The pace and style of a game can change after one hand in poker. To be a winning player you must be able to recognize this and use it to you advantage.

Poker Pacing

The pace of a poker game changes dramatically as a session continues. You may find yourself completely out of your element in a game that was just a few hands ago perfectly suited to your style. New players may have become more comfortable and are now opening their ranges. Other players may begin making read-based plays after a long session. All of this adds up to characterize the pace of a game.

In most low stakes online games you will find yourself facing new opponents every orbit as the short stacks bust out and new ones take their place. Despite this, even these hectic games have a distinct pace. New players will often join the game and fall right into their place at the table.

So what do you need to look for to determine the pace of the game, and how do you adjust yourself?

Fast Poker and Slow Poker

First of all, identify how quickly the game is playing. Fast, or slow. Fast games feature large and frequent preflop raises, while slower games have just the opposite: fewer preflop raises and usually to smaller amounts. You might find a combination of these two characteristics (for example, lots of small preflop raises). In the end, the speed of a game is determined by how much money is being thrown around preflop in the average hand.

Tight Poker and Loose Poker

Next, determine what types of hands are going to showdown. Tighter games will showdown hands that are stronger than you’d expect from an average game, and loose games will take worse hands to showdown. Let’s imagine you’re playing a loose game and you open with JTs and get one caller on the button. The flop gives you top pair: J96. You bet, and the button calls. The turn brings an 8, giving you a straight draw to go with your pair. Once again you bet, and your opponent calls you. The river is a K: you’ve missed your draw. In a slower game you should probably check here. Your opponent can have a bunch of hands, a lot of which beat you, and you wouldn’t expect to get called by worse hands that often. But instead, because the game is playing loose postflop, a bet here might be correct. Your opponent might be expecting you to bet with a pair nines or even something like 78, and he may decide to make a heroic call.

Be aware of both of these game trends and adjust accordingly. In a fast game you should play tight preflop, and in a slow game you should open up your range and try to steal the blinds more often. But make sure that the types of hands you’re taking to showdown match the postflop texture of the game. Don’t get caught with one pair in a tight postflop game, even if there is lots of preflop action. On the other hand, don’t wait for top boat while the action passes you by.

Strong loose aggressive players will trick you into playing looser than you are used to. However, when the turn and river come around they are as tight as it comes. They use their crazy and maniacal preflop and flop image to force you into poor positions on the expensive streets. Don’t fall into their trap.

Game pace isn’t a mechanism that you should rely on to read hands, but it can be an important factor in close decisions. You shouldn’t throw all your hand reading skills out the window just because a game is playing faster than normal, but it might make a close fold into a close call. Keep in mind that individual players still have their own styles. Even if the game is very fast, some tight players have trouble opening up their game and tend to lose money to the blinds. Don’t trump an excellent player read because of your conception of the game pace, but be aware that a tight player may be opening up a little bit if the action has been passing him by.

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