September 25, 2008
Beware the Unpredictable Poker Player
There are two types of online poker players that you need to watch out for-the newbie and the reckless player. They can both be pretty sketchy to play against, and for the same reasons.
You just have no idea what these guys are going to do: the noob is usually too ignorant to know any better, and the reckless guy just plain doesn’t care. Now I know that these guys are usually easy pickin’s at any game, but there’s usually one or two hands that will absolutely screw you.
You’ll hear Mike Matisow whining about this process-the guy who doesn’t know any better will play a lousy hand, say a 5-6 unsuited, and you go in with a K-Q unsuited. Flop comes out King-5-5, and you think that no one would start a hand with a five in it, and throw some chips in the pot, and lose them because some rookie didn’t know enough to fold preflop…can you tell this happened to me recently?
Anyways, this goes back to knowing the other poker players at the table. If you pay attention to who’s playing lousy starting hands or chasing a longshot draw, you’ll be able to spot the newbie or the reckless guy and play against them accordingly. Be careful with your marginal hands and bluffs, many times they won’t know or care enough to fold against you. Try to reel them in when you know you’ve got the winning hand, and get them out before they manage to suck out on you.