Don’t always play the same way with similar hands. Mix up your actions to prevent opponents from easily reading your playstyle. For example: sometimes play a strong hand passively to surprise.
Study the betting trends:
Watch how your opponents bet:
Quick raises may indicate a strong hand or a calculated bluff.
Long breaks before an action can often be a reflection on an average hand.
Know your continuation bet frequency (C-bet):
When you raise pre-flop and are the first to speak after the flop, do a C-bet (bet on the flop) about 60-70% of the time.
Identify the tipping points:
Some key moments in a game require crucial decisions (big pots, tournament elimination situations). Focus more on these situations and avoid making hasty mistakes.
Be selective with bluffs:
Don’t bluff just for the sake of bluffing. Analyze:
Table : Is it credible that you have a strong hand?
Opponent : Is he able to fold one hand? A “calling station” player (who follows a lot) won’t easily fall asleep.
Spot weak players:
Look for players who:
Too often follows (calling stations) .
Too many hands are playing (loose) .
Are afraid to bet (passives) .
Exploit these trends by betting aggressively against them.
Minimize your losses:
If you feel like you are being beaten, learn to let go of even a strong hand. Avoid falling into the trap of curiosity by following to “see” opposing cards.
Study math:
Improve your understanding of implicit odds and odds. For example:
With a straight or a flush missing on the flop, know when it’s profitable to follow.
Combine this knowledge with your reading of opponents to decide whether to continue or not.
Control psychological issues:
Use table dynamics to your advantage:
If an opponent is “tilted”, put him under pressure with frequent raises.
Stay calm and avoid entering into emotional confrontations.
Don’t underestimate online tables
If you want to make serious progress, play practice games with friends or online at low stakes. Take notes after each session to identify what worked and what could be improved.
When you raise pre-flop and are the first to speak after the flop, do a C-bet (bet on the flop) about 60-70% of the time.
This is a bit imprecise. It’s much more important to cbet the proper board textures than it is to use the proper frequency. For example, if we raise from early position and get called out of the blinds, and the flop is disconnected ace high (i.e. A 9 2 rainbow), we should probably cbet 100% of our range.
In the same configuration, if the flop is 678 monotone, we should probably check our entire range.
For the unpredictable stuff, i kind of disagree. You had to slowplay with good hands, who block the calling range for example. But to me its not very good to create a mixed strategy postflop for one hand, i dont really see the point
Agree completely with the point your making, and I’d even expand it to the first point. You will already be introducing enough unpredictability into your game if you play different board textures differently. There are enough unique textures, and ways of categorizing flops, that you can easily play a fixed strategy that will seem completely random unless someone is analyzing thousands of your hands.
(I do have small nitpicks with your example flops though. It’s not terrible to range c-bet A92r, but in theory you’d be checking that quite often. Also 678 monotone won’t be as bad for the PFR as 678 rainbow)
Thanks for sharing your advice, anasslaaleg. it’s a great starting point. Here’s my take on refining some of these ideas for Replay Poker, where chips are free, and player tendencies can differ from real-money games.
Be Unpredictable – But with Intent
“Mixing up your play” is a good idea, but randomness without purpose can backfire. For example, instead of just playing a strong hand passively, think about why you’re doing it. Are you targeting a specific player who over-aggresses against weakness? Are you setting up a trap for a player you know is bluff-prone? On free-chip sites, many players call with anything, so being “unpredictable” works best against observant opponents.
Adjust Your C-Bet Frequency for Table Dynamics
C-betting 60-70% is standard advice, but on Replay Poker, where calling ranges are wide, you might need to reduce this frequency. Against multiple opponents who call too much, a selective C-bet strategy (e.g., betting strong hands and draws but checking marginal hands) will save you chips.
Simplify Decisions
Free poker often has players who overvalue weak hands. When facing an all-in or a large raise, ask yourself: Is this player capable of bluffing here? If not, let go of marginal hands. Conversely, when it’s a big moment for you (e.g., making a large semi-bluff), ensure your story aligns with your betting.
Focus on Replay-Specific Dynamics
Free tables like Replay are unique because they blend serious players with casual ones. If your goal is improvement, take notes on:
Common tendencies you see (e.g., people overcalling or bluffing poorly).
