Understanding your opponents is the key to maximising your winnings when playing poker. You will find that in all games the outcome of you winning or losing will come down to a few crucial decisions, do you fold, do you call or do you raise them all in? Make the correct decision and you are going home with your pockets stuffed full of cash. Make the wrong decision and you are walking home faced with the proposition of telling the wife you have just blown this months rent on a bad call. You will come up against many weak players in your poker career and this article will begin to explain how best to play against them so you take all their money.

One thing you must always do when playing poker is adopt your play depending on whom you are facing on any particular hand. In its simplest format we will put players into 2 categories, weak players and strong players. Both have their own characteristics and both can be played for profit. Automatically you would assume that weak players are easier to play against but this is not always the case.

Because weak players do not understand the game in as much depth as strong players, they will quite often not succumb to bluffs and advanced strategies. A common example of this would be if there is a flush draw on the board and you have nothing. You go for a big raise trying to give the impression that you have the nuts. The weak player calls and turns over top pair. Most strong players would have recognised your move of a big bet and (if they did not have the flush) would have folded. The weaker player did not notice this call and thinking a top pair is a good hand, called you out. The result is he wins and you lose because the weak player quite simply missed the bluff.

So the all-important question is how do you play the weak player so you maximise your winnings and minimises your losses? The answer is simple, don