Pokerwiner.com → Within poker principles
Thus, to take full advantage of image you must keep track not only of what you have conveyed generally to the table as a whole, but also of your image in the eyes of individual players. The two may be quite different.
Examples of the Use of Multiple Images
The idea of multiple images can apply to innumerable situations in poker. One of the easiest to understand, however, is how it impacts your ability to bluff, or bet for value. I will therefore present two examples in this area. First consider this simple situation. You are playing against relatively unobservant opponents. A short while ago against opponent and you got caught bluffing. After that, against opponent B, you twice won pots showing down very strong hands. You may now need to concentrate on betting for value, and not attempting to bluff opponent A. At the same time, your chance of successfully stealing against opponent B has gone up. Now here’s a real world, slightly more complex example. Not long ago, during a short handed $20-$40 holdem game, I recognized that a particular opponent probably saw me as habitually bluffing, or perhaps as on tilt.
The other players knew me well enough to know that the possibility I was on tilt was remote (to say the least), and probably hadn’t noticed anything remarkable about my play at the time. Against this one player however, there had been about three hands in close succession in which raised or reraised preflop, then semi-bluffed on the flop and turn, missed my draw, and bluffed again or just gave up on the end. I knew a couple of things about this opponent. First, I knew that he was not very familiar with my play. Second, in the two or three times I had played with him I had noticed that he very much liked to let others bet his poker hand for him. This undoubtedly worked reasonably well for him as he had a generally tight, cautious image and probably experienced lots of players trying to run over him.
I began to sense that he overdid this, and was playing as if he suspected others of trying to bluff against him more often than they actually were. (Yes, he happened to have won against me in this manner in the hands described, but that does not mean my play in those hands was incorrect or that his was correct. In a short handed game, the difference between a semi-bluff and a bet for value with an ace high hand, for example, can become quite blurry ). If I was right, if he was especially prone to suspect others of bluffing, then I reasoned that after catching me in about three (semi) bluffs over a short period, he should certainly be expecting more bluffs from me. He might even assume I was on tilt. