The G-Spot:
Pleasure Your Poker Playing Profits -- Default Player Profiles
By:
Tony Guerrera
In cash games, you can afford to lay low while you observe your opponents and obtain extensive book on them. But what do you do when a tournament just starts, when new players are moved to your tournament table, or when you're tournament table breaks and you're forced to move to another table? In tournaments, you can't afford to sit back idly; one missed opportunity can mean the difference between a huge payday and no payday whatsoever, and certain blind structures simply don't give you the time to wait. And though you can theoretically sit tight early in cash games, what happens what you get AA the first hand of a session and an opponent shows aggression on the turn and the river: are you ahead or behind?
Fortunately, if you have a bit of playing experience under your belt, you actually have information about your opponents before you even sit at the table. That's right you have information about players you've never seen in your life! Before you play a single hand, you can draw upon all your past poker playing experience. You can assume that your opponents play like the average of all foes you've encountered in your poker-playing life.
Since poker evolves, the default profile I assign to my opponents now (April 2008) isn't the same as the default profile I assigned to my opponents two years ago. And most likely, it won't be the same as the default profile I assign to my opponents two years from now. It's important to monitor and update constantly the default player profiles you assign to unknown foes. If you play in different venues, it will probably be the case that you'll have default profiles that you assign depending on where you're playing. For example, I use different default player profiles for each online poker room as a function of stakes, and I also have a different default player profile that I use when playing in an LA card room.
The more accurate the default profiles you use are, the less trouble you'll encounter against fresh faces. However, default profiles are ultimately not enough. No matter how good a default profile is, you must identify as quickly as possible how each of your opponents deviates. As soon as your opponents show their true colors, you can then assign them to more specific player profiles let's call these more specific player profiles archetypes (In Killer Poker Shorthanded (Kensington, 2007), John Vorhaus and I put forth several player archetypes that we commonly encounter in shorthanded NLHE cash games. Check them out if you're looking for some examples). Archetypes are a step forward, but they still aren't enough. After all, archetypes are just slightly more specific versions of default player profiles. The task of profiling opponents is never really done. But nonetheless, using good default profiles is the foundation for success when playing against so-called unknowns.
Tony
Guerrera is the author of Killer
Poker By The Numbers.
Visit him online at www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com
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