So.. I've been wondering about how do you guys figure players out? Say you have 6-9 opponents, there are so many things happening at the table, how do you figure out a players style?

Do you focus on one player and his betting style? Do i look for VPIP, PF aggression? Often I find myself so confused as to what to look at and how to keep track of a player's style.

I would love some tips on how you guys do it live.

I think stereotyping is very important. Old people are usually tighter and more passive than young ones.
You should also pay attention to who's limpimg and from where. Solid players are less likely to limp a lot from early position. I would also look at how people handle their chips. Getting a feel for how comfortable people are at the table will give you some help later on.

1. VPIP/PFR
2. Pay attention to all hands we aren't in
3. Showdowns

Continue to build and mold a story for each villain.

Right now I normally just focus on a player's VPIP and their position plays. I normally try to target players who are losing with my stronger hands and try to isolate them but I'm hoping to move on to more informative things such as how often they check and call then fold but I'm finding it really tough to play a solid game while keeping rigorous tabs on the other players as well

I like to follow all hands and try to map out preflop raising ranges, limp calling ranges and although rare at my regular spot 3 bet ranges. By watching as many hands as possible that go to showdown I can start to range villains more accurately.

I almost agree. I think we can use a stereotype as a base for our read but sometimes it can get us in trouble. I know we have many 50+ year old guys that post on here and aren't tight nits. I think it's important to use all information available and try and put the pieces together. Biggest thing is watching hands play out and watching hands that go to showdown.

Not all old men are tight nits.
Not all women are weak passive.
Not all headphone hoody wearers are good/tag/lag.
Not all asians are here to Gamboool!!!!!

What other stereotypes are there?

I try to play the hand from the eyes of the villain on every street. The more I pay attention to whats going down, the more I can start making observations.

Is he passive...play's draws aggressively. Min check raises his drawing hands. PSB with made hands. Same bet when he wiffs.

generally (assuming everyone is a total random) when I sit down I instantly "label" everyone at the table, straight up based on sterotypes, race, age, gender, dress, general appearance, hair, hygiene, I take full inventory of their "look."

Then I move to chip stack size, how they stack their chips, how they handle them, how they handle their cards, bet, fold, call, basically gauging their comfort level, confidence , experience, etc.

What are they drinking? Are they anxiously awaiting the return of a cocktail waitress while still holding a half full beer? Are they more interested in their phone then the action? Does anyone seem to be friends away from the table, per talk in between hands. What (if any) is the conversation. I'll pretty quickly strike up conversation w/ my half of the table.

As soon as I find something that can be used as common ground, be it a sports team hat/ type of beer/ the miserable weather, anything at all, I engage them. Pretty quickly as soon as they become comfortable with you, they can't wait to let you know who's been winning, who's been running like god, who made the worst call they've ever seen in their life, who's drunk and on their 3 buy in and so on. (obviously if your at a table where no one talks this is harder)

And the whole while follow the action as close as possible. Set your sterotypes, confirm with what your neighbors have to say, and then just watch and play. stand by your initial read until a player proves you other wise.

Only seeing ~30 hands an hour it's going to take awhile to actually put villains on tightish ranges for every different spot or line they take.

I strongly recommend start w/ the stereotyping. Classify X player as this, Y player as that on a pretty basic level. Then build out from there. Everything they do to confirm or deny our initial read will be much easier to spot.

Start simple and expand as the information comes.

You're wasting your time.

Three words:

Let cards speak.

Crushers ITT

I love those tables where no one talks... they just play cards.

Not all black guys are calling all draws.

IMO the easiest players to exploit are the loose/passives. The limp/callers pre flop, who check/fold a ton of flops or check/call the flop/ check/fold the turn to double barrels.

If your looking specifically for spots this is a good place to start. It builds an aggressive image while often padding your stack winning multiple small pots. As other players react and respond to your assault on the limpers you can formulate individual strategy from there.

Don't be afraid to make a lighter call or two early in a session. If someone seems to be table captain or in control and playing aggressively, play back at them when your ip and still unknown. The more info the better and-

It doesn't take much to realize how a particular villain plays. Once you categorize them, you can assign ranges accordingly. Pay attention to their lines and bet sizing. Often times at these stakes, from a technical stand point, bet sizing is the easiest way to get a feel for a player and how to combat them in any given spot.

don't worry about keeping "rigorous tabs" on everybody constantly. Put them in a camp, follow their bet sizing, and attack in a generalized way to start, getting more complex as you gather more information.

Remember the other players at the table are feeling you out at the same time your feeling them out. Crafting your own image is just as important, (if not more important) as classifying your opponents imo.

