How to declare oponents in cash games

[Xandl]

Hello everyone,

I play cash and i am working on my declaration skills and how to approach to them.
Do you have some advice for me?
Colour system and what you are looking at first and so on?

Thank you!!

[LondonImp]

Are you referring to taking notes whilst playing online?

The basic colours that I use are:

Blue - Complete beginners. Potentially don't know all the rules. Or just complete maniacs who are willing to stack off with bottom pair etc. I want as many of these on my table as possible.
Green - Normal fish. Buying in way below max, limping too many hands. Varying raise sizes based on strength of hands etc.
Yellow - Multi-tablers. Generally know what they are doing and won't go wild but can be exploited based on their predictable strategy.
Orange - Be careful of these players. Know what they are doing and can put you in tough spots.
Red - Players to avoid. Clearly strong players who are better than me and I will lose to in the long run.

[Xandl]

thank you London,
exactly what i wanted to know,

so you do not clarify for example if someone is a calling station and so on ?

[LondonImp]

Yes, that is something I look to do but it's important to make sure you get it right and have enough hand examples to do so.

For example, three orbits in a row it folds to you on the button and you raise to 3 bb and the big blind calls every time. Now this could mean he is defending his big blind too wide and too passively. However, he might have had ATo then 87s then 44. These hands are all very different and yet you could argue should all be played pretty much the same. It would therefore be incorrect to label him as defending too wide/passive.

Getting labels wrong means you will make adjustments that are also wrong. In this case you may tighten up your stealing range when in fact you just happened to run into 3 defendable hands - this could lead to passing up good steal opportunities in the future.

This is just the same as paying too much attention to a HUD before there is a big enough hand sample to back it up.

[LondonImp]

One last thing I should mention:

Just because I have a note/colour for an opponent does not mean it is set in stone and never going to change.

It is still vital that you watch your opponents carefully and think about why they are doing what they are doing. Your opponents will also get better. Just because you have someone labelled as a 'Green' fish now does not mean they will always be a fish. They may have done 500 hours of studying since you last played and actually be far better and now need reclassifying to 'Orange' or even 'Red'. Just something to always keep in mind.

[reeeeeeper]

[Xandl]

Thank you reeper and LondonImp,

I am at the beginning to watch intensively what is my oponant doing.
I concentrated too much on my self i recognized.


To apply propar colour and text system needs more skill in observation i think and will grow with time.

It is fascinating that purpel stands for maniac for the most people haha.