Recently I read Phil Helmuth’s Play Poker Like the Pros. I will save the overall impression of the book for a later time. But, I do want to talk about a specific concept that Phil has developed to help you better know your opponents and use their weaknesses against them.

Most of us are pretty aware of classifications like “Tight-Aggressive,” “Loose-Aggressive,” “Tight-Passive,” etc. What Phil does is simplify this system. This is done for convenience while sitting at a table full of a lot of players where you have limited amounts of information. I think it has some usefulness, with the caveat that you should not be surprised if people you’ve previously categorized as one type do something more indicative of another animal type. These descriptions are intended as the most basic that it can get.

Mouse - (also referred to as a “rock”) A very conservative type of player. She only plays the top 10 hands and doesn’t often even get involved in a pot with less than pocket 8s. The mouse also rarely raises. When they do raise, look out… they’ve got the goods. They NEVER bluff. They’re weakness is that they are very predictable. You can easily get out of the way of the mouse when they have the goods and get them out of pots when they missed.

Jackal - A loose and wild player that will play almost anything. They bet and raise with abandon. They take huge swings in chip stacks. Sometimes catching a good run and when this happens, they usually take down HUGE pots. They are the opposite of the mouse. Don’t be afraid to call a jackal as you will catch them bluffing with trash a lot. When you catch a monster, you can extract a lot of money out of jackal… let them take the aggressive lead.

Elephant - (also called a “calling station”) This type of player is fairly loose but not overly aggressive like the jackal. They’ll play a lot of hands to river, convinced that the next card is always the one that will give them the winning hand. Don’t try to bluff the elephant, cause it won’t happen… instead wait til you catch good cards and just let the Elephant call your bets all the way to the river. Try not to get bend out of shape when this player sucks out on you on the river on occasion.

Lion - (Tight Aggressive) This is the best and rare type of player at the low limits. This is the player you want to be. Good starting hand requirements, but not afraid to take a calculated risk on occasion. They bet when they’re ahead and fold when they’re behind. Also, they’re not afraid to bluff or semi-bluff when position allows… but keep it rare enough that it’s hard not to give them respect.

Eagle - Phil reserves this for the top 100 poker players in the world. A rare bird indeed that you might never see. The eagle is the pinnacle of the poker world, i.e. your ultimate goal.

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