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Observation               

Experts say the capacity to observe opponents in poker and online poker is one of the most fundamental poker skills, right up there with discipline, flexibility and bankroll management.

If you play higher limits/stakes, you have to be excellent at picking up signals coming from your opponents, especially if you’re playing online poker. You see, tells in online poker are scarce, and you have to pay a lot of attention to your opponent’s betting patterns to make a read.

Don’t worry though, every time a person does something, there’s a tell in it somewhere. Let’s see a few examples:

The double-bet. This is what rookies do when they have a good hand. One sure sign that the newbie is on to something, is that he double-raises the BB. Experts state that over 90% of the cases when a person double-bets, he’s sitting on a pair or As or Ks. This is what rookies do all the time, and they do not realize how big a mistake they make. A pre-flop double raise means he’s practically asking you to call it. He wants value in that pot, so he must have something big. What could a rookie have in the pocket that he would see as big? KK or AA of course. Or QQ and JJ sometimes. Now, I’m asking you: why would someone try to entice people into the game on something as small as a pair (even if it’s a high pair) when the logical thing to do would be to place a bet that would deter most from calling?

Obviously, rookies who play AA or KK pre-flop like that have no idea of the implied odds. Good poker players generate pre-flop action in order to make some people fold, and thus to increase their odds. In Texas Holdem, you do not want many people going all the way to the showdown, as – unless you hold the absolute nuts, which will seldom happen – every additional player means a blow to your chances.

Strong preflop action also lures some beginners to call on apparently strong hands, only to have them fold when the flop misses. That leaves dead money in the pot, further increasing the pot odds for those staying in the hand. This is why and how pre-flop action should work. An AA or a KK, no matter how impressive it looks in the pocket, can be a deathtrap for the optimist beginner. The odds involved with playing pocket pairs are not exactly awesome, albeit the AA or KK is a good gamble given that they’re the two highest possible pairs.

Never try to lure players into the pot by double betting on such pairs. You should play them, certainly, but you have to play such hands very aggressively. The pre-flop problem I just illustrated, carries over to the post-flop betting stages too, most of the time.

The rookie holding A,6 in the pocket, flops A,Q,K in and he thinks he has something he should generate value on. Big mistake. Some people don’t even get alarmed when they see the turn comes a 10 and there are 5 more people in the hand.

Holding a top-pair on an A,K,Q flop is great, it is the best hand with the best pot-equity, at the moment. The key part of that previous sentence is “at the moment”. If you’re the best right now, why don’t you do your best to stay that, by cutting the chances for others to improve? Bet into it big, make people fold. Every single guy that mucks his pocket hand, is one small victory you score.

When a dictator rises to power, his first move is usually to purge his would-be opponents. You should do the same. Be a little poker tyrant, and do not allow others the chance to possibly topple you.

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