Poker Player Types to be Aware of
Ok, you’ve found a nice table and you are sitting down still waiting to be dealt your first hand. Use the time to study the game. At a 1-2 $ limit table there are usually some specific types of players you have to be extra aware of. The Maniac is probably the most difficult player to handle. Maniacs raise a lot on hands that the rest of us wouldn’t take 2 seconds to throw away preflop, and when they do not hit the flop they try betting or raising as much as they can to make other players throw their hands away.
Maniacs are the worst
Maniacs are incredibly difficult to play against in a multiway pot in a limit game. You cannot make them fold and will 9 of 10 times have to show the best hand after all 5 cards have hit the board to win. If you have managed to get in the pot heads up against a maniac the solution is very simple, raise or re-raise him when you think you are ahead, and go into a check-call mode when you have a feeling you are ahead but is not sure about it. Check-call mode is when you for instance had QQ preflop and the flop comes K,8,3. With only you and the maniac in the pot and him raising a lot you are forced to check when it is your turn to act and call when he bets, all the way to the river.
In the case of maybe 3 other players in the pot with you, a flop like that almost always means that you QQ is no longer the best hand and you can throw it away when the others start betting, but heads up against a maniac – who can have any two cards – it would be wrong to throw it away.
Avoid the bad cards
Avoid entering pots with maniacs unless you get truly great cards. Maniacs tend to bring other players into the pot who also got less-than-average starting hands, and though you can win a big pot joining in the action, you just don’t want to do that unless you get a strong hand and a good flop. If you are new to the game and encounter maniacs at the table it might just be a good idea to stand up and look for another.
Other players to be aware of are the ones who employs a Tight – Aggressive strategy. TA players wait for strong hands ( playing tight )and when they do get them the want to be the most aggressive player at the table. They make sure to raise preflop for two reasons. They want to limit the number of opponents and the want to make the ones who do choose to play pay a higher prize to enter the pot. This is the way you want to play poker.
TA players are the long term winners in limit poker who embrace the Best-hand-preflop-best-chance-to-win principle. When you meet this kind of player at a table, make sure you learn from his plays while at the same time be wary of entering a pot when he has raised. Against a raise you can only play very few hands anyway, but more about that in the later lessons.