I believe he was asking how to gather information quickly at the beginning of a session. Obviously you can't wait until someone shows down to formulate an initial opinion of them or how they play

I truly hope your not being serious. That's the nut worst environment to play in. If I wanted to sit in silence I wouldn't leave the house and just play online.

I'm trying to formulate a list of simple questions to ask about a player's style. Here's my list so far:

1. Do they play hands as bad as 94? (If someone shows down a hand like this you just learned a lot about their play style.)

2. Do they bet their draws? (This is one of the most important questions imo)

3. Are they aware of position? (Knowing the answer to this helps us a lot with ranging.)

4. Will they fold top pair?

5. Will they fold TPTK?

6. Will they c-bet? Do they c-bet automatically? (Many players, especially younger ones, know to c-bet these days. This makes them more prone to floats. If the answer here is "no," then we can narrow down our villain's range.)

7. Do they double barrel? (Most give up after 1 barrel unless they have it. When this is true, we can narrow our villain's range on the turn considerably.)

8. Are they capable of making big bluffs? (Most can't but some can. I'm more likely to call the river when the draws missed if they answer is "yes.")

9. Do they value bet the river? Are they good value bets? (Most players check back the river if they have a pair, which makes them much easier to play against in many situations.)

10. Do they "protect" their hand from draws? (If the answer to this question is "yes," and they don't bet that draws, you can narrow these player's range down considerably.)

11. Do they bet relative to the size of the pot? (I'm not sure how to adjust to players who make tiny bets except by being more willing to play draws and drawy hands against them.)

If we get to see a showdown it is paramount to go over the hand and answer some of these questions. If they don't show down, we still can answer some of them, especially after playing with them for a while.

In addition to this it's good to characterize people as ABC, TAG, etc. But I think these labels miss some things; sometimes you will have an ABC player who check/calls draw while some other ABC'er can bet them.

What sort of questions do yall ask while sitting at the table?

Great thread! I'm only starting to play live 1-2 once in a while. I find the more hours I put in the more patterns I pick up on. I started just looking for one or two things at the table and then I started adding things to look for so I wouldn't be overwhelmed with too much info to keep track of. I started off by seeing who limps early, who folds SB in unraised pot, who folds to a min raise after limping in. I also figure out on the flop who chases draws, who calls down with low kickers, etc. with that info alone it helps me determine how I play each street depending on villain

I have a small memory so I use the following

Use stereotype unless proven otherwise. VPIP PFR
After that, see who call down light, who can bluff and who can't

Thats mostly it.
Once you know who call light, you know your targets, focus on them since you will be playing the majority of the pots with them. Figure who's a nit and fold a lot to them and thats it basically.

Obviously we want to observe and take in everything we can, but there are some easy-to-spot parameters mentioned ITT that yield valuable information. Stereotypes are fine as a prior/baseline, but be prepared to adjust your reads immediately.

dunderstron's list is very good. I'd add one more: for frequent cbettors, are they capable of folding when they're played back at? Getting a sense of how much fold equity (or implied odds) you have in HU pots is extremely helpful.

There's some good advice here, but I'm too old to pay attention that much. What I do is assume that everyone is a limping pf/fit or fold post flop player. Then I look for who doesn't fit that image. People I don't notice playing much (1 or so hands per orbit) are nits. I know what their hand range is. If someone is playing 3-4 hands per orbit usually are passive or maniacs.

The ones that scare me are the ones who are playing 2 hands or so each orbit. If they open, they are raising. If they are calling, they are in position. Those are the players I'm going to pay a lot more attention to, because they aren't playing just premiums, but have some other hands in their range.

And yeah, that's how I play.

For me, the very easy things I pay attention to early on are: Who plays a lot of hands (few orbits max and this is obvious) and who has the majority of the chips (the moment you sit down). The players I focus on first are the 1-2 chip leaders so I can gauge their skill level. They aren't necessarily the better players but I feel I should figure that out first.

My first question would be how experienced is each player? I think that is a good baseline for skill and ranges of a given player. I'd look for things like if they have a player card and what level it is, do they understand buying the button, do they say call when they throw one chip out, etc. Those would help differentiate beginners from the rest but you could go further with do they recognize draws immediately, do they know the terminology etc.

This is basically some of the best ways to identify who's good/competent and who is just plain bad. It makes ranging easier.
Also pay attention to those that call pre with just about anything.

Pay attention. Overtime it will be only be a matter of who the good or aggressive players as as most low stakes players play tight or loose passive.