When you’re trying to read poker hands you try to deduct the cards your opponent could have to a range of possibilities. It’s not about putting a player on a exact hand, but sometimes you will. You will only learn to read hands accurately through good memorizing, intuition and many hours of play. Reading hands is not very useful at the lowest stakes since players at these levels are generally very unpredictable. But even at the lower limits without many fish you can get a pretty narrow range on your opponents cards. Unexperienced players tend to play very straightforward – betting big on their monster hands and small on their weak hands.

Keeping an eye on these factors will help you to narrow down the range of hands your opponent could have:

1. Your opponents starting hands
2. Betting patterns
3. Taking notes
4. Replaying your own hands
5. Showdowns of other players
6. Opponents actions

If you are moving up in stakes you will notice that other players are trying to read your hands as well. This will take poker to the next level since your thought process should not only depend on what you think they have, but also what they think you have. If you aren’t thinking on the right level you’ll be getting the worst of it. However, knowing the range of cards your opponent could have and what he might think you have is not the key factor of reading poker hands. It’s knowing how to adjust your poker strategy to that knowledge and making the right decisions.