Stick and Move

One way in which poker is a great game is that for every tactic your opponents employ, you can adjust and react.

I want to make my game more flexible and responsive to my opponents' tendencies. If I can play that way, I'll be hard to read and prepared for most potential actions.

I like making lists, so here's a list of a few player tendencies and their counters:

_ vs. a calling station: Bet for value more and bluff less.

_ vs. someone who calls most continuation bets: Don't c-bet with hands that have little value. Consider checking behind some flops with hands that have showdown value for pot control.

_ vs. a frequent 3-bettor: There are two ways to fight an aggressive preflop re-raiser. The first is to start 4-betting him, which works well as long as your opponent folds when you don't have it and calls or raises when you do. A problem with 4-betting a maniac is that sometimes he'll come over the top with an all-in, and by that point you're either close to pot committed or stuck with something like JTs.

The other response to a frequent 3-bettor is to start 3-betting him more often. I like this adjustment because it costs less than 4-betting and 3-bettors usually know enough to fold when their opponents steal the momentum.

_ vs. someone who often calls 3-bets: Don't re-raise as often, especially out of position.

_ vs. minraisers and limpers: reraise the crap out of them.

_ vs. players who continuation bet too much: start floating, raising and check-raising them with a wide variety of hands as bluffs.

_ vs. major multitablers: bluff much more often, fire two bullets, initiate check-raises, float in position and overbet for value.