The Schooling Concept--My Way

You may have heard of the "schooling concept." I want to illustrate another level of the schooling concept.

Fish like to travel in schools. If you ask any poker players what type of player they'd love to play against, they'll tell you instantly that they want to play the "fish." Unfortunately, a lot of fish together in a school can make your life misery.

Take this for example: AA against a random hand is an 85-15 favorite to win the hand. I like those odds. Now, look what happens as the number of players increases, each with garbage and a random hand:

AA vs. 2 random hands: 71% to win.
AA vs. 3 random hands: 62% to win
AA vs. 4 random hands: 54% to win
AA vs. 5 random hands: 49% to win
AA vs. 6 random hands: 43% to win

The point is that while you're getting your money in with the best of it, playing against a couple fish is great--playing against a table full of fish might not be that great.

Poker Tracker Auto-Rate Rules and Player Types--Part Four

Now that we're finished with the examination of VP$IP in terms of gaining a "PT read" on an opponent, let's focus on that which is THE most important factor in determining the appropriate line against a certain player--Post-Flop Aggression.

Regardless of a player's VP$IP, a player who is very aggressive--one who bets and raises far more often than they call--is extremely dangerous, with few exceptions. Some players are just maniacs, like a LHE player I found over at Full Tilt. His PT line was VP$IP: 93%, PFR: 75%, and AF-Total: 3.5, over 200 hands. I'm not sure how he lasted that long, but he was still hanging in there (until he ran into me). He was stealing small pots just by firing away, and losing the big pots when he had to show his 9-high on the river.

Keep in mind that just as aggression is selective, so it passivity. Sometimes with a player like that, it's better to just let him spew chips in every direction, while you just call or gently edge him down the path to hell with your monster hands.

Anyway, I'm off track. What I'm saying, though, is very important to your long-term success. In the vast majority of situations, aggression is better, and a purely passive strategy will not make you a long-term success in Holdem.

Playing the Passive Player:

Some of these players will be prioritized as calling stations, some will be prioritized as weak/tight, but all are generally losing players. The biggest thing to watch out for with a passive player is for that infrequent time that they actually show aggression and blast off. If a player has a VP$IP less than 1, and he raises your turn bet, you need to be extremely careful, since it's becoming increasingly likely that he has the goods.

Something was discussed in the PT forum a while back about the use of stats like "Won $ at Showdown when Raised Turn/River," which is a PAHud-derived stat from PokerTracker (and is available exclusively through the use of PokerAce HUD, available in the VPP store). When dealing with passive players, this stat (over time, since it can take a long time--hundreds of hands--to level out and become statistically significant) can be very valuable, and can differentiate the "Habitual Bluffer" type passive player from the "Oh S***, he has the nuts" type passive player.

Nothing is more frustrating than sitting in your $50 NL game on Party with KK and seeing a King-high flop. Yay! I flopped top set with a rainbow on board, but there are donkeys out there, so let me bet pot. One guy calls. The second diamond hits the turn, you bet pot, he calls. The third diamond hits the river. You, wanting to maintain the aggression, bet pot. Donkey-boy raises you, and you're stuck. Do you call? The above stat will help your decision.

The biggest hint in playing a passive player is to never attempt to bluff them. They will call you in a heartbeat, because that's what they do best. Call-call-call-call-call. "Look them up," by getting a read with your PokerTracker numbers on them. Make an assessment about a range of hands they could be playing, and realize that they can be calling with top pair, two pair, overcards, or some sort of draw. Sometimes, they'll even call with a draw to a draw. Be ready, and play your strong hands into them strongly. They'll pay you off, and usually nicely.

Playing the Neutral Player:

Just like any middle ground, this is a tough place to be. However, if you're using my PokerTracker auto-rate rules, these players are still on the more passive side, so a lot of what is written above still applies. A neutral player is more likely, though, to toss out things like value bets, semi-bluffs, and will even sometimes pull out things like the bluff-raise.

An aside: If you suspect weakness, a bluff raise can be just flat-out MONEY. A situation a few weeks ago: I was playing $100NL at Stars when I got dealt AJs on the button. I raised pre-flop to $5 (5BB), and got two callers, one from EP and another from MP. The flop came Q-high and uncoordinated, but with 2 hearts. The EP bets out $12 and the MP folds. I insta-raise to $35 and EP folds just as quickly as I raised his bet. I may or may not have had the best hand, but I collected $17 from EP and $12 from MP plus the blinds because of a bluff-raise. Like I said, if you suspect weakness (especially from a neutral or aggressive player), the bluff-raise CAN be money, in the right situation.

