I’ve read a lot of posts about people that win big on one site and can’t win at all on another site. This usually transpires to a long post about how such and such site is rigged, or is full of fish; blah blah.

I have even experienced it in my own circle. Last winter I was making about $2,000 dollars a month at party poker and attempted to move to PokerStars like 6 times. Unfortunately I went broke every time I played at stars. It was very frustrating because I loved stars as a site and an interface, but I flat out couldn’t make money there. <READMORE> I had to go into the think tank and reanalyze my play. One thought that came out of my analysis was that I was completely underestimating the difference in players from site to site. I made the assumption that a $30 sit-n-go on party is the same as one on ub, stars, or anywhere else.

Your ability to measure the temperature of the water and figure out the style of play at your table is absolutely crucial to your success in poker. Poker is very similar to the game of Paper, Rock, Scissors. In PRS, there are three weapons of choice with each being a strength against one weapon and a weakness against another. In PRS, though, you show your weapons at the same time.

In both Poker and PRS, different styles of play have strengths and weaknesses against other styles of play. When the WSOP hit its explosion over the last several years, many pros struggled against internet players. This was not because they weren’t better, but because the donkish style of internet players was counter productive to the usual style of live pros.

There are many strategies to playing poker. There are tight players, tight aggressive players, loose players, donks, fish, fearless players and more. But the best players are the ones who can switch styles at the drop of a hat. Imagine if you approached PRS by saying I’m a Rock style player, and I like to be a Rock and stick with it; you wouldn’t last long as people would quickly adapt and smother you with paper all night long.

Whenever you sit down at a poker table, even if it’s the same $1 rebuy All-in fest or $300 super you have played for the last several weeks, you need to reset your poker style and adapt to the table.

While doing this you must look for several things:

1. Look for tight/loose. Are the players only playing premium hands or are they just playing just about anything besides 2-7.

2. Look at their aggression. Aggression is different from tight to loose. When they hit a big hand do they Check, Check/Raise, or All-in right away?

3. Look for experience. Look for good/bad plays. I look for big laydowns. When you are 99% sure a guy has AK and he folds to another All-in with middle set, you know he’s an experienced player, vs. a guy who immediately calls.

4. Fear/Fearless. Will they call you even though you have the best hand and fish you out? Are they scared of your big bets?

Once you gather the information you must alter your play to adapt it. A perfect example of this was the $10+1 mtt on UltimateBet last night.

I jumped into a tourney where my tables were full of similar players, fairly tight and aggressive. Whenever they got top pair with a nice kicker they were ready to push. It also became obvious quickly that there were a lot of novice players who played very timidly.

The result…I donked and fished my way to 2nd place and $500. Early on I called suited cards and connectors with reckless abandon. It worked like a charm. Anytime someone raised 2-5x the blinds I would immediately call. Would I do this normally? No. But against this style of competition the results were astounding.

Couple key hands:

10 hands in I caught 34 hearts in the big blind. A guy 4 to my right raised it 5x the bb to 100. I immediately called and the flop was A33. He pushed his AJ All-in, and I called to double up.

In the 2nd hour, there was a guy we'll call Dave. Dave loved to raise and played loose, but anytime he was raised all-in he would fold. I was 2 to his left, and with the blinds at 100-200, he raised to 900 with KQ and I called with 56. Flop came Q92. He immediately fired a bullet, betting another 900. Turn came an Ace, and he bet 900 again. Knowing his play and style, I had a feeling the Ace didn’t improve him, so I immediately pushed All-in. He went in the tank and then folded his KQ. I gladly showed my 56.

By the time we hit the bubble I was coined as a fish/donk who was very loose. This was obvious because anytime I raised limpers or blind stealers, they re-raised me with reckless abandon. This meant it was a great chance to change my style up.

In the third hour I was in middle position, and I caught KK. Just 4 hands prior with KK I re-raised a raiser and showed my KK. So this time I just smooth called (again not a normal play). Then a guy in late position raised 5x the bb to 2000 hoping to pick up the blinds and my limp. He had also been an AX raiser. I paused and then pushed All-in. He laughed thinking I was bluffing and called with AJ.

I have always had success playing tight, but the problem is when you’re tight at a tight table you lose blinds and play lots of coin flips. If you want to take your poker game to the next level, I would encourage all of you to practice all styles of play.

Last but not least, always try to play the opposite of what people expect you to play. Play into their hands. Poker is always evolving and there will always be a majority of average players that follow trends. If you can learn to beat those trends and stay ahead of the status quo, you can be one of those elite players who win on a consistent basis.
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