Hi all,

I was at the casino for a full 11-hour session yesterday playing $2/$4 limit.

I knew that I should have been observing the table, trying to detecting patterns and styles, etc from other players. I did not know exactly *how* to go about doing this.

What is your observation routine? Is there an algorithm/flowchart? What exactly are you looking for?

Each time a hand is dealt, what do you tell yourself as the bets come to pick up on the right information?

Is there a mnemonic or filing system that you use as you see information to make it easy to remember? How do you organize your info?

Thanks all. Really looking forward to getting some discussion on this aspect of the game.

I haven't played at a casino and at the table i lose focus with my friends. Online I try to look how much they raise with big hands, small hands...how they bet draws, what their checks mean, what hands they showdown, etc. Try focusing on the players left and right immediately of you. Then spread outward. One question I would like to ask do you play online poker? If yes then Poker pro lab has got a calculator which provides you with key statistics such as pot odds, chances of winning and outs These will have the most impact. Otherwise, it comes with playing many, many hands. Someone else will chime in.

I've played a lot of live bad limit hold'em. Here's what I look for specifically.

1) How often is he entering the pot? This is easy. You can usually tell when somebody shows down 94o after coldcalling a raise preflop that he's playing 100% of his hands. Many players play 60+. This means they always have a random hand. Just remember than, and raise for value.

2) What will they raise with? Many players will limp with AKs, QQ, or KK/AA because they never win with it. Some players will ONLY raise with QQ+, AK. Some players will raise with ANY pocket pair. This is usually pretty easy. If somebody has a super tight preflop raising range (ie, just AA) you can fold any two.

3) How passive is he? When he suddenly wakes up on the river, does it mean he has the flush 100% of the time? Some players will never try to checkraise and will just lead out on the turn/river if they hit their hand (straight, set, two pair, flush,e tc.). This is useful, because you no longer have to keep them honest.

4) How loose is he? Will he peel to the river with any ace? Any pair? Any overs? Any draw?

And I just put the face to a style. Try to keep it short in myhead "if he bets he's got the joint. any two" After a while, you start to categorize players. "The old guy who only bets with the nuts." "The action player who sees every river." "The maniac who bets/caps every street and check/folds the river."

Wang

there was a thread either in here or general where someone gave a mneumonic to use, sometime in the last 3 months I think.

Mark

Good response from Wang ... surprised you got anything worth reading after posting about 2/4 Limit on the NL board ... not only the wrong game but 2/4 is as low as you can go live, and concentrating on people's patterns, while always valuable, is almost pointless at this level. You know that there will be an average of 7 players per flop no matter what happens PF ... its definitely good practice on reading people but I'm not sure how much you'll get to use that knowledge to your advantage in that game.

Some on here may remember that I was lucky enough to win a share of a Bad Beat JP (10% share with a guy). If you remember that, you'll also remeber that I played a lot of hours at 2/4 as I felt it had the best odds of hitting there based on the fact that so many players see every flop. I spent about 60 hours playing it over 5 sessions and I betch'ya I raised a total of 10 times PF ... if that! It's a whole different game.

GG for thinking the way you're thinking, just don't expect to be able to use the info as much as you could at a higher game.