Back to the topic at hand. This player will be trickier than the passive player, and sometimes even trickier than the aggressive player. Be wary of his bets and raises. While they're not the telltale sign of trouble they are for the passive player, they can still mean you're behind, or that this player at least has something. The biggest difference in practice between the aggressive and passive players is that this player type (neutral) will tend to bet out or raise more with his draws, especially his nut draws. Keep that in mind as you see this player throughout the online ranks.

Playing the Aggressive Player:

This is real trouble. Other than the Ultra-Aggressor player type, these players (Tight, Semi-Loose, and Loose-Aggressives) are the biggest winners in the online game, and it isn't even close. In fact, there are only IIRC 4 player types that are long term winners--yep, they're all aggressives.

There are two schools of thought on how to play aggressive players. One is the "Contrarian" style, that says that the best defense against a particular player type is to play the contrary or opposite style. In this theory, you play a passive player extremely aggressively, and an aggressive player passively, letting them build pots for you then pouncing. This isn't a bad idea, because so many of these players (and ultra-aggressors in particular) will fire a bet for no other reason but the fact that you DIDN'T fire. The aggressive player is the ideal player to slow play a monster against in this theory, mainly because you KNOW they'll bet out for you and build a pot. You'll see me doing stuff like this:

$100 NL: Dealt 55 in MP, I limp in. Aggressive (AF-T 1.9) player in LP raises to $4, BB calls, I call the raise. Flop comes K-7-5 rainbow. BB checks, I ???

Of course I check, for two reasons--one, it's very possible this guy flopped top pair, and second, since he's aggressive and he just got checked to, you know he just has to fire a barrel. He bets the pot, $16. BB folds, I ???

Of course, I flat call here. Without a real redraw on the flop (or a coordinated flop), I'm willing to flop a set here and let this guy take the lead until...a T comes on the turn. Here, I'd probably send out a weak lead, like $20, and watch him go crazy. He pushes, and I gleefully call with the set and scoop a huge pot.

That's ideal. I don't recommend that often, since you can easily be burned, but that's an example of the Contrarian theory of playing poker.

My theory of playing the aggressive player is to play right back at them. These aren't your superstars--these aren't the guys who'll raise you all in because the waitress shot them a cute look. These guys are aggressive, but they're not the guys who bowl over tables. Like I mentioned above, bluff raising works more often against these players than any other, and bluffs in general come more into play when you're playing aggressive (read: solid) players than others.

Don't be afraid when an aggressive player raises just because they raise. Be afraid when conditions tell you to be afraid. Be afraid when they hit a flop (by your read on their range of hands). Be afraid when they get you pot-committed (an article for another day), but don't just be afraid of them because they're aggressive. Maybe they're bluffing...or are they?

Poker Tracker Auto-Rate Rules and Player Types--Part Three

Since we're now out of the "priority" player types, I'm going to focus on two simple, but sometimes conflicting concepts. Sometimes, as you "look up" a player online, you see that he is classified by his VP$IP (tight, loose, etc.), and by his total aggression number (aggressive, passive, neutral). Sometimes, these player types give you conflicting information about how to effectively play them.

The first general piece of advice: If you're in doubt, play a player based on his post-flop aggression. Like golf, when a common mistake is when a player spends 75% of his time with his driver, the similar mistake in poker is when a player spends too much time worrying about his own or another player's pre-flop game. 75% of this game is played after the flop hits the table, so the way a player plays post-flop is of the utmost importance in determining his successes and failures.

Let's look at VP$IP first.

VP$IP is a great way to "look up" a player, and gives you your first clue about what hand a player is playing. It gives you your first "read" on a player. For example, if a player has a VP$IP of 14% and a PFR of 8% and he raises pre-flop, and the board comes all low cards, you can reasonably expect that he doesn't have a set, since by his VP$IP/PFR pair, you can tell that he's not raising with 77, 44, or 22. Of course, position, game texture, and table texture will cause you to modify your first impressions, but this is your first real chance to get a read on your opponent's hand, what we call Second-Level Thought.