Adjustments you made that worked (e.g., betting smaller for value against loose players).
Thank you for those useful tips my friends. I think they are more useful in the real money games than on a site like replay poker because replay poker is a play money site and people in freerolls do not care super much at times.
But in general I agree yes profile other players and then go from there.
Same rules like everywhere . No different rules apply at replay poker . No different ways to play . Only problem is that it is play money game , so players always play loose , very loose .
@playbetter I really agree with you about cbetting. Over a year and 300k hands on Replay, I’ve adjusted to cbet less frequently when I miss the flop. Most opponents here are inelastic - if they have a hand that wants to pay you, they will pay you, regardless of how nitty you’ve been previously. So we don’t have to balance our cbet range in order to get paid when we have it.
You can just check when you miss and bet when you hit against a lot of these guys. They won’t exploit you for being unbalanced.
Thanks for the tips and reminders! I will work on incorporating some of these into my games. I am especially interested in trying the first tip to try to be unpredictable and play my strong hands passively for a change. I have usually followed the advice to “bet your own hand,” but I agree that sometimes I should find spots to let others bet for me. I also need to bet more aggressively versus players who play too many hands.
Thanks [anasslaaleg] for this very helpful shortcut list of advanced tips.
These tips can be very helpful in many situations of our game. Points like .) be selective with bluffs
.) try to be unpredictable, change ya game if you recognize that you have no chance@ table
and on of my favourites would be use your knowledge&power to find and cash from the weak/maniac players ;-).
One Advice from me additional: Try to have fun&play seriously, then you will never have a problem afterwards with your own decisions@ table.
A good way to be unpredictable yet still play the hand aggressively is to lead the same. For instance, let;s say you;re out of position and you flop top-pair-top kick. If you normally would lead 14-pot with that, then when you are out of position and flop a set, just lead 1/4-pot same. ; ) They think you have top pair and they call or raise with 2-pair or overpair. Of course you can always mix in a check-raise once in a while. If you do check, it can give you info. If he checks back, he’s weak or drawing so you know to bet smaller on turn. If he bets to your check, then you know he’s strong (or possibly bluffing) and you can probably bet larger on turn and get more money.
Here is a Slow Play.
94s on BB and it folds around so I close it off and flop. 44x trip 4s. Villain UtG is very short-stacked, I have him covered approx 7x. If I bet my strong hand like I should, I probably won’t get his stack (unless he has a prime hand to call with, but he shouldn’t have prime because he limped), I have trips so I need to get his whole stack. I check. He checks back. Turn is A and I pretty much know that I have him. Short stack limp has a TON of Ax here, so I min bet into him - just a min bet. He shoves. I call. I get his stack. He actually had a very jammable hand (even UtG) so he played that pretty fishy. I had him on something more like A-wheel or ATo.
Nice set! I don’t think we can learn too much about strategy from this spot, though. Villain has 6bb - the only hand they should do anything other than shove is AA. Once they see the flop, they’re basically not allowed to fold anything that has any chance of winning the pot. So you can check, donk small, or open shove, and it really shouldn’t make much difference. With such a small SPR villain’s action is going to depend on their hand and the board a lot more than on what we do.
Why did you put villain on ace-wheel or ATo? That seems like a very specific range
First, he can totally fold because he’s a fish. I agree with you though, if he is a good player.
Why Ax? Because it’s exactly what a fish would call but not shove pre with short-stacked. Yes, he could have had low or mid pair but Ax is probably half his range.
I notice that just about all tournaments start out by “most” players treating the game like playing a slot machine, by going all-in on almost every hand and trusting luck alone. Here’s some all-in advice:
Seven Reasons to Go All-In
You have reason to believe that an opponent is bluffing and will fold to your all-in.
You think you have the best hand and want your opponent to call.
You have the absolute nuts and hope your opponent has the second best hand.
Your opponent has been playing tight and you are convinced that he will fold his
stronger hand.
You are almost out of chips and have a fairly strong hand.
You believe your opponent is on a draw and will fold because the odds are wrong.
It’s the only bet that will give you the results that you want.