How to Do A Simple, Yet Powerful Poker Hand Reading

You can win poker [3] betting in many ways. One of them is hand reading. No, it has nothing to do with supernatural skills, even though the name may suggest so. Hand reading in poker is actually based on logic and science. It is about observing your opponent, learning how he plays, and many more. In this article, you’ll know more about this useful skill.

Learning Hand Reading

Hand reading is a skill, yes, and it requires training. Let’s get started.

Baseline Assumptions

Before we learn the steps, let’s first learn about some baseline assumptions about hand reading in poker.

1. Your opponent will pretty confident that he has the best hand, while you have the worse hand.
2. Your opponent will never turn his made hand into a bluff. If he believes he’d win, he will not move his opponent off his hand. Instead, he will get to showdown cheaply.
3. While holding blatantly bad odds, your opponent will never chase a draw.

And now for the most important thing. You are the only one who can determine which assumption apply to your opponent.

Categorizing Hands

The basic idea behind poker hand reading technique is to narrow your opponent’s range down either to one or two of the following categories:

Monster hands
If your opponent wants to play a big pot, he will likely use these hands. It also means that your opponent believes that he gets the best hand, while his opponents don’t.

Showdown hands
If your opponent uses these hands, then he/she is not planning to build the pot, even though he/she has the best hand. It is also usually used by players to exercise pot control.

Drawing hands

A player usually uses these hands to bluff or improve, so they can have at least a reasonable expectation to win the pot. It also refers to both any hands with little value and obvious draws.

Please remember that we are not dealing with anything absolute here. We still haven’t figured out yet about what makes a bet has a thin value or how strong we should turn a hand into a bluff. However, the more your opponent keeps these distinctions and most do to greater or lesser extent, you can categorize his/her hand more effectively.

Let me show you one example.

Your Opponent Gets the Monster Hand

In a game of $1/$2 NLHE game, you start with $6 and get the big blind. Your opponent seems doesn’t have a monster hand. So, you put him on either a showdown or drawing hand, such as a weak suited ace or small pocket pair.

The flop turns to be good for you: all the K89 suits. Next, your opponent checked and then you place the $10 into a $13 pot. He calls, while stuck between re-raising KK and AA or folding K9 or K8 pre-flop. Now, you only need to worry about the 88, 98, and 99. His chance now is only 76 or JT.

Next, our river is a T. Both of you check. Our river is a harmless 2. Surprisingly, he playwith a $33 bet. Don’t call here because sometimes a big blind like doesn’t need to be bluffed.

As we were placing your opponent on a showdown hand, there is still a chance of either a slowplayed or draw monster. This river we have will eliminate the showdown hand.

This means that your opponent seems to have the monster and drawing hands. The 76 is now a straight, while JT is now a showdown hand. Therefore, only a two pair, turned straight, or slowplayed would make sense.