i think this patty gallagher, she is great she handles annoyingness like hell! shes great!!

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