Rounders

I recently rented and rewatched the movie Rounders. For those of you who don't know, Rounders is a great poker movie, maybe even one of the best made on the game. It features Matt Damon as a good card player with the ability to read what his opponents are holding. This got me thinking of some Daniel Negreanu videos I've seen on YouTube.

Daniel Negreanu, like Matt Damon's character in the movie, has the uncanny ability to predict his opponents pocket cards in Texas Hold'em. A tell when picked up will often give clues to the strength of an opponents hand. However, to be able to accurately foretell the exact hole cards as these two do is something else entirely. So how do they do it? Is it some kind of 6th sense as the commentators seem to claim, or is it through absolute observation and a knowledge of the game.

It certainly would be an excellent skill to have and would allow you to win many poker tournaments. However online poker is quite different from live poker games, as the person is not there to observe and pick tells from. Tells are only in the form of betting strategies, and time taken to bet. In addition to knowledge of their game play.

Check the Vids Below:­

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv2C_m0D-gY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8k47_lP0M

That first one is my favorite poker clip of all time. They're playing 7cs, which is my game. Damon does a great job of deducing the hands and it is very realistic if you know how to play stud and understand the thinking that goes into reading hands. What is also cool is the fact that he makes his bets with 0 regard to what he holds himself. He's making the betting decision based on what the other players hold.

Now... this wouldn't work in the low limits vs. imbeciles. The guy with 2 pair would never fold! Ahh well... 10/20, this could happen though. Of course, at 10/20, you'll rarely have that many people seeing the river!

FYI - the big difference in these two videos is the game being played. Negreanu's ability to read people in holdem is much more amazing, IMO. But then again.. I'm a stud player, so reading stud hands is something that comes a lot easier to me now. I'm still a holdem noob.