Poker has so many facets that it helps to know thyself as a player! Self-knowledge in Texas Holdem and other variations goes beyond simple terms like tight or loose. We need to get as rounded an understanding of ourselves as we need the same in our opponents.
How Many Poker Personality Types are There?
A lot of personality analysis is quite simplistic. Here are the four personality types that are considered standard in poker players:
- Aggressive/tight
- Aggressive/loose
- Passive/tight
- Passive/loose
Let’s dig a bit deeper and see if Juicy Poker can categorize poker players better!
Are You Versed in Psychology?
The way a person thinks is a short definition of the huge field of psychology. The psychology of poker players is a fascinating study in and of itself. For example, some poker players have a hard time folding! We might call them aggressive/loose players but, if we look at the mindset or psyche of these players, we might be able to understand when they are bluffing, which is often, and when they have a strong hand.
A psychologically driven player will have many tells. Even when playing online, there are indications that the player either has a good hand or doesn’t and is bluffing.
Doing a full “forensic” psychological analysis of an opponent is both extremely time-consuming and probably beyond the ken of most players. Se we look for psychological “hints” that we hope can reveal a lot of information.
How Can a Player Elicit Information from an Opponent?
Getting an opponent to reveal hidden information about him or herself requires a creative approach to communication. When you play online, you can join the chat room. If you ask questions or make statements that make it obvious that you are trolling for information, you will natural find a Great Wall go up hiding any useful information. You need to make small talk. Then you try to notice how some questions seem to relax an opponent while other questions—still in the purview of small talk—seem to create tension.
Most very bland chat responses indicate an opponent who is hiding things. Finding out what they are hiding is the challenge all good players face. One way that we feel helps analyze a poker player’s type is to throw out a brain teaser. There are many classic brain teasers. The farmer shepherding two animals and crops across a river is possibly the best known brain teaser.
How an opponent reacts to being asked a brain teaser may tell you a lot about them. Similarly, you can ask an opponent if they like to play Sudoku or other similar games.
You can ask if a player likes to put together puzzles. If the answer is yes, you can ask about the type of puzzle they like most and how many pieces they like to puzzle together.
In short, when you are searching for useful clues as to the type of player an opponent is from the psychological point of view, asking nondescript question can be a very good tool!
The Range of Psychological Types is Very Broad
Poker involves the cards we are dealt, our position, our stack, the stakes we are playing at, and many other characteristics of a single poker hand. So, psychologizing is full of question marks and maybes! Still, over time and in the course of a game, looking at every action from the psychological perspectives can reveal information that can be extremely helpful in the present session and going forward.
Are You Versed in Deception?
Hiding information in chat or in the actual game play fall under the rubric of deception. Deception is the second most important aspect of poker, getting good cards being the most important! When you have good cards you want to deceive opponents into thinking that you have poor cards and the reverse is true when you are playing with poor cards.
Do You Have Excellent Poker Skills?
When players try to figure out what an opponent has in the hole and what the opponent is doing on this hand, they sometimes lose sight of their own hand and what they are trying to do. We tend to forget that as the poker skill of our opponents goes up, we will also come under the microscope. They will be studying us!
This is one of the best reasons to start out a low stakes poker and to stay there for quite a while as we learn how to read opponents and how to deceive opponents in contrast.
How Observant are You and How Observant are Your Opponents?
Being observant is a true skill and it may take a while to learn it to the degree needed to make decisions based on observation. If you detect that an opponent is highly observant you need to be extra careful not to reveal anything that they may find useful.
When you play online, you might go up against the same opponents since you are all playing “at the same time”. So, when you play online at Juicy Stakes Poker, you need to be especially cognizant of all of the non-visual cues opponents give that may lead you to correctly assess a hand.
Psychology, observation skills, and the ability to deceive are among the most important elements of online poker that we need to become fluent in.
So, the four poker types we listed at the start of this article are fine as far as they go. We need to add several other characteristics of poker players and we need to realize that there is a great deal of overlap between the four types we listed and the characteristics we have observed here.
Is your opponent:
- Studious
- Observant
- Psychologically overwrought
- Deceptive
- Happy to chat
- Unwilling to chat
- Contemplative
- Creative
- An out of the book thinker
- Happy to play all kinds of games
- Playing at a reasonable stakes level?
These are just a few “poker player types” that you will encounter on your poker journey. It is important to realize that you will always be adding to this list as you play poker and meet many different poker players. Poker is so nuanced and poker players are extraordinarily nuanced as well!
The Juicy Stakes Poker Journey
We mentioned your poker journey. We at Juicy Stakes offer so much that you can benefit from on your poker journey. So, sign up at Juicy Stakes Poker NOW and begin your poker journey at an excellent online poker room.
