When you play the great game of poker, the single most important skill you can have is the ability to read your opponents. Doing this live vs. online are two entirely different skill sets. In a live game, you can pick up on various types of physical tells of your opponents. Online, for obvious reasons, this just isn’t possible. That doesn’t mean that reading opponents online can’t be done. You just need to adjust and look for different cues. For example, the most popular cues are betting patterns and past actions. If you are good at these two things, you will have a leg up on your opponents.

On that note, here comes this week’s hand of the week. I was recently playing in an online sit and go tournament. This tournament with a level 1 qualifying event for World Poker Tour events. There were 10 players in this sit and go and it was a winner take all type tournament. I was playing well and had the table outchipped by a sizeable amount with 6 players remaining. I had $4000 in chips and the next highest had $1200. Barring some monumental craziness on my part, I had a very good chance to win.

I was on the button and looked to see the 9s-10s, nice suited connectors, among my favorite hand. The blinds were at $30-$60 as this was level 3. It was folded around to me and in this position, I would raise with just about anything. With a quality hand, this is a no brainer. The only caller was the small blind. From what I had seen to this point, he was a highly aggressive player who had already been caught in bluffs 3 times.

The Flop came down 7c-8s-2h. The player checked and I bet $200 with my open-ended straight draw. My opponent hesitated and finally called. I put him on a draw of some kind. Not sure what kind as there were no flushes on board at all. The turn was the Queen of diamonds. Again I missed but I really didn’t think it helped my opponent at all. He checked and this time I bet $400. This time he quickly called.

The river was an absolute brick, the King of spades. This time shockingly, my opponent bet out $90. A very tiny amount considering the pot was approaching $1000 in chips. I thought about possibly folding, after all, all I had was 10 high. But then I thought back to what I had seen from this player before. He had already gotten caught bluffing 3 times and this little bet screaming of a desperate attempt. So, against my better judgment, I called. He show 5-6 for a busted straight and my 10 high took down the pot. I ran over the table for the rest of the tournament and my gutsy call enabled me to break the table and win the qualifier.

Until next time, may the chips fall your way.

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