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Observing your opponents in No Limit tournaments is a great way to find their weaknesses, as you can expect.
Key Observations To Make While Observing Opponents
1. Are they playing a lot of hands?
Always be aware of how many hands your opponents are playing, by keeping track of this you will be able to range them effectively and get a good idea of the strength of hands they might open a pot with. If they only play one hand a round, it's fairly obvious that they are tight conservative players - you should likely give their raises respect. On the other hand, if they are playing many hands per round it is also safe to assume they are playing a looser, more aggressive style.
2. Make not of the hands they show down.
When a hand of no limit hold'em continues actions on all streets all the way to showdown, seeing how a player played their cards on each street is a literal book of solid information. You can see whether they called a raise with a marginal hand, bet a draw, or even check raised a bluff. More importantly, if they had a monster - did they slow play it? Did they lead out and play aggressively? The more situations you see like this, the more information you have on how your opponents play poker which in turn allows you to make more informed (and profitable) decisions along the way.
3. Do they limp into pots?
Players that enter pots without raising are usually weaker players, aggressive poker is winning poker. Winning players will play 78 suited the same way that they play pocket Aces - by raising when opening a pot. If a player is calling into pots or open-limping big hands and not raising, you should pay careful attention to how they play after the flop. It is most likely opponents like this will fold when they miss a flop, so I advise having position on them.
4. Do they fold to raises and re-raises?
Will your opponent fold all but the best hands to a re-raise pre-flop or will they come over the top and shove all in? By observing and noting your opponents behavior in situations like this you can avoid putting yourself in dangerous situations. Opponents that will fold should be re-raised selectively, especially when you have determined there is high equity in fold value from them. Wait for premium hands against opponents who over use this play or put in a fourth bet by coming over the top as a way of inducing them to over commit way too many chips with a marginal or even dominated hand.
5. Practice putting your opponents on a hand.
Whether you are in or out of a hand during the tournament, try to range your opponents and put them on a hand. By deciding on a hand range pre-flop and then putting them on an exact two cards after the flop, you can judge how good (or bad in some cases) your reading skills are. Pay close attention to both what opponents say about their hand, and what they showdown to determine if you are right or not.
As an interesting trick for more advanced tournament players, take the step a bit further after you have established some accuracy in reading a particular opponent and try to predict how much they will bet, or whether they will check/raise, or even how whether they will fire a third barrel bluff on the river (if you still think they missed). This way, you are practicing predicting an opponents betting patterns after ranging them, get good at that and you will belong at the final table with elite tournament poker players!
The only disadvantage to this strategy is by the time you have a solid read on how a particular opponent plays certain hands, in certain situations, they might bust out! Oh well, you have gained experience to use against them in the future, and you will quickly spot other players like them. In time, your reads on your opponent will get both better and faster, as practice is what makes perfect here.
This strategy will work for both live and online poker tournaments, so take full advantage of your note taking features on the online poker sites. Trust me, playing bluff-catcher after you have a solid read on an opponent is a great feeling. Soon, you will be making spectacular calls and plays on the river just like the poker pro's you see on TV.
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