Reads
So you have taken your seat at a 25 or 50nl table, and you've managed to find a nice table where you have 2 or more bad players, hopefully to your immediate right.
I said before, I like to use metaphors... so I am going to use some again.
Let's think about the table you have sat down at as a classroom at school in the good ol years.
What do you do at a classroom in school? you learn.
how? by watching, listening and studying.
So when you've folded your 72o, are you leaning back whispering to friends, watching you tube, twiddling your thumbs etc....?
Or are you watching your opponents plays, and taking notes about their tendencies, their tells, their weaknesses etc....
Do reads really help?
well take me for example. I can relax, sit down and smash 25NL very easily. But put me in front of 4 different tables, or turn the tv on with my favorite hockey team and that's it, I am lucky if I stay in the green at all.
To give some insight I did a little experiment this month, what I did is I multitabled 4 tables at party, the speed tables, so needless to say there was no time to think much, and certainly no time to get reads. in fact, its new people every hand so getting reads is essentially impossible.
The results were,
after 28K hands of my normal single tabling play, I am running a shade under 40bb/100, and have NEVER gone 1,000 straight hands without being in the green.
however, the results of my experiment at the speed tables was that after about 4K hands my win rate plummeted to just over break even. Not to mention the fact that I was over and under the break even line several times through the 4K hands.
So, the point is, if you have the time to study your opponents, you WILL increase your winrate. if you don't have the time, MAKE the time.
What reads are worth noting at 25 / 50NL?
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1 - ANY play by villain on any street that is clearly the incorrect play. For example, calling a 3bet with t8o. Most people would suggest using abbreviations for notes such as "CC'd 3B IP w/T8o". However, My note on such a play would look more like this... "DO NOT 3BET BLUFF: Capable of calling 3Bets with garbage IP x 1", and if I see it again I change the x1 to x2.
2 - ANY unusual play that just makes no sense whatsoever. For example, if you see a villain donk the flop and turn with a min bet and pot bet the brick on the river, make a note of it. Make note of what he donked the flop with, and especially make note of what he pot bet the river with. Some terrible players out there will have air 100% of the time here, while others will have the nutz 100% of the time. My notes on this would look like this.... "MINI DONK = AIR min bet F/T and pot river with AIR/no drawx1" or "MINI DONKS = STRENGTH min bet F/T and pot river after flopping nutzx1".
3 - Tendancies. This is probably the most important and valuable type of note, and to make it easy just start all these notes with "tends to....."
examples of tendancies that WILL increase your profitability vs villain:
"tends to donk flop if he catches anything"
"tends to tilt easy"
"tends to bluff in bad spots"
"tends to play loosely and chase pots when things aren't going well"
"tends to be sneaky when strong and misses a ton of value"
Lastly, if you see some terrible players on a regular basis, don't be afraid to write a general summary of the player. I have several guys that I have a paragraph on that would seriously look something like this...
"this guy has no clue about the game. bets/calls/raises make no sense whatsoever. If this guy is at the table, wait for a premium hand and pot-bet ALL streets with TPTK or better"
or...
"this guy either raises or folds in almost any situation. bet this guy off all his hands and fold when he plays back"
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