Learning to read players

[Aaron W.]

After getting back from my first Vegas trip, I sat down with TTH and played for a while. My goal was to review basic play, so I set everything to the easiest possible settings (no players adjust, no players make moves), have random players enter the game (so that I get a sort of 'average' of how I play), and set it to zip to the end (so that I would be working only on the 'what do I have and how do I play what I have' thinking.) A few days later (and some 2700 hands), I looked at the stats and it says that I'm making just over 1 BB an hour. Because of this, I think I'm going to ignore my losses at Vegas and believe that I can play decently and that I should try to move to a higher level (mentally, not financially) of play.

The next thing I think I should work on is adjusting my play according to who is in the hand. I haven't the slightest idea how to begin this. I was thinking something along the lines of turning off the zip to the end and watching a single player. I can watch, but I really don't know what details to look for. I tried writing down everything, but then I have a big mess of stuff on a sheet of paper and I still don't know what I'm looking for. Any suggestions?

[adios]

You should start IMO by categorizing the hand after the pre-flop betting as one of the following:

<ul type="square"> Heads Up Short Handed Multiway [/list] In general IMO you should have an easier time reading hands (thus adjusting your play) in multiway situations than in short handed or heads up situations. Likewise you should have an easier time IMO reading hands in short handed situations than in heads up situations. Also think about the action and how it has proceeded. In short handed and heads up play especially, think about what they think you have. Of course the 2+2 books, the Brier-Ciaffone book, and some others provide insight into adjusting to players.