The third primary component to hand reading is part of so-called “level-3” and above poker thought, or “reverse reading.” This is the process of determining which range and line the Villain is putting us on during the play of a hand. At low-stakes poker games, level-3 hand reading isn’t very important. This is because the majority of players at those stakes are not...
The second key goal of hand reading is determining what the Villain is trying to accomplish with their cards in the current hand situation. We call this intention—and how they go about trying to accomplish it—their “line.” We may, for instance, have determined that an opponent has predominantly small and medium pocket pairs in their current range. One type of opponent may treat...
Without question, the most important aspect of hand reading is determining which cards our opponent (a/k/a “the Villain” in a hand) likely holds. But there’s a key distinction to understand: when hand reading, we don’t actually attempt to put the Villain on a specific two-card combination, like A♠-K♥ or 7♣-8♣. It is essentially impossible to be this precise in poker. Instead, our goal...
I wrote a guest post for the Smart Poker Study website on the dangers of HUDs:...
The Vital Importance of Paying Attention When You’re Not Directly Involved In A Poker Hand A healthy vision of the future is not possible without an accurate knowledge of the past. -- Daisaku Ikeda The first step to making a good decision is reading your opponents hand and line and then evaluating the overall hand situation. And the first step to...
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