Table image

One of the most damning assessments of my play came from my first poker mentor: ‘You have absolutely no idea how the other players perceive you.’ He was an older guy who’d been playing forever and his main point was that the other players thought butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth. I was younger than them, had clean-cut looks and was British (we were in Vegas). They saw me as being tight and incapable of bluffing and I wasn’t exploiting it. That was my first introduction to table image.

The truth is, most of us fall into the same trap. We spend all our time thinking about our opponents and how they’re playing and very little time thinking about our own image at the table. By failing to see yourself through your opponents’ eyes you risk making critical mistakes in your play.

ONLY ONE FIRST IMPRESSION

The old saying that ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ is even more true in poker. Players make assumptions about you very quickly. Playing live poker, they will judge you on your age, appearance, what you say and how you act. Online they’ll judge you on your screen name, your avatar, how much money you buy in for, how many tables you play at once and so on.

The first few hands and rounds of play will really shape their image of you. Of course the accuracy of their impression will depend on how much attention they’re paying. For instance if you’re young and wear a cap and sunglasses, a lot of older players will view you in a certain way based on their experiences of other players, regardless of how you actually play.

The first impression that perceptive players have of you will be more closely based on how you play. Critically, they’ll look for how many hands you play, how aggressively you play them and – of course – what cards you show down (if any). You should be acutely aware of what hands you’ve shown and how you’ve played them, as players will generalise a lot about your overall game. Also, you should be aware if you’ve created a false impression with your early play. For example, let’s say you usually play a solid, tight pre-flop game but this time you sit down and pick up Aces, Kings and A-K in the first round of play. You re-raise all three times and win the pots without a showdown. You know you were just playing the hands on their merits, but to the other players at the table you’ll look like a manic re- raising machine.

FIRST IS FOREMOST

You should bear in mind the power of these assumptions. Early impressions of you, once formed, will stick with players for a long time. CardRunners pro Brian Townsend is on record as saying the impression your opponents have of you can last up to 10,000 hands online. Therefore it’s very important to be aware of your early impact on the game. It follows that it’s more than possible to manipulate your image – particularly in the eyes of opponents who haven’t played with you before.

With this in mind, it’s worth knowing that players remember unusual acts much more than a general whole. Recently a player who plays in the same game as me reminded me of a hand where I’d check-raised him on the river. It had happened six months – and who knows how many thousands of hands ago – but it’s such an unusual betting pattern that he’d remembered it and it had given me a much wilder image in his eyes than was correct.

AN IMAGE IN YOUR OWN MAKING

Consciously manipulating your own image is not something you need to do to win at poker, and to do it perfectly may take years to master. But in some ways it can be relatively easy.

You can do it on a grand scale by projecting a different image from the way you intend to play. For instance, if you’re a winning player joining an unfamiliar live game, you might give off the image of an enthusiastic casual player – being talkative, openly questioning the etiquette and so on. If you plan on running some big bluffs, dress conservatively and stack your chips neatly – anything to throw the other players off your scent.

Some of this kind of mini-hustle has disappeared with online play, but you can still manipulate your image through the way you play. Start out by playing in one fashion to establish an image, then switch your style. One simple way to do this is by cultivating a very loose image early on, preferably showing down one or two bluffs with junky starting hands then playing very tightly to get paid off on some quality hands.

Perhaps the easiest and cheapest way to manipulate your table image is to show cards to your opponents when you don’t have to. Generally this is not a great idea; after all, poker is a game of information so giving it away freely isn’t usually the best strategy. However, it can be a good tactic, especially if you think they’ll show you cards in return and that you will make better use of the information than they will. For instance, if you’re not getting paid on your hands because your image is too tight and then you steal the blinds with a junky hand, showing your cards might increase your chances of getting action on your real hands. Even better, if you’re beating up on an opponent and you sense he’s getting frustrated, make sure you show him that bluff after he thinks for a while before folding the winning hand. Now he ‘knows’ you never have anything and will pay you off like a slot machine next time you do.

Hopefully it’s clear by now that whatever style you play, your image isn’t fixed. It constantly changes based on your individual opponents and the flow of the game. The key is not only to be aware of your table image but also to exploit it to your benefit.

Put simply, you should try to play counter to the other players’ perceptions of you. So for instance, if you haven’t had a playable hand or situation for two or three orbits of play, the next time you open a pot you’ll get more respect. A player that might have contested the pot with a hand will suddenly feel sceptical about whether his pocket Eights have any value against such a ‘tight’ foe. Of course the opposite holds too. If you’ve been playing fast and loose, there’s often a lot of profit in tightening up and getting players to pay off your good hands more than they normally would.

MOVING IMAGES

Your image is in a constant state of flux. For a lot of your time at the table it may remain constant, but then one play can completely change it. Let’s say you’ve been playing relatively tight and then see an opportunity to steal the blinds with 7-4 offsuit. You’re called by one of the blinds and then hit an unlikely straight with your junk cards. Showing that one hand will completely change how you’re perceived by the other players – at a stroke you’ve gone from being seen as a solid, tight player to someone capable of having any two cards.

Because players will view your bets and raises in the context of your table image, it’s often important to play in a way that’s internally consistent with your image. Let’s take an example of a game in which you’ve been playing a reasonably loose and aggressive game, betting and raising regardless of your hand. Now a hand comes up where you’re the pre-flop raiser and you flop a monster. In this case it’s absolutely vital that you play the hand fast. Slow- playing in such a spot would usually be a big mistake. Your image is as an aggressive player, so opponents will pay you off with much weaker holdings – give them an opportunity to do so and play your image.

Another point to note is that your table image isn’t a single entity. You might have a general image at the table but you’re also likely to be perceived differently by each player. However hard we try to be completely objective, most of us will place far more emphasis on hands we’ve actually been involved in than we do on our general observations.

PERSON TO PERSON

For instance, I’m sure you can remember the individuals who have made big bluffs against you then shown you when you’ve laid down the winning hand? Or the player who always re-raises you before the flop and you never seem to have enough of a hand to play back at him? When you play key hands, big pots, bluffs or whatever with a player, he will remember you and this will influence his decisions in the future. More than that, players remember what has happened between you recently, so if you’re constantly putting pressure on a player in position and forcing him to lay hands down, eventually he’ll fight back. As such, you should be willing to go to war with him with a lesser hand than you usually would.

One of the most important notes you can make on a player is his view of you. Whether you’ve had to make a lot of laydowns to someone or have stolen a lot of their blinds, make a note of it as it is sure to affect how they play you. Ultimately, your table image is not always yours to control as the cards may define it for you, but how you exploit it is up to you. Next time you’re at the tables, as well as trying to figure out what your opponents are doing, make sure you know what they think you’re doing and use it against them.