Hand reading

[FeckMyBankroll]

How do you guys go about it? I am pretty terible at this... help. share some techniques with me!

[Drchaos69]

Well from my expirience if you want to be good at hand reading you have to:
-Read the board (possible combinations);
-Read the players (keep notes about you're oponents, betting patterns);
-Know oponent's style (each style of opponent have some particularities that are equal to other players with the same style);

I hope this help you!!

[FeckMyBankroll]

cheers, am looking for a bit more insight on the full process! but yeah thats along the lines of what i am after

[nawhead]

There are no shortcuts really. Just a natural part of learning the game.

But basically, what was action preflop, what was action flop/turn/river. What type of hand does villain play to preflop action (raised/called a raise/limped/limp-called), what type of hand does villain play to flop/turn/river action.

More specifically, what types of hands does villain (or avg player) like to put money in after the flop. Vs this particular action. Has villain been doing anything special last couple hands. Has he taken a beat? Won a big pot? Shown a bunch of big hands that wasn't called? Have you played with villain before? Did you do something that might make him play wierd against you? Is he just playing the nuts. Just semibluffing every chance he can? Taking stabs with nothing then folding a bunch? Etc. etc..

It's not just "what 2 cards make most sense to this board if he raises." It's a all-encompassing part of the game.

[couriermike]

I think it comes with alot of experience. I'm hoping so anyway.

What I always heard is, watch the hands you're not involved in. Try to put the players on hands, like draw, small made hand, big made hand, etc. If there's a showdown, check your guess. At the very least, have a good idea of who's best right before showdown. It's tougher than it sounds but a neat exercise.

[Drchaos69]

If you want to practice hand reading deeply i advice you just to play one tabel. With more tabels you'll have to comit you're time to more decisions. With one table you have lot's of time to make notes and do better readings. By the way, you should always put you're oponents one a range of hands, and not in specific hands. You can use pokerstove too (it's free) to calculate you're probability of wining against a range of hands.

One last thing, i don't know if i can put this here, but it is an article from 2 plus 2, by Pokey.

The 2+2 Forum Archives: An Unbelievably Long Guide to Hand-Reading.