Poker is a game of people. You are not playing against a casino with a built-in edge but rather live humans who make mistakes and have no pre-established advantage against you. This makes it critically important that you develop the ability to read and make assumptions about your opponents when you play poker, based on their demeanour at the table and how they play their hands.

What is labelling an opponent?

To label an opponent is to create a certain schema of how you expect them to play. These labels are usually based along the dimensions of tight-loose and passive-aggressive. A tight player plays fewer hands and is not willing to go as far with them unless they are very strong. An aggressive player bets strongly most of the times they are in the pot.

Players are thus labelled as loose-aggressive, tight-passive (or tight-weak), tight-aggressive or loose-passive. These are dimensions, so most of the time you will label a player as something like: fairly loose but very passive; average, slightly loose at times; pretty tight and somewhat aggressive, etc.

Players that fall in the extreme ends of these category ranges have special names. Very tight-passive players are called “rocks,” extremely loose aggressive players are referred to as “maniacs,” the loose passive players are “calling stations” or “ATMs” and the tight-aggressive, long thought to be the most effective style of play, can be called “solid,” “killers” or “pros.”

How do you label an opponent?

Online poker sites encourage you to label your opponents. The software allows you to take notes that can be accessed by clicking on the player in question, so you can literally label your opponent right there on the screen.

In a live game, you will have to remember your impression of an opponent, but putting a label on them will make it easier to recall who they are next time you see their face across the poker table.

Pitfalls of labelling an opponent

Labelling an opponent too quickly can cause you to make mistakes. A player you have labelled as a maniac may have just amassed a lot of chips on a lucky run and decided to play loose for a change. Similarly your .rock. may just be a maniac who has run out of chips and is trying to stretch his remaining bankroll.

Be able to revise your impression based on new information and be wary of acting too strongly on your impression until you have sufficient evidence. Once you have gathered such evidence however, labelling an opponent can be a great decision-making tool in poker games.

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Omaha, as a game with poker rules similar to Texas Holdem, has long been a smash hit in Europe. Many people believe that Omaha poker is the next logical step in the poker craze. People have gotten used to Texas holdem poker and may be looking for something new.

The proliferation of Internet poker sites makes finding an Omaha opponent easy, and even makes heads-up Omaha a possibility. If you find yourself playing Omaha heads-up, you’re going to really have to be on your game to emerge victorious. Here are some important concepts to think about when playing Omaha one on one.

Play Every Hand

You don’t actually have to play every single hand, but you should be playing most of them. Unlike in a full ring Omaha game, where you need to be extremely selective about which hands you enter a pot with because there are so many possibilities out there against you, in heads-up, it is unlikely that your hand is a big underdog to your opponent’s hand, no matter how bad it looks. Furthermore, since you will probably be playing a pot-limit structure, your opponent will not be able to raise enough to get you out of a hand before the flop (unless you are playing a tournament with rising blinds, in which case this is a possibility).

Give Your Hands More Credit

In a full ring Omaha game, a ten-high flush has little chance to win, because nearly all the cards of your suit have been dealt out, and there is a great chance that the jack, queen, king or ace (or all of them) are in the hands of your opponents, meaning only one other card of that suit need be in their hand for them to beat you. Against a single opponent, exactly two of the only four cards out against you must be suited and better than your suited cards, which is much less likely. In a heads up game, you can bet your straights and flushes aggressively, even if they are not the nuts, and even if the board is paired.

Push Combination Hands

Hands that have multiple ways to win, like suited high cards and wrap straight draws, are of great value in heads up Omaha. You should play these hands aggressively. In many cases, you may actually be the favourite after the flop, even if the hand you currently hold cannot even beat ace high.

Fasten Your Seatbelt

With all the card combinations that arise in Omaha poker, the person who holds the best hand can literally change with the turn of every single card. Furthermore, the lead may change many times over the course of the match. Try to retain control of your emotions and ride the roller coaster with a cool demeanour, just looking for any edge that can tip the balance in your favour.

Holdem Tactics are Back in Play

Tactics that are not as effective in full ring Omaha such as bluffs and slow-plays are now back on the table, thanks to the reduced likelihood that one of your opponents is holding the nuts or close to it. Feel free to dust off those bluffing and trapping skills you learned in Texas holdem and use them to full effect in your heads up Omaha matches.

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In Omaha Hi-Lo poker, one of the guiding principles is that you would like, in most cases, to be drawing to the nuts. Unlike in Texas holdem where a strong hand like a flush or two pair is often sufficient to win the pot, in Omaha Hi-Lo, with potentially as many as 40 of the 52 cards in the hands of you or your opponents, you often need the best possible hand, or the nuts, to win in these poker games.

Knowing what the nut high hand will be before the flop is not possible. Even if you hold a pair of aces in your hand, your hand may be rendered worthless by a board with three of the same suit, three cards to a straight or a pair without an ace. On the other hand, the nut low is much easier to predict. If you hold A2, any three low cards on board will give you the nut low. The only exception is if another ace or deuce appears on the board, and this is called getting counterfeited. A central concept in Omaha poker.

Clearly, if one of the three board cards is an ace or a deuce, you do not have a low unless one of your other cards is below 8. For example, you hold As Ks Qh 2h. The flop comes 2d 5s 6d. You currently do not have a low. You must use three cards on the board with two in your hand, making your best possible low Q 6 5 2 A, which does not qualify. Using the 2 in your hand yields a low of 2 2 6 5 A, which includes a pair and certainly does not qualify. This is not getting counterfeited. This is just not having a low.

Counterfeiting occurs when one of your hole cards is duplicated, meaning essentially that other players can use it, but you cannot. For example, let’s say you hold As 2s 6h 7h. The flop comes 8c 4h 3s. You now hold the nut low. There is no hand anyone can hold that beats your low (although another player can have A2 as well, which will result in you getting quartered, which is not quite as bad as getting counterfeited, but not good.)

Now let’s say the turn is the 2d. This is a disaster for you. Note that you still have a low because all your cards are below 8. However, your best low is now 6 4 3 2 A, which is not the nut. Now a player holding A5 beats you with 5 4 3 2 A, also known as a wheel. If the turn were an A, your best low would still be 6 4 3 2 A, while the nut would be 2 5.

What can you do about being counterfeited?

Not much. However, you should give additional weight to hands with extra low cards that provide counterfeit insurance. For example, if you hold As 2d 3c Kc, you are in great shape for a low, since as long as you can hit three low cards without two of these three cards appearing, you will hold the nut low. Note that you will have two pair, but this will probably not be sufficient to win high.

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