The Rock - Guide To Poker Players

A fair proportion of players who play poker regularly go on to become 'Rocks'. This is a little further up the food chain from the 'Over-valuer' but not quite up there with the big guns. Most Rocks are profitable players but only in low-limit games as they have mastered enough to beat out the 'Fish' and 'Over-valuers'. So what makes a 'Rock'?

These players have learned to recognise very strong hands and they bet and play accordingly. But where they fall down is that they can't see the value in marginal hands and quite often fold when they should call or play them.

Rocks are easy to spot - they play the minimum amount of hands in a game and generally only play with superior cards e.g. AA, KK, QQ and AK (suited). They will rarely take chances on cards of lesser value even though they could potentially win with them. If you spot a 'Rock' at your table then seriously consider going up against them as most of the time, if they play a hand, it will be a good one.

On the on the other hand, they fail to see the potential in their opponents hands and similar to 'Fish' and 'Over-valuers' will only be looking at what they have. Many a time I have seen players get beaten despite holding pocket Aces - they fail to spot the potential double pairs, trips, straights and flushes on the table, blinded by the fact they hold Aces.

Despite only playing strong cards, 'Rocks' do make mistakes which are easy to pick up on. They play fewer hands at the table and they rarely defend their big blind if their pocket cards are marginal or low. Rocks do not like drawing hands such as 10 9 and above all else they are very predictable!

So 'Rocks' aren't the best players in the world but they are profitable and in order to climb higher on the poker ladder of professionalism everybody needs to at least experience being a 'Rock'. It's easy to be one and make money at the same time and it also sets you up nicely for becoming the next type of player!

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