Why Play at Small Poker Sites?
When you're choosing which poker site to play at, you must consider if you wish to play at one of the larger sites like PokerHost or a smaller poker site such as BetOnline.
Each style of poker site has their plus and minuses, but we actually prefer to play at the smaller poker sites. But why play at smaller smaller sites? Read on.
Knowing Your Opponents
Do you do well at your local home game? That is probably because you know how the players play and act. At the smaller poker sites obviously there is a smaller player base. With that said, if you play higher stakes or more obscure games or tournament types, chances are you will run into the same players very often. We play a lot of head's up, and at the smaller sites we can recognize the players name and know we have played them before. Just like our home games.
Using the software's "Notes" feature we can add little things we notice about a particular player, such as the player "folds if you re-raise him", or if he "comes over the top he has it". At worse we can rate the player as aggressive or tight. This can be invaluable information knowing what type of player you are playing with straight away. At the larger sites (unless you play $1000 tourney's or $50/$100 blinds) its rare you will run into the same player that often - reason #1 we like smaller poker sites.
We always assume our competition is doing the same thing we are, and if we have notes on a player we assume he has notes on us (in reality this is probably true maybe 50% of the time - players just don't use notes - especially the casual player). So if we notice we have notes on a player we assume he does on us as well.
Since this player has notes on us we must switch up our play. He may have us labeled as "loose" and try to bully us around. Or if he has us rated as "tight" we may never get a good pot out of him. As a result we must switch up our play from how we played him last time. But how do we know how we played him?
The notes feature can be valuable for information on yourself as well. We always play aggressive, so if we have no notes on the player we assume we haven't played him and stick to our regular style of play. During the game however we will add a note on him however so small, that way we know when he comes up again we played him aggressive.
When he play him the second time we will note a number 2 in the notes feature, so when he comes around again we know we have now played him twice aggressively. The third time a number 3 and so on. At some point, when we feel he may know our aggressive play we will switch over and play tighter and trap him for some nice pots.
First impressions are the biggest, so when we do switch our play we will make a note on his profile saying "us tight" so we know we played him tight the last game. Chances are he still views us as aggressive and we will play tight again, this time noting "us tight 2", meaning its the second time we played him tight.
At some point we will go back to aggressive play starting the notation process all over again - "us aggressive 1" and so on. Get it? At some point this poor guy is going to have no idea how to play us and we will have our way with him, plus we have our notes on him knowing how he plays.
You can use the number notation on him as well, so you can track whether he is switching up his style of play.
By using the above system you can be at a great advantage over your competition. You have information and information is key!
This system would never work at the large poker sites because you would never run into the same players enough to make it worth while. At some of the medium sized sites if you play long enough it can work, but it could take months to even get a decent player notes base started.
When you're choosing which poker site to play at, you must consider if you wish to play at one of the larger sites like PokerHost or a smaller poker site such as BetOnline.
Each style of poker site has their plus and minuses, but we actually prefer to play at the smaller poker sites. But why play at smaller smaller sites? Read on.
Knowing Your Opponents
Do you do well at your local home game? That is probably because you know how the players play and act. At the smaller poker sites obviously there is a smaller player base. With that said, if you play higher stakes or more obscure games or tournament types, chances are you will run into the same players very often. We play a lot of head's up, and at the smaller sites we can recognize the players name and know we have played them before. Just like our home games.
Using the software's "Notes" feature we can add little things we notice about a particular player, such as the player "folds if you re-raise him", or if he "comes over the top he has it". At worse we can rate the player as aggressive or tight. This can be invaluable information knowing what type of player you are playing with straight away. At the larger sites (unless you play $1000 tourney's or $50/$100 blinds) its rare you will run into the same player that often - reason #1 we like smaller poker sites.
We always assume our competition is doing the same thing we are, and if we have notes on a player we assume he has notes on us (in reality this is probably true maybe 50% of the time - players just don't use notes - especially the casual player). So if we notice we have notes on a player we assume he does on us as well.
Since this player has notes on us we must switch up our play. He may have us labeled as "loose" and try to bully us around. Or if he has us rated as "tight" we may never get a good pot out of him. As a result we must switch up our play from how we played him last time. But how do we know how we played him?
The notes feature can be valuable for information on yourself as well. We always play aggressive, so if we have no notes on the player we assume we haven't played him and stick to our regular style of play. During the game however we will add a note on him however so small, that way we know when he comes up again we played him aggressive.
When he play him the second time we will note a number 2 in the notes feature, so when he comes around again we know we have now played him twice aggressively. The third time a number 3 and so on. At some point, when we feel he may know our aggressive play we will switch over and play tighter and trap him for some nice pots.
First impressions are the biggest, so when we do switch our play we will make a note on his profile saying "us tight" so we know we played him tight the last game. Chances are he still views us as aggressive and we will play tight again, this time noting "us tight 2", meaning its the second time we played him tight.
At some point we will go back to aggressive play starting the notation process all over again - "us aggressive 1" and so on. Get it? At some point this poor guy is going to have no idea how to play us and we will have our way with him, plus we have our notes on him knowing how he plays.
You can use the number notation on him as well, so you can track whether he is switching up his style of play.
By using the above system you can be at a great advantage over your competition. You have information and information is key!
This system would never work at the large poker sites because you would never run into the same players enough to make it worth while. At some of the medium sized sites if you play long enough it can work, but it could take months to even get a decent player notes base started.
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