How to spot the weak players at your table
A massive part of poker strategy is reading and adapting to other players at the table. This is how you can find profitable exploitative plays, especially at the lower stakes.
Your goal is not just to identify weak players, but also to understand why they are weak. Still, it’s a good start to be able to pick out opponents that are weaker, so you can get involved in more pots against them and exploit their leaks to gain chips.
Here’s how to spot the weak players at your table.
Weak plays
The easiest way to spot weak players is by observing how they play. And by looking out for certain moves that you would almost never see good players make. If you see a few of these, it’s more than likely you’re dealing with a weak player who you can exploit:
- Limping – Limping preflop is about as weak as it gets. Especially when someone is doing it with all sorts of mediocre hands. It’s a sure way to lose value with actual hands and they are asking to be raised.
- Playing too many hands – Whether it’s excitement or a lack of knowledge, many weak players enter the pot with too many hands. Look out for someone playing garbage hands or middling hands from early position.
- Playing too tight – On the other end of the weak player spectrum are those who are way too tight. They tend to wait around for huge hands before raising preflop. When they do raise, you can assume they have a monster.
- Passive play – It takes skill and heart to make a raise or big three-bet, whether bluffing or for value. Weak players tend to take more passive lines, such as checking and flat calling bets, which makes them much easier to play against.
- Overvaluing certain hands – Weak players don’t have solid hand ranges that they use for each situation. Instead, they are more likely to overvalue hands that they think look good, such as A-x or small pairs. They might even have a ‘favourite hand’ that is complete trash.
- Paying too much for draws – Just as weak players might have a hard time folding A-x when they make a pair, they also tend to have a tough time folding draws. You’ll often see weak players check-calling for way too much in an effort to hit their flush or complete a straight.
- Predictable bet sizing – Weak players have a hard time sizing bets. They tend to give away information in their bet sizing by betting big when they have it and small when they don’t. It makes them predictable opponents.
- Missing obvious spots – This one includes a range of weak plays. If you see an opponent make it to showdown, run back through the hand and see if they missed any obvious spots where they should have bet for value or as a bluff.
Spotting a player make multiple common mistakes like these is a pretty clear sign that they aren’t too great. But what’s more important is what you do with this information.
If playing online, use the notes feature. You can record the exact situation and type of bad play made. Then you can use this information next time you are in a hand against them.

Live tells
If you’re playing live poker, there are a few more tells you can look out for that are somewhat reliable indicators of a player’s experience level.
Players unfamiliar with a casino environment or playing live poker might fumble their chips and cards. Or forget to post their blind, and make errors such as string betting. Generally they’ll look nervous at the table.
There’s one catch to this indicator – it can mean one of two things. It can either mean someone is an inexperienced poker player, which usually means they are weak. Or it can mean they are an online player who only occasionally plays live.
You’ll need to use your instincts and observe the opponent’s skill level in order to make a fair assessment.
On tilt?
Another telling sign of a weak player is that they cannot control their emotions at the tables. This is more obvious in a live game, in which you can see reactions and gauge feelings.
You might see someone utter something under their breath. Or a player might give a more vulgar demonstration of their anger by shouting out in a rage when they lose a hand.
You won’t often see experienced, knowledgeable players act in this way. They have seen it all before, for one. They also understand how poker works and the nature of the beast. And they’ve learnt to control the urge to rage because giving in to it will only make them lose more chips.
So, when you see a player that is on tilt, you can be fairly confident that you’re looking at a weak player. Even better, you’re looking at a weak player who is ready to play at their worst.