Buddy List

By Daniel Yee
8-15-06

Although it's great fun to just jump into the first online table you find and start beating your competition, you'll find your profits grow if you play against the same players over and over again and especially those who have worse poker skills than you. These may be "calling stations," or people who call every bet, afraid that the bettor is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Or they may be people who have a habit of gambling a little too much, paying a hefty price for draws and second-best hands.

An online site is huge -- there may be as little as 2,000 to as much as 60,000 people playing all at once. So how do you find these terrible players who are going to help you build your bankroll in a sea of rocks, or extremely tight players? The answer is easy -- buddy lists.

Most sites, including Full Tilt Poker Download have player search engines to allow players in theory to be able to find their buddy and play at the same table or tournament if they want. But crafty players use these buddy searches to be able to keep track of their prey. Just type the name of the player you want to win the easy money from, and you'll be all set.

But how do you know who to keep track of? That's where keeping good observations of the happenings at your table comes in handy. Every time you play, you want to make sure that you're keeping track of things -- who raises, who folds, who calls. You'll want to see who is full of it, loving to bluff and who is really serious and only bets out with the best hand or the nuts. Make notations in the note boxes that pop up after you click on the player's name and save them. (The more you do this will help improve your game in general because you'll be able to keep track of both the good and bad players).

The worst of the worst players are the ones you want to keep with you at all times. Some sites, such as Party Poker, Full Tilt and Titan Poker, have places where you can store the names of your buddies so you can easily pull them up each time you search for them. This is a "buddy list." Other places do not, so if this is the case, you should jot down the players' names so you can type them in later.

You'll want to keep track of the poorly skilled players who don't seem to know the mechanics of the game -- they chase down your bets to the river with second or third-best pair, for example. Or the players may be easily trapped when you have the nuts and call your all-in bet. You particularly want to keep track of those players who are poor at the game, bust out frequently and buy back in over and over again.

Poker is a rough jungle and only the most skilled survive. Be the hunter, keep close track of your prey and you'll find yourself on the road to riches.