He who sows deceit, harvests money
We all know that being read in poker (whether it’s online or offline) is extremely bad news for a poker player. From that point on, he might as well gather up his remaining chips and move on to a different table, or go home. That is, of course, unless people read the image he wanted them to read, but that is already deceit.
Making the other person firmly believe in something is the right way to play poker. After all, advanced strategy is all about playing the players, and much less about playing individual starting hands.
This is where deceit comes into play, and this explains why a person who is good at deceiving others will most likely turn out to be a successful poker player.
Deceit starts with the table image. Many a player falls into the habit of categorizing opponents. Certainly, when you’re playing online, and you’re meeting God knows how many people a day at a set table, you wouldn’t exactly be able to take more elaborate notes on your opposition yourself.
The easy and the reasonable thing is to categorize opponents depending on their general attitude towards the game (how many hands they play) into tight and loose, and depending on their betting patterns, into passive and aggressive.
Every player is a combination of these four traits. How much of each is to be found in each individual player, is for his/her opponents to find out.
Anyway, back to the table image: based on the above stereotypes, skilled players will often disguise themselves making others believe they’re loose-passive players, when in fact they’re tight-aggressive.
Having others catalog you one way or another always bears advantages for you. Even if you don’t possess the skills to disguise yourself, pay attention to the other players, and as soon as you see that they’re on to you, take advantage of the fact. If you’re on a lucky break, and you’re playing in a loose-aggressive manner, when the others catch on to you, make sure you capitalize on the situation. A simple example in this sense would be, playing a monster in the same loose aggressive manner the others expect. That can draw in huge amounts of money from players trying to keep you honest, and you’ll end up taking down a huge pot.
Other examples of deceit are: check-raising. This happens when you first check on a strong hand knowing that some other player coming up behind you will bet. Checking always shows weakness, thus by checking, you’ll send him the wrong vibe. Players who are in late position, are often tempted to bet into a bunch of limpers ahead of them, even if they have little to back it up with.
When your guy falls for the bait, you raise his bet. That’ll either get more money into the pot, or you’ll have stolen his bet straight up. While it is a good strategy, check-raising always gives out a serious message of “stay away, I’ve got monsters and I know how to use them, too” .
Slow-playing is probably the most widely used method to deceive the opposition. Whenever a guy sits on something big, he’ll limp along looking to pot-commit someone on the turn and than take all his money on the river. Only applicable in certain circumstances, this strategy still bears some risks:
- you will give your opponent(s) free cards. Especially if you’re faced with many opponents, allowing them all a free card, might be the worst idea yet. That’ll make schooling possible even if you’re faced with rookies, and believe me, you won’t like the outcome of that.
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