Practice These Steps to Make Yourself a Stronger Player in Poker Tournaments and Cash Games.
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You should always be self aware when sitting at a poker table either online or in a card room. This means you need to put yourself in the other players shoes and objectively look at how you are perceived by the table. How you act will determine how people play against you. So it is important to keep this in mind.
Levels
-can be a complicated topic to try to explain. Most players don't realize the various levels and how they relate to the game. A level represents how someone thinks while they play. If you recognize what level you opponent is playing at, you can adjust your game so that you out level them and profit.
Level 1- Your cards. This is by far the most common . People play when they have a strong hand, and fold when they have a weak hand. They play everything in between very straightforward. These players don't pay attention to anyone else at the table. They won't try to outplay you or do anything fancy. Level 1 means your playing the game, but the rest of the levels focus on playing the player.
Level 2 - Your opponents cards. A more advanced player is trying to figure out what you have so that he/she can counter it. If they think you are weak, they will try to get you to fold. This person is more concerned with what you have than what they have.
Level 3 - Means that you realize that your opponent is thinking at the second level. So you misrepresent your hand to get them to make mistakes while they try to play against what they THINK you have.
Level 4 - This means that you are thinking about what your opponent thinks that you think that they're thinking.
Level 5 -...and so on..
As you can see this gets VERY complicated quickly. If you are still having trouble understanding this poker concept, there are a few examples that might help to clear things up.
Play Style is a huge tell when it comes to poker.
Play styles are described using short acronyms.
TAG (tight agressive) - This is the most profitable and easy to play style. When you have a strong hand bet it strongly. This style offers a ton of advantages and is most widely used. Many people adopt this style and for good reason too. Even if they don't have the best hand they will inspire a lot of folds from their opponents.
It is widely known that raising > folding > calling. You should almost never be calling when playing a TAG style. Either raise or fold. The benefit of raising so aggressively is that it give's you two ways to win a pot. Either your opponent folds or you get good value with big hands.
LAG (loose aggressive) - These players will often play way too many hands. Their ranges are a lot wider than most other players. A good LAG player is surprisingly difficult to play against but most of them just end up getting into trouble with marginal hands. This style requires a ton of skill to be a winning player. I'd recomend it for the best of the best.
WP (weak passive) - These players hardly ever bet. They are often happy to just Check/Call to the river. They will not play back at you in any situation. They can easily be pushed off of hands.Be careful of when they do stay in a pot past the turn card, because you are most likely way behind. Someone who plays very few hands is likely to have a monster when he/she does play. You can often put them on big pairs 10's or better or two broadway cards (A,K,Q,J,10) preflop. These players are pretty easy to play against because most of the time their range is very narrow. Most of the time when you get involved in a pot with them they will have you crushed. They wont have a hand less than the nuts or 2nd nuts at showdown. Steal pots from them but beware when they intend to go to showdown.
CS (calling station) - The difference between a calling station and weak passive is that WP players will fold a lot more. CS's however will call you all the way down to the river. Bluffing against them is a terrible idea because they never fold. Instead you should value bet them to death with strong hands. Value is your primary concern with a player like this. It's easy money, just resist all temptation to bluff.
Chip Count can be a large factor in how someone plays to pay attention to. Especially in tournaments.
Deep Stack-
-A player with a deep stack is in no rush to get it "all in". They can often just set-mine (wait for 3 of a kind) or nut-peddle (play only the best hand possible). They can afford to call with lesser hands.
Medium Stacks-
-are the most susceptible to bluffs in a tournament format. They don't want to be in a position where they have a short stack. You can take advantage of this by putting them in uncomfortable situations. Your goal playing against a medium stack should be to force them to commit a large amount of money with.
Short Stacks-
-often will have the most high variance play. These players need to do something quick if they hope to stick around. Increasing blinds means they are running out of precious time. Their ranges are often very wide. With only a little time left they are interested in stealing blinds and getting their money in to double up. Depending on how short stacked they are, they will usually go all in with any A x hand. or pairs from 44 -AA. If you have enough to call an all in you should do so with small pairs and A 's. Usually I try to call with at least an A in my hand. For example, A 3 vs KQ is about 60% to win. One Ace in your hand makes you a favorite against any weaker ace, or any two cards that isn't a pair.
Cash Game mechanics are a little different when you're short stacked. A good player with around 20 big blinds will be playing very straightforward.Good shortstackers in cash games have become a major threat to people who are accustomed to playing against 100 bb stacks or more. The reason they are so difficult to play against is that most of the time they are all in on the flop. These players are interested in flopping top pair and shoving, or shoving with an over pair. It is unexploitable if you do it properly.
There is one more thing I'd like to add,a quote from phil ivey.
"When it comes to advice about poker, my attitude is very simple: seek it out, absorb it, but while you're at the table, forget it."
Basically, this means that the more you know, the better off you will be, but don't follow a set plan while playing. There is no instant win method in this game. You should know about the above information from the article... but don't rely on it to make you a winner.
Hopefully I gave you some things to think about, and who knows maybe you even learned something. Good luck at the tables.