How pros view amateur players

Dara O'Kearney shares some advice on how to manipulate your table image if you are a recreational player.

I was lucky enough to coach several Platinum Pass winners and all of them asked me how to adapt to the elite professional poker players in the field. That led me to share some insights into how pro poker players view amateurs. 

Pros want to play more pots with recreational players, so as such the first thing to point out is they will be 3-betting them much wider than GTO dictates. 

They will attack amateur player opens much wider, but on the flipside they will give amateur player 3-bets and 4-bets more credit. They will struggle to put amateur players on big bluffs and abide by the mantra of 'they always have it' in these spots. They will overfold with bluffcatchers against a recreational player. 

Know your table image

Pro players will assume recreational players do not want to bust early, especially in big 'bucket list' events like the PSPC/EPT/WSOP. 

That means they will put them under more pressure in pots for their tournament life 

To summarise, pros will call off much tighter against recreational players, but if they think they can put them in a tough spot for all their chips they will. 

If you are an amateur player this is really important to know. In particular if it gets you finding more natural bluffs against them. 

This is also a useful reminder about table image. If you are a casual player do not give that information away easily, at the same time if you are a pro it might prove profitable to pretend to be a recreational player. 

If you are not a pro player but want to improve, you have to develop a similar view to the professional player about amateur players. It's not mercenary, it is simply trying to make the most profitable play you can at the tables. 

Dara O'Kearney's new book GTO Poker Simplified is out now.