Fancying or Reading Poker Opponents

Properly reading poker opponents takes a lot of careful and systematic analysis of their betting and play patterns and a little of physical reactions they manifest. The absence of these analyses tells us we have nothing on them except our own fancies of them.

For instance, we have an A9 and the flop shows AJ8. Somewhere a strong player bets and we decide to call. Our reading of this player's hand is that our hand doesn't stand a chance against it—except when he decides to check the turn. So, on the turn, there's a 7 and this strong player decides to bet once more. We decide to go on, hoping to have a straight draw inside and a 9 for a two-pair. We decide to call.

On the river play there's a 4. With that, the strong player decides to bet. By this time we read more of the player's persistent bets and the more we see we're beat. But suddenly we change our mind and fancy that, well, probably this player has had nothing but KJ or KK, although our reading of the player's betting pattern tells us otherwise.

Another mistake is, after being beat we take another fancy at ourselves and show others how good our hand could have been if not for the strong player's hand. For example, we have an AK and flop shows perfect AK10. We excitedly bet and 3 players call. The turn reveals a jack so we bet again. Somebody raises, and then another re-raises. For sure, many will call, on the turn and on the river, because of the reading of a queen in the hole.

But they want to see the showdown, though it would cost them plenty, pursue on the river, because they want to show off to everybody later how strong their hands could have been. Again, this is a case of ignoring whatever information gathered from reading poker opponents and resorting to fancying.

Why would some players pursue a losing proposition even if they see that it would cost them dearly? They want to brag about how they almost won. Why? Perhaps to save face. Or better, probably to show everyone how good a player they really are.

We must always make sure that we are indeed systematically reading poker opponents and acting accordingly. Taking fancy at what should have been or what we prefer is chasing after the wind and is pointless in poker games.