X-Terminators Poker Crew

By now, most of us are familiar with the strategy called ?Switching Gears? whether you are an expert or not with this strategy, it is equally important to know how to recognize them.

Determining the game plan of your opponent is not an easy task to do because skilled players are able to adjust their game depending on how the cards and opponents are treating them. With the poker trend nowadays, switching gears is one of the most used tools in becoming unpredictable. Keeping your opponents off balance, by changing your style from aggressive, to passive, to tricky, to tight is vitally important.

And, if you don?t pay attention to what gear your opponent is in you can find yourself at a severe disadvantage. Now, let see how we can re-battle to this strategy and its effectiveness. Our goal is to know when opponent is tending to play in an opposite manner. Knowing this will vary from player to player because of their natural style of playing the game. This means, you will have to categorize your opponents? style like for example; ?Rock?, ?Bluffer? or ?Calling Station? when this is achieved it would be helpful to recognize their plan of attack.

The Rock, is the tightest of all the players. When this player decided to switch gear, because the Rock plays far too few hands, he's very easy to read. When he finally does get involved in a raise pot or limped with few callers and in late position, chances are, he is now changing his gears trying to be tricky and hoping to catch his card on the flop. But often times, if he missed, he can only afford to see the flop and not the 4th & 5th streets. When he does play less-than-premium pairs on occasion, it will stand out if he hits and in most cases, he will lead out and bet the amount which obviously tells you that he rather take pot right now than to see the next card and if you observe closely this might save you some chips.

The Bluffer, is often overconfident in his poker-playing skills - his selective memory will erase the times when he's been caught, and focus only on the times his bluffs have been successful. Because he has to use the all-in move so frequently, the Bluffer puts his entire stack in jeopardy every time he thinks he has a chance to show the table how clever he is. He will go broke far more often than other players because of this. When this player decided to switch gear, because of his aggressiveness and always looking for a knockout punch against his opponent, it is hard for him to hide his emotion because of excitement that he gets from being cocky. In most cases, this player talks a lot trying to hide the truth or vise versa.

The Calling Station, plays a wide range of hands without regard to position or the number of opponents already in the pot. When this player decided to switch gear, he will just probably narrow down his range of hands but would love to bet on a draw. Be careful when you suspect that this player had switch gear against you as they tend to set a trap to gain recognition in the table and justify his previous loose calls. Even when the Calling Station does catch a big hand like a straight or a flush, he will rarely raise for value. When he does, many opponents will recognize that they should fold.

Jon "The Tiger" Yuson