If you play a dynamic poker game, besides understanding math you need to make the correct play to win the money. Making the correct play is all about identifying and understanding each opponent you play with. When you are playing serious poker, you cannot distract yourself with other things that prevent you from observing your opponents.

Observation involves keeping track of betting patterns and behaviors that your opponents exhibit. There is no such thing as purely random play, no matter how bad or good your opponent. Knowing that, there will be some pattern or logic to their play. Your goal is to identify these patterns and your use that knowledge against them.

The following is a list of typical poker player profiles. Once you have the ability to observe, identify and understand your opponent, you will have a major edge.

The Aggressive Maniac

This type of player plays a lot of hand, raises frequently, and often bluffs. You can never be one hundred percent sure what hand the aggressive maniac hides since such kind of behavior is his best strategy. With a maniac at your table, you need to be aware of the changes his presence invariably brings. Because of his proclivity for raising and reraising, more of your chips will be at risk, however a maniac in your game will usually increase your average winnings over the long run. On the other hand, there will be a dramatic increase in the fluctuations you can expect on an hourly basis, in other words you will find yourself susceptible to large swings for better or for worse in the short run.

Ace Happy

Ace Happy players generally play loose, but most notably play any hand with an Ace and raise all pocket pairs. Generally, they do play semi-good hands and bet according to hand strength. When Ace Happies raise their bet, it is hard to tell their hand strength very well because they have a tendency to over-bet. Not understanding the value of the kicker card or over-realizing the value of pocket pairs makes them overly aggressive with those hands. A higher kicker or simply better hand can beat such players, however, many times Ace Happies will win the game.

Calling Station

This type of player will call a lot of bets without consideration of pot odds, implied odds or even basic common sense. These guys are the cash cow of poker and you want a few of these guys in every table because generally they are the biggest losers in poker. There is a two edged sword when playing against a calling station though. This is the type of player who will hang in till the bitter end if you give them a chance, meaning you will suffer some bad beats against a calling station. There may be some instances where you are in the lead all the way to the river, and then they pull out a miracle. The best way to deal with this is make them pay all the way to the last card.

Tight Player

A tight player is one who does not play many hands, and will fold when circumstances and pot odds are not in his favor. He does not live on a steady diet of raises, preferring to call or fold, picking their spots to mount a vigorous offensive. Usually a consistent showdown winner, this person will not try to make any moves, call down a bluffer or try to play any kind of poker other than simply playing their cards. Mathematically, these players have an edge over players who do not understand all the odds in poker. Their ability to play only their own cards is a glaring handicap for anyone observant enough to notice.

Tricky Player

These types of players play aggressively and will often try to knock out players through intimidation, uncertainty and position. Trickier players will bet / raise low pairs or draws to kick out tight players and other callers, who probably have put this player on a strong hand. Whereas all poker players have an inner intuition of when either another player is bluffing, most players will apt to fold because they second-guess their intuition, their intuition is usually wrong or they are simply too scared to play back. These aggressive players tend to play their intuition hard, which works great if your intuition is right more than half the time. This is why it is usually hard to see players of this kind of caliber.