Straight Poker Reads
Player tells and reads are very important in straight poker. Since you can never improve your hand you need to take advantage of every other aspect of the game that you can. The more you know about your opponent the better you will do against them in straight poker. If you know that your opponent likes to check/call until the last street and then try to get it in when they have a good hand you can save yourself some value when they flat call your first bet. When you have tells on your opponent you are ensuring yourself that you know more about what is going on than they do which means that you will win more in the long run. Always make sure that you take notes on your opponent whether live or online. This will come in handy in every other situation you play with the opponent.
1. Timing Tells – Timing is a big tell that you will see online. When a player times down until almost the last second to call a few times over you can be sure they probably have the nuts. This is normally a habit that donks will show. They think that it looks like they are weak when all in all it makes them look suspicious. This is a great way to save yourself some money from this player type. Some players like to instant minimum bet as well. Just like this bet is, it is normally a sign of weakness. It is never correct to simply bet one big blind into a pot as a bet. Stack your opponents when they make this horrible play.
2. Short Stacked – If a player is buying in for less than the maximum buy in you can normally count them to be a bad player. Good players always buy in full because they expect to win. When they win they want to win as much as they can. Buying in for anything less than the maximum buy in means that the player isn’t confident enough to risk what everyone else is and they will probably play scared. Make sure you apply a lot of pressure to these opponents with your good hands because they will pay you off little by little while they play scared with their little stack.
3. Post Out of Position – When a player posts out of position they are normally a weak player. You always want to wait for the blinds to get to you so that you can get the most amount of hands in for the money you are forced to put into the pot. You don’t want to have to pay the full small and big blind just to get an extra hand or two when you can just wait another minute and get to play more. When someone posts out of position and you are playing you should be more apt to attempt to steal the pot. There is more money in the middle so there is more reward for your risk of stealing. This will add up pretty quick in your bankroll.
4. Betting Patterns – Above everything else that you can take into consideration about reads on your opponent is how they bet. If they are being aggressive you have to believe that they have a good hand. If they are betting weak then they are probably indeed weak. Some players do the opposite and bet small when they are strong and high when they are weak.
Straight poker is’nt really the most popular form of poker now that Texas Holdem has taken off over the past decade so its not that easy to find many straight poker games in most online poker rooms. Poker stars is by far the best online poker room for straight poker.
