Intermediate Limit

learn how opponents play against you ,If you examine your own play, as well as that of your opponents, one pattern of particular interest is how often you or your opponent calls a bet on the river. Calling too frequently, only to find that the call was made with a losing hand, cries out for some corrective action if you’re the one calling and losing most of the time. On the other hand, if your opponent is calling and losing most of the time, you can profitably increase your betting propensity on the river.

There’s one particular betting pattern I call “playing backwards.” It’s not something you see too much of in lower limit games, nor do you see it all that often in very high limit games. Where you do tend to find this phenomenon is in mid-limit games, and it’s generally practiced by good players, who are not yet great players, but think they know more than they really do.

You can learn to spot identifiable betting patterns in a poker game and use this knowledge to gain an edge on the opposition and improve your own game at the same time. There hasn’t been all that much written about betting patterns, but it’s something every top-notch poker player understands. If you’ve never considered the implications of betting patterns, many of your opponents are blind to them too.

Sometimes the pot odds don’t seem to be sufficient to offset the odds against making your hand. But future bets might be substantial enough to justify playing a hand. Winning money over and above what’s in the pot right now is what implied odds are all about. While you can never be certain about just how many opponents will call your bets or raises if you make your hand, the idea of implied odds is nothing more complex than the ratio of your total expected win to the current cost of calling a bet.

When you’re playing poker, you’ll encounter almost as many playing style as players. What’s more, a player who is using one style today may play differently tomorrow.