Poker MetaGame

The Concept: The term “MetaGame” was first introduced into the mainstream poker world by Dan Harrington, in his book Harrington on Cash Games, where he described metagame as: “the sum of everything that you know about the other players, and everything they know about you.”

Perhaps the simplest definition is this: Poker MetaGame is the ability to process ALL the information you are bombarded with at the poker tables -and even some of the information you learn away from the tables-to help formulate your best plan of action.

Application in Poker: The first aspects of metagame are the nuts and bolts of what is going on: your cards, your position, the action up to this point, the ability of your opponents, your opponents likely hand ranges, and so on: All of these things will have a huge impact on your final decision, singularly and collectively.

However, the true measure of metagame is when you get into the thinking part of poker: What is my style of play in my opponent’s eyes, what types of hands will they put me on in this situation, will I be able to use this call/raise/fold to my advantage in the future, and do they realize I’m thinking about these questions?

It’s this line of thought that will bring you fully into the realm of poker metagame, where you are thinking about everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future, to formulate the best decision possible.

You see, metagame goes way beyond the current hand or session; it encompasses every hand of poker you will ever play, which is why you must always be aware of your own play, your opponents’ reactions to your play, how you adjust to those reactions, and how the table as a whole is changing. The metagame chain of events usually goes something like this:

• You play your normal game and while doing so cultivate an image -Which may or may not be how you are actually playing, since your opponents only see a small percentage of your actual decisions. Bear in mind that different players in the game could formulate drastically different conclusions about your play.
• Based on your “Table Image” your thinking opponents will start to adjust to your play.
• If your opponents’ reads are accurate -if your table image closely resembles your actual playing style– you will need to make adjustments. If your table image is farther away from your actual style of play than you can simply continue doing what you are doing.
• If your opponents start adjusting to your adjustments you will have to continually try to stay one step ahead.
• Finally, you must be cognizant of how the table dynamics are changing, and who is adjusting along with them.

Keep in mind that some of your opponents don’t think past the two cards in their hand, against these players metagame is worthless, all you have to know is what types of hands the play, how they bet certain hands, and so on. But against thinking poker players, the key to metagame is to always be a single step ahead of your opponent: If you are too far ahead your opponent will lose sight of you, and it will be impossible to string them along. If you’re thinking about the adjustments they are making to your adjustments, but they still haven’t caught on that you adjusted, the tables will be turned on you.

Advanced Tip: As an abstract concept, metagame can often be hard to quantify, but there is one aspect of the poker metagame that every player needs to be very aware of: With each additional variable presented to you, your thinking must change.

For instance, if you have seen 500 hands a player has shown-down from early position, even if the first 499 hands were TT+ AQ+, if the 500^th hand was 67s your thinking about this opponent must now change. Were they making a play because they felt the game had tightened up? Were they trying to mix up their play? Are they on tilt? Are they drunk? Do they play lesser hands more often than I realize, but haven’t been to showdown? The possibilities are endless.

This applies to every aspect of the game: If a Loose/Agro, with a mountain of chips, is replaced by a Nit buying-in for the minimum, the entire dynamics of the game will have changed: Literally one player changing, the game going from 10-handed to 9-handed, a player changing seats, or any other variable should change the entire way you look at the game, and the information you use to make your decision.