Image conscious

Poker is a microcosm of life. When you walk into any room, people who have never seen or heard of you form an opinion. They observe how you’re dressed and how comfortable you are in your surroundings. They assess your looks (from ‘needs a dog collar’ to ‘red carpet material’). Well, don’t we do the same when a stranger enters our poker game? How others perceive and react to you is key to poker success. In this article, we’ll focus on cultivating and conveying an advantageous table image. I’ll offer examples from my extensive cash game records. Many of the concepts will also apply to tournaments, but their rapidly changing circumstances (such as arbitrary table changes and play based on varying chip stack sizes) often lessen the importance of table image.

There are two absolutes in any discussion about table image: that you have a table image and that your opponents may or may not be observing you. With this in mind, it’s important to ascertain whether your opponents are paying attention. Some are oblivious to almost everything except the cards they hold and those they see on the board. This applies even more so when you play with mouse in hand. The action online is faster, players are often watching television when playing and many are jumping from screen-to-screen while participating in two or more games simultaneously.

Until you know someone is paying attention to the way you’re playing (perhaps from observing the chat box), don’t make fancy plays. In general, the lower stakes you play, the less likely your opponents will be reacting to your behaviour and strategy. In a $1-$2 limit game, your gearshift transitions will be almost unnoticeable. The first time I played $30-$60 limit hold’em was at the Bellagio in 2000. After an hour, I’d categorised seven of the players at my table. Most were straightforward opponents, content to dabble with most hands and raise only with premium tickets. None were overly aggressive or tricky. I loved the game.

Then Big Al sat down with two racks of $10 chips. ‘Flamboyant’ doesn’t do justice to the gold-garnished, 6ft 7in, 300lb, retired Wall Street broker. His entertainment began with, ‘Women and children to the rear – Big Al is here’. He continued to use the third person, pointing to his chips and instructing the dealer, ‘If Big Al forgets to straddle, just reach in and grab some of these.’ True to what I anticipated Al’s style to be, he bet or raised at almost every opportunity… but only for 20 minutes. Then, he continued to monopolise the conversation, but his play became solid. Although he straddled from under the gun (first to act pre-flop), he stopped splashing around in small pots. I noticed my opponents had failed to adjust. They paid Al off with regularity, as if he were a loose, wild opponent. Big Al had pulled his table image wool over their eyes.

Did Al portray the perfect table image? Is there such a thing? Should you simply play opposite to what you perceive is your image? No, no and no. Al knew how players perceived him and he worked the game nicely (getting extra calls and livening up the table with chitchat), but perfection is illusory, and in the case of table image, one size doesn’t fit all. There is no single, perfect table image. As Howard Lederer has stated, ‘You have to lay the foundation. You have to be aware of what your normal style is, but also know there are going to be some really key pots. In these big situations, that’s when you should try to use your table image to your advantage – that’s when you want to pounce.’

Be Yourself

I’ll reach back for something Daniel Negreanu told me in 1999: ‘I play like a chameleon. While I have natural tendencies, I alter my style to take advantage of how my opponents are playing and how they perceive me.’ Let’s break down Daniel’s statement. The star player is saying he has a natural style (Negreanu likes to see lots of flops and give lots of action). His opponents reciprocate by playing with Daniel, realising he can’t always be holding premium cards since the Canadian typically gets involved in 30% to 40% of the hands dealt to him. Daniel is also suggesting that he plays against the flow. So, when his opponents are mostly tight/aggressive, he pulls back on the number of hands he plays pre-flop. Why? Because it will cost him too much to play 8-6 from early position. Thus his table image changes based on his competition.

We should follow Daniel’s lead by playing in our natural (most comfortable) style, but attempting to become difficult to pigeonhole. Note there is a difference between playing against the flow and playing 180? from what you perceive your table image is. Attempting to play diametrically opposite to the way you believe your opponents perceive you is placing too much emphasis on table image. In addition, your image would soon change based on the difference in your play.

Cards speak

I was playing in a $15-$30 game last year, and had run hot pre-flop (lots of Ace-Kings, Ace-Queens and pocket pairs). I raised or reraised with these premium holdings, but, alas, the dealer kept missing me on the flop. When I held A-K, the flops were coordinated, for example 8♠-9♠-10♦. My Jacks ran into A♣-K♦-K♣. It was apparent that several players had noticed that I was playing aggressively before the flop, and super snug on the flop. I hadn’t been deliberately setting up an image; the deck had done it for me.

I picked up A♥-9♥ in late position. I raised in an attempt to steal the button, if not the blinds. The player on the button decided to fold, but the big blind, an observant adversary, called. The flop came 4♣-4♦-8♠. My lone opponent quickly fired $15. I called (assuming he would have check-raised with a strong hand). He checked when the dealer turned the 2♥. I casually bet $30. My foe revealed A-8, folded and announced, ‘Top pair’s no good.’

My opponent had incorrectly deduced that I held an overpair simply because I (perceived by him as extremely tight during flop betting) raised pre-flop then stayed on the flop. In this hand, I used the knowledge of how I had been playing recently to move him off his winning holding. Our table image is dynamic, often altered by the flow of the cards. It is imperative to be aware of how the players perceive you as your image morphs.

Planting seeds

I believe TJ Cloutier has cashed in more $300 buy-in and above tournaments than anyone in history. In 2000, I watched TJ play at Sam’s Town in Vegas. Here’s how he set up an opponent. TJ folded several strong hands when reraised. Each time he folded, he flipped up his hand revealing A-Q or J-J type solid holdings. Two levels later, he induced a substantial all-in reraise from an opponent who was trying to move TJ off his hand. Cloutier called showing 7-7, a marginal hand that had his adversary’s A- 6 in deep trouble (TJ will prevail 70% of the time). The former CFLfootballer told me later that he knew that particular opponent would be reraising with almost anything based on what TJ had been doing in the early rounds. The ring game corollary is setting an opponent up in small pots, and then making a move on a big pot.

Venturing into variance

Let’s say you are playing $5-$10 hold’em against a bunch of observant players. You can either quit, change tables or attempt to confuse your opponents by altering your table image. If you choose the latter, pick a random hand, for example every ninth hand, and play it without looking (pretend to look, but lift your pocket cards in such a way that you cannot see them). Continue ‘playing the players’ until you are forced to show a holding that garners double takes from your opponents. You can also implement a long-term variance strategy. Simply choose a weak hand that you will always overplay (perhaps J-8 unsuited). Famed author Roy Cooke used to randomise his play with Q-3.

The bottom line is that you should always be aware of how many hands you have been playing recently, what type of holdings you have shown down and what people are thinking and saying about you. Remember, your short-term table image often differs from your long-term image. Being aware of, utilising and developing your current and long-term table images will improve your game, but how players perceive and react to you is just one piece of the poker puzzle. Do not overemphasise any one area of this complex game.