When it comes to reading what players have, does it become easier and natural the more hands you play?

The reasoning behind this little question is because yesterday I amazed myself and actually got a read on what a player had in his hand and took his little stack from him. It might sound a bit trivial, but winning his $8 has stuck in my mind more than taking $50 off other players purely because of the way I worked it out.

Here's how the hand went:

I'm sat in BB with A-10 off suit. Everyone folds around to the button who limps in, the SB folds and I just check. So two of us see the flop. The guy on the button only has $8 in front of him - I think he only bought in for $10.

The flop came down A-K-3 rainbow. Not a bad flop for me so I decide to bet the pot of $1.25 (yep, a big one. lol). The other player then min raises. This totally surprised me. Then came the thought process - that also surprised me. lol.

Looking at that flop, I just couldn't believe he was massively strong. The problem was, he just limped in. So it's easy to rule out AA, KK, AQ and AK. He could have limped with A3 or 33 but then why just min raise? If he had hit it really hard he would either just call to keep me in or shove it all in and hope I call - after all, after the min raise he only had about $5 left.

So I decided he was either testing to see if I really did have an ace, or he had Ace-rag and was hoping to take it with that little raise. I called.

The turn was a J. I checked, he checked. Here I still think I'm in front because that Jack was a high card and I don't think he would have limped with hands like AJ, KJ - J3 possibly if it was suited, but that would be stretching it.

The river was a 5. I checked, he shoved in his last $5. Now here I firmly had him on Ace-rag. The problem is, was it A5? Well his river bet simply wasn't big enough to scare me away - which is one of the downsides to playing a short stack.

The pot was now $10 and it was $5 to call, giving me 2-1 odds. Given the fact he could have A2, A4, A6, A7, A8, A9, A10 and not A5, the odds in my mind seemed good and I called.

He turned over A8.

Now this is such a trivial tale and it wasn't a massive win, but I was so pleased with how I had worked it all out I just had to tell someone. So I apologise if I've rambled on a bit.

If only poker was this easy all time

Must've been an awesome feeling True!. I think I'd be more apt to have something like that go down in a live game instead of online. I can read people well, but playing online is a completely different game.

Which brings me to a subject I've been thinking about ever since I registered at PKR...

Does having a 3D avatar sitting across from you at the table, not to mention you can see when said player looks at his or her cards, and then there's the head movement, where they're looking, etc. Add to that the opportunity to create an actual table image within PKR. My question then is, when poker books, articles, etc. discuss the inability to read players online since they're usually only a tiny image and a screename, do we take into account PKR's graphics and interface and treat it differently then the rest of the online poker rooms out there today?. Basically what I'm trying to get at is, does PKR break the online poker room mold in a way that actually changes how the game is played?.

We had a thread about this a few months ago. And from my experience, your avatar does influence other players. If I flop the nut flush, I allways still look in my cards. When I have the nuts and push allin, I sometimes check my cards a couple of times so the other player gets to think I am counting my outs. I dont really read opponents by their avatar, but I do use mine to confuse them.

You can read the old thread about the avatars here: http://www.pkrnation.com/general-pok...35-avatar.html (Avatar)

There is definitely some deception / reads that can be gleamed from the way players act on PKR.

I have a friend who plays PKR and he says he will purposely look at his cards even if he knows what he's got in an attempt to disguise his hand.

You can also tell sometimes if someone has a pair. For instance, if someone has AA, he will definitely remember that and so will look at his cards a lot less, maybe not at all.

Thanks for the thread Dunbar...

Yes it does become easier ...for a couple reasons

the more hands you play, the more likely you will see the same person, remember hands and styles they played... patterns.

almost like playing the same players, but really its playing the same types of players. Where you play so many hands that there are just only a handful of categories you can put people in. same with their cards.

But what about PKR's avatar system?. Does playing at PKR make it a different ballgame than playing at say Carbon Poker?.

I occasionallyt get good reads on people online. It's not too often, but its mega satisfying when you do.

The obvious ones are flush chasers that miss (which is easy), that and people's betting patterns changing all of a sudden.

lol, btting patterns is a big tell sometimes. I was sat at a PKR table earlier and a couple of players saw the flop something like 4-5-6. The pot was around $5. The first guy bet out ... $25 !!

The other guy thought for a little while, then pushed all-in. The first guy folded. The all-in guy showed 10-10, the other guy said he had K-2 and so tried a bluff.

But what a bad bluff! This is totally typical of the good old phrase - "Strong is weak, weak is strong". His bet on the flop was just way too big and I remember thinking to myself that he has nothing. The guy with pocket 10's obviously also saw through the bluff