This post is going to be on the basics of poker psychology and the basic adjustments to make against semi-competent opponents.
There are many examples and situations that led me to make this post. One in recent memory-
$1/2NL, 100BB stacks. Villain seems regular/taggy, I have a solid image.
I open xx, he calls from BB. flop 933r, he check/calls my bet. Turn K, he check/calls my bet. River T, he check/calls my bet and wins with 77 (I don’t recall what I had, obviously air though).
Basically, his line is pretty meh overall. He’s going to get valueowned a ton (I would bet the river with a pretty wide value range, probably a good 9 or better, as his hand range is very very weighted towards hands like 66/77/88/9x/etc). He rarely hits the K or T (unless he has like T9/K9, which is unlikely). Frankly, playing vs. aggro opponents OOP without having a real clear idea is going to be troubling to begin with. With that said, he made a nice light call down and props to him.
Getting into the mind of your opponent is something we strive to do as poker players. The minute you can start to understand how your opponents interpret the game, the easier it is when hand reading/making the right plays against their range/etc. Understanding their psychology is going to be important too.
So, with the above example, it’s pretty obvious that he might now think of me as a nut job/lag player. He has one example to base this on (the 77 hand), and too often do I see players post hands vs. decent players with these types of reads (as in, they expect me to keep bluffing just because of one hand).
Adjusting to your opponent’s mindset is going to allow you to be one step ahead. I know that Villain knows that I’m loose. (Did I word that well?)- rewording- I know villain thinks I’m crazy now, after that hand. I know that villain is less likely to give me credit on future hands.
While knowing this, I need to adjust my own range. Knowing that he thinks I’m crazy, I’m going to shift my bluffing range back a bit, and value town him lighter. I’m going to be less inclined to bluff, since he obviously both a) can and will call down lighter and b) believes me to be looser than I actually am. Understanding his thought process helps a ton.
A few hands later -
I open K
2, he calls BB (we are 3-handed now).
Flop- K
6 7 
- he check/calls a bet
Turn- 8 he check/calls again
river – 3
he check/calls my third bet with T7 and loses
What are some problems with his play? Well, to start, he used a previous read and stuck with it, assuming that I could not adjust. Now, whether or not I’m going to be bluffing there, I suppose that’s somewhat relevant, but he is playing under the assumption that my bluff frequency is much higher than it actually is (in this particular situation). I’d probably be less inclined to bluff him given my image at this point, something that he doesn’t realize.If I were villain, I’d probably give a tad more credit against smart opponents, because I KNOW they are adjusting to my own perception of them.
When you are playing against like-minded opponents who understand the psychology and ‘leveling’, you need to prepare yourself and adjust accordingly. In this basic example, I probably would have considered bluffing had we not had that previous history (with whatever hand I might have…semibluffs/real bluffs/etc). But given the 77 hand, I think pulling back a bit is good vs. level one thinkers. While my value range doesn’t necessarily change all that much from that 77 hand (I would have value bet the same range as discussed before, a good 9 or better), the value ranges are obviously a tad widened in future hands and different situations.
A player might continue to bluff, using the reverse of what is applied above. It’s hard to really put into words the different dynamics that occur during aggressive matches (I suppose I’m slightly talking headsup, even though I rarely play it). I remember reading a quote in a thread in HSNL, discussing a somewhat vanilla situation of hero getting cold 4-betted against with QQ. One player stated- (paraphrasing) ” I 3-bet player xxxxx 6 times in a row, he folded every time. The 7th time I 3-bet JJ and was elated to get it in…one of the bigger mistakes in recent memory” (he obviously saw AA).
When 3-betting, players sometimes just say to themselves “oh, I’m just going to pound this guy into submission, fuck him”. That’s all well and good, and people that 3-bet alot in position often make your life a living hell (and it’s hard to counteract such a strategy). But when deciding to play back against light 3-betters OOP, people adjust in the wrong way. I know I was guilty of such thinking in the past. I’ll say to myself “this guy is always 3-betting me, he can’t truly have it here, I’m going to 4-bet him with ATC next time”…and this is pretty much the exact response that a smart 3-better will want. Smart 3-betters in this situation (should) adjust their ranges a tad, in that they are focusing more on value 3-bets instead of pure bluffs. Not sure if that made sense.
Anyways, this is just a tad bit on the subject. Somewhat interesting, meh.