22nd Lecture - Maximizing Profit Against Weak Opponents

Maximizing Profit Against Weak Opponents
The following lecture was the 22nd Tuesday Session, held February 16, 1999, and appeared
in Card Player magazine

The Business of Poker Can Be Very Profitable If You Know What to Dont.

Maximizing Profit Against Weak Opponents

When I was much younger, I'd drive miles to play against the toughest players in the world.
I'd leave easy games to seek challenging ones. I enjoyed the combat, and I told myself that I
was improving my skills by challenging the best opponents.

Yes, I survived this long erratic period in my career. In fact, before I began to write, lecture,
and research about poker, I had no other job. Poker was all there was for 14 years. And during
those years, I spent a great deal of time bumping heads with some of the most skillful players
the world has ever know.

I teased my mind into thinking I was honing my skills by making it hard on myself. But, in
reality, I was doing too much honing and too little capitalizing on the skills I had mastered
already. Well, I'm proud to report, I was able to survive these world-class tough opponents
and make money. Make that: sort of make money. I say, "sort of make money," because you
need to compare the money you actually won with the money you should have won. If it's
less, then the difference is a loss in my mind.

And, clearly, I would have won even more money if I'd spent a greater share of my time
facing weaker foes. So, lesson learned. We move on. Life gets better. This was the 22nd in
my serious of Tuesday Session classroom lectures at Mike Caro University of Poker, Gaming,
and Life Strategy. It was delivered earlier this year and is specially enhanced for Card Player.
The title was…

Maximizing Profit Against Weak Opponents

1.

Weak opponents supply all of your profit.

Just keeping this concept in your mind at all times will do wonders toward putting you
on the path to poker profit. It's easy to forget this, because so much of your poker
activity consists of making tough decisions against tough opponents. But that's not
where the profit is. In the long run, the profit always comes from players who are
weaker than you. Nothing else is possible. And the weaker your opponents are, the
more money you can expect to earn.

Please don't confuse this concept with the reality that you also earn profit by making
quality decisions against your strongest foes. This is irrefutable. Also, you may be able
to outplay a few opponents who are winners overall. When this happens, these players
are weak from your personal perspective, though not in general. For purposes of your
personal profit, you should seek them out. Their special weakness relative to you
supplies money.

To make the most money, you need to play as correctly as possible against both weak
and strong opponents. But, overall, weak opponents are the ones who bring the profit
to the poker table. If you're not playing against foes weaker than you are, you cannot
expect to win money. Period.

2.

What's so great about beating strong opponents?

Beating strong foes wins a lot of respect and a little money. Beating weak foes wins a
little respect and a lot of money.

So, unless you're honing your skills on select occasions, you should seek out the
weakest possible opponents. There is no excuse to do otherwise. The most successful
poker players in the world are not the ones who show a profit against the strongest
opponents.

The most successful players are those capable of extracting the most money from their
weakest opponents. These most-successful players tend to play fewer hours against
strong opposition than they do against weak opposition. Conversely, the strongest
opponents often don't know how to extract maximum profit from weak foes. They are
doomed to live pitiful lives of poker mediocrity simply because they know how to
play well against rational opponents, but they never learned how to extract the most
money from the providers of profit.

3.

Never compliment weak opponents on good plays or discuss serious strategy with

them.
When you compliment weak opponents on correct play, you make them proud.
Thereafter, they may struggle to play better in an effort to please you.

Also, it's a very bad idea to discuss serious strategy with weak opponents - at the table
or away from it. Doing so makes them self-conscious, and they recognize that there
are levels of poker they don't understand. They are apt to play more cautiously - and,
worse, they may even learn to play well!

4.

Make weak opponents into "legends."

When you boast about the pots won by weak players with horrible hands, you feed
their ego. They may try to live up to their legends - especially since you have praised
them, rather than criticized them, for their weak play.

Learn to say, in Harvey's presence, "I wish I could play like Harvey! That guy can take
10-9 and win the biggest pots! He knows exactly when to do it. It's not what you play,
it's how you play." Then look Harvey directly in the eyes, and say sincerely, "I really
mean it. I've seen you do it so many times. It's a joy to watch." Say stuff like that and
learn to mean it and your rewards will be much greater than if you make Harvey feel
uncomfortable about occasionally winning with weak hands. You want to encourage
his poor play, not discourage it

5.

Say and do things to make opponents feel comfortable playing poorly.

Tell them you sometimes get lucky with those same hands. Show them an occasional
played hand that is as weak as, or weaker than, those they play.

6.

Weak opponents don't play equally weak against everyone.

Try to get more "gifts" than your opponents. You will if (1) weak players like you, (2)
you're fun to play with, and (3) you don't seem to "hustle" opponents.

It's important to be liked. If you seem to be cheering for your weak opponents more
than for yourself, you will be liked by them. You need to make your weakest
opponents enjoy having you at the table, and you must never say anything that makes
opponents think they're either being taken advantage of or scrutinized.

Some players think their weakest opponents give money away equally to everyone.
That's incorrect. Everyone has borderline decisions to make, even weak poker players.
Each player, no matter how loose or unskilled, must make decisions to play or not
play, to call or not call, with hands that are right on the borderline from his
perspective. These will be decided almost at whim. You will profit from more than
your fair share of these weak hands and bad calls if your opponent enjoys playing
against you and doesn't fear being criticized for poor choices.

Those who believe that encouraging these extra calls ruins your chances of being able
to bluff miss the point. You aren't going to be able to bluff these weak players very
often anyway. They call too much, so bluffing is almost always a poor choice against
them. It's calling too often that is their greatest mistake, and that's what you should
encourage.

7.

Don't try to trap weak opponents.

Check-raising and tricky plays make them feel targeted and less willing to give you
their chips later. Usually just play your best hands aggressively and use a
straightforward strategy. You can be playful without seeming mean.

When you make a sophisticated trapping maneuver, you may very well make more
money on that specific hand, but you've make your weak opponent uncomfortable and
less likely to bestow "gifts" on you in the future.

8.

Use diplomacy to stop others from belittling weak opponents.

You should do this away from the table. Take the offenders aside. Unfortunately, this
belittling behavior is standard for even some pros. It makes the weak players reluctant
to continue their extra-bad play for fear of criticism. And that costs you money. - MC