As you play the game of poker you will encounter different kind of personalities as you go along. Here are some of the most common profiles of poker players that you might come across.

Ally or Foe?

A bookworm is not you ally. They seem to know a lot about poker and they tend to “impart their knowledge” to others at the table. They will teach you anything from what hands you should play to calculating if you’re going to win or not. They also have a bad habit of criticizing and laughing at someone who’s not a good player which is rude in every aspect. As an aftermath this player might leave the game to look for a friendlier table or will be playing better than anyone have expected. The bookworm’s poker skill are average and its not your biggest concern, but you should watch out for their behavior and the way they talk at the table.

Aggressiveness and Selectivity

The bookworm personality plays tight during pre-flop; playing somewhere between 20%-25% of the hands they got. But it is during post-flop that this kind of players panic. They have read a lot of books about poker - they probably brought something in their bag for luck - but these books have a variety of ideas which push these bookworms to continue playing after the flop. The reasoning would be, all players have their own weakness and when they write a book they will correct their weaknesses. So the bookworm have all those weaknesses in mind from reading those books and will result in a too loose and too aggressive type of play during post-flop.

A lot of poker players agree that the power of your starting hand is essential and this is the only aspect that the bookworm truly understands. Other than that, they know nothing.

The type of play of the bookworm will fall in a partially aggressive manner. They are willing to bet but if someone plays along with them they will just call and call unless they are holding a the best hand in town.

How To Predictable They Are

They know a lot of deceptive plays but they are not the deceptive types. They are too predictable to be deceptive. They show the same game play every time they encounter a particular hand. If you are observant enough you can read the bookworm clearly.

Poker IQ

Speaking of Poker IQ, a bookworm has a low one. Yes, they know a lot about poker by reading their books but when its time to face a challenge at the poker table they are unable to adjust. The mistake they commit is that they follow their book like its the most right thing to do and they don’t know how to decide for themselves. However, those books are written in accordance to a general situation and nothing to specific ones because the author will not be aware of the current condition the reader is in. But despite all of this, the bookworm treat their books with utmost respect and follow its guideline on every game they play.

“Hey, BOOKWORMS You’re playing poker not building a desk, you can’t just follow instructions!”

Bookworms will have a hard time comprehending the motives behind a player’s move. They expect that all players must follow what they do and those who don’t will be criticize and laugh at.

What You Should Do

One thing that can help you defeat a bookworm and put them in their rightful place is to befriend them, talk to them and try to worm out their game play through them. They are boastful enough to brag about it to anyone who will listen.

But if that won’t work, you can just play aggressive. Don’t let them scare you, make it the other way around. Make sure that you will put up with their game play and show them that you are not afraid of them.