Developing your hand reading skills is one of the most important aspects of becoming a winning poker player. It’s a process that takes a lot of practice and requires you to consider an immense amount of data in a very short period of time. It’s impossible for anyone to consider every factor in this short window of time and still make the right decision.
One of the best ways to improve your ability to read hands in poker is to play a lot of hands and put your opponent on range. By doing this, you can get a better feel for how they react to different situations and how to spot their tells. You can also find out what type of hands they have in their hand by observing their betting patterns. This way, you can narrow down their range to certain types of hands and target them with bluffs that are more likely to work.
There are a number of different methods to hand read in poker and each has its merits. However, the most important thing to remember is that even poker pros sometimes make mistakes when hand reading. They may be able to narrow down their opponents’ ranges so much that they can pinpoint an exact hand, but this is often just a lucky guess or an educated one. Daniel Negreanu explains this in his poker Masterclass series, so be sure to watch that video if you want a more in-depth explanation of this concept.
The style of play a player has is going to have a large impact on how easy or hard it is for you to hand read them. Some players are tight and have a very small range preflop, while others are loose and have a wide one. Then there are players who fall somewhere in the middle and use well-timed aggression to put pressure on their opponents (TAG players). Finally, you have players who splash chips around with little rhyme or reason (BAD LAGs). These players are a bit harder to read than the more passive TAG and LAG players.
Another big part of the equation is the manner in which a player plays their hands post-flop. This can include the speed at which they act, whether they muck their cards before checking, or if they are a sneering aggressive player who loves to bluff.
Some tells will be very noticeable and easy to spot, like eye contact, trembling hands, or table talk. However, some of the tells will be more subtle and require more observation over a longer period of time. This is why it is important to be observant and look for these tells over the course of a few sessions at the tables. This will help you develop your ability to read hands in poker more quickly. Be careful not to jump to conclusions about a player’s tells, though, as they can often change from session to session or be used intentionally by skilled players who want to mislead you.