Depending upon the rules you use, whether you use mine, the default rules that come with PT, or modify the rules to suit your own needs or the needs of the games you play, you can assign VP$IP levels to "tight" players, "loose" players, or anything you want. You can also use the color ranges in PokerAceHUD to create even more classes to give you an even more at-a-glance way to look at a player's pre-flop play.

Playing Strategies Against VP$IP Types:

It's somewhat ironic, but it has been said by many a smart poker mind that the easiest players to play against are the players rated as "Tight," because they're generally straightforward and value hands "by the book." Generally, these players are playing truly premium hands, and should be played against knowing and expecting to see a solid hand. These players aren't generally playing lower suited connectors unless it's for a change. They will play pairs, big Broadway cards, and based upon other stats like post-flop aggression, WtSD and W$SD, and others, you can tell how far they'll take these cards before they realize they've been beaten. You usually shouldn't try and play lousy hands against a tight player, because if they're in the hand, they likely have better cards than you.

When a player gets into that whole "semi-loose" area, when their VP$IP is in the 20's to the low-or-mid-30s, you start to see players who, if they play well post-flop can really get you into trouble. It's harder to put these players on a range of hands, but at the same time, we see again where aggression is key. If a player plays 87o passively, they're much easier to defeat than if they play the same hand aggressively. More will be discussed on that later, in part four. However, it's worth mentioning that since a player has lesser standards to enter a pot, they may be coming in in LP with AA, but they also may be coming in with 65s. Again, and you'll hear this again and again, monitor the other stats to assess the player, and adjust accordingly.

"Loose" players are an entirely different story. There are many kinds of "loose" players--those who play a 45/5 style, who generally like to play a lot of hands cheaply, will call raises, and will raise with their premium hands. These players are what we call "dead money" most of the time--players who toss chips into pots with garbage to see if they hit something--and those who play a 45/35 style. The latter are players who play J7s like it's AA, and who will gladly show you either one if you look them up too hard. It's quite hard to put these players on a hand, and the more aggressive they are, the harder it is to play them...

Preview of Part Four

I'm going to make you wait for Part Four, because it's vastly more important, and requires a greater analysis of concepts. Just think of it this way: Which player is easier to play:

1) A player who calls frequently, with middle or bottom pair, with a draw, but who bets out with his straights, sets, flushes, and other made hands.

2) A player who calls rarely, and who plays gutshot straight draws the same way he plays a made flush, and who plays a flush draw the same way he plays top set--fast.

Think about that--Part Four will be out later this week.

Poker Tracker Auto-Rate Rules and Player Types--Part Two

In this article, I'll be addressing the other two priority player types, the weak/tight player and the ultra-aggressor.

The Ultra-Aggressor isn't just aggressive. He'd sell his mother for a dollar just so he could fire one more bet at the pot. In my extensive analysis, the ultra-aggressor was the winningest player in my entire set of DBs. This player was rated this way because he doesn't just have a higher overall aggression factor, it's actually very high on ALL streets. You don't see a whole lot of these players out there, but when you do, steer clear, especially as they get tighter.

These are the most dangerous players out there. Read that again: These are the most dangerous players out there. Aggression is the key to winning poker. Regardless of what study you see, what analysis you read, aggressive players are far more successful than their passive counterparts.

As far as advice to play these players go, the best advice is not to show weakness with a mediocre hand--play your hands strong. If you show weakness without having a monster hand, these players will force you to take the passive route by betting you into submission.

Pay careful attention to these players' VP$IP's. It will tell you how dangerous they are, and will give you at least a prayer of playing them even-up. You need to put these players on a hand. Use whatever knowledge you have to limit them to a range of hands, and respond accordingly. These players will fire with quads, a flush, a straight, TPTK, an overpair, or a draw. Your reads are vital against these players, and without them, you will lose (so long as the opponent isn't a complete idiot).

The Bad Weak/Tight player can be very fun to play against. This guy will go to showdown pretty much only with the nuts (or what they THINK is the nuts). If you have a solid hand. take them all the way. These guys like to play TPTK, TPGK, and TPNK like they're the all-out nuts. If you play these guys with a great hand, two pair or better, and you don't fear a draw, bet out and play these guys. If you think your hand is good, it probably is.

Next article will be on some of the conventional player types. Best of luck!