People talk about it all the time in poker….learning to make reads. And for good reason too since the reads you make on other players is what’s going to separate you from the rest of the field. If you can’t make reads then you are in fact gambling just like the government suspects with all of poker. That’s why so many of today’s poker players are intent on making reads on every player at the table.
And this is certainly the right way to play if you want to be any good, but the problem is that many people are making the wrong reads again and again. Wrong reads are just as bad as not making any reads too since you don’t know what you’re opponent is holding in either case.
What happens most of the time when someone makes a wrong read is that they try to use past experiences from players to make the same read again. Then when their read is wrong they completely switch their thinking to compensate for the wrong read. An example of this is when somebody plays medium pairs after limping in and you’re wrong on the read only to be wrong again when they play A-Q the next time.
The thing you should take away from this situation is that the player will play both A-Q and medium pairs when they limp in. This way you’ll have two different reads on them for situations when they limp in and you’ll know to be prepared for either scenario when you’re in the hand with them. The key thing to remember is that you have to adjust after wrong reads until you’re making the correct read on a player again and again. Don’t take shots in the dark when you are wrong!