Q&A #77: Starting a Session the Right Way

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Some people have the advantage (and sometimes disadvantage) of playing against the same lineup again and again. Whether it’s a home game with the same 8 players each week or it’s a nosebleed online game where only a dozen or two names pop in and out, poker is a different game when you have in-depth experience with all your opponents.

Most of us routinely play against a lot of new faces, however. Sure, you get to know some of the players, but in most small and medium online and casino games there’s always a few new players in your game.

The goal is to get the most feel for how they play as quickly as possible, so if you happen to end up in a critical hand with them early, you’ll have some information to aid your decisions. Along these lines, thatjimguy asks today,

Ed, in a post previous, you mentioned that your sessions do not last longer than 4 hours live or two hours online. I have a few follow up questions.

1) Since I assume you play higher limits, how do you size up your opponents quickly?

2) When you are running well and in a good game, do you stick around until your eyes bleed out, or do you leave early if you feel you are not into it 100% and stuck a bit.

When sizing them up, is there an order that you follow for each player (such as checking out how loose/tight pre-flop they are first, then switch concentration to how passive/aggressive they are post-flop? Or is it a mush of what you tend to see at the time studying the player in general?

Is there a good way to spot a good player quickly? How can you differentiate from a bad player from a good player that’s just switching gears?

If you notice a betting pattern in, say, a shorthanded game, how many times must they repeat the pattern before you can nail it down as a pattern?

One of your questions is a little different than the others, so I’ll answer it quickly. If I’m running well in a good game, I’ll tend to want to play longer, but certainly not until my eyes bleed out. I don’t play fulltime anymore and don’t count on my winnings to pay the rent, so now I just stop whenever I feel like it, good game or not. When I played fulltime, I would definitely stick it out a bit longer if the game were uncommonly good, even if I wasn’t 100%. But, quite frankly, most games at the cardroom are good, so you might as well quit if you aren’t feeling great about playing. After all, when you come back tomorrow, the game’s likely to be just as good.

And now onto the main course, how I size up new players in a new game.

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