Knowing the players at the poker table can provide you with several advantages. Having a pretty good understanding of their tendencies, strengths and weaknesses can be very helpful in devising a strategy against them. However, likewise is true. If they are familiar with your game, it can be easier for them to play you in such a way that your weaknesses are exposed.
As mentioned above, knowing the players at the poker table can offer you some what of an advantage. However, this is only true if you are able to exploit it. For example, if you were assigned to guard Lebron James and warned by your coach that he likes to go right, unless you are able to stop them, this information really doesn’t matter. It won’t help, unless you can do something about it. The point is, even if you know a player’s strengths, if you are not good enough to neutralize them, it won’t matter. However, hopefully someone at the table is.
Knowing a player’s weaknesses can be helpful as well, again, as long as you are able to take advantage of them. If you do not know how, spend some time at poker forums and ask other poker players, questions. Individuals that hang out at these websites love to talk poker strategy and are often more then willing to help. Pick their brains a bit and see what you can learn. You can also plug in questions in your favorite search engine and see what pops up.
Knowing the players at the poker table may also help you better identify their tells. Over time, many of the physical tells become obvious. Don’t let on that you know what these are, just take advantage of them.
Being familiar with the people you are playing with, can offer great advantages. It can also provide your opponents with some advantages as well. There will be some give and take in this regard, with the person with superior skills likely winning out. To give yourself the best chance possible, devise game plans to exploit their weaknesses and limit their strengths.