DAVE SCHARF’S PLAYER CLASSIFICATION 3

3. The Rock

This type of poker player has learnt to recognise the strongest poker hands and will play these but will not use any percentage of his customized poker chip stack on any other poker hand. But this poker player will hardly ever play any starting poker hand which is less than the top few poker hands. He will never be able to add to his customized poker chip stack with a marginal poker hand. They are also like the screaming fish and the O-Fish in that they cannot simultaneously think about what you hold in your hand at the same time. They will never have huge customized poker chip stacks. They just seem to be content to sit behind their customized poker chip stack and wait for aces all night!

Their major error is that they simply don’t call often enough with their customized poker chip stack. Even when they get involved with a poker hand because they think it is strong enough to gamble on, they won’t be aggressive enough with their customized poker chip stack. Their gaming and gambling strategy is so simple. It is to wait, wait and wait some more. If they ever enter a customized poker chip pot, you will never be able to bluff or bet them out of it. They will be reluctant to give it up.

Even if you don’t have the most desirable starting poker hand, if you are sitting in late position at the poker table, it is often a good idea to attack a poker player if he is a rock and is sitting in the blinds. If he calls your raise, you know you have to get a good flop or drop out early after the flop, without risking or gambling away any more of your customized poker chip stack. Their betting will often be positively correlated with the exact strength of their poker starting hand so if they raise, you should really get out of the way unless you have a massive starting poker hand. With this predictable poker play, you should easily be able to extract a large proportion of their customized poker chip stack and addit to your own. Watch out if a rock calls on the flop because like the fish, they find it hard to give up once they get involved. Save your customized poker chip stack for the next poker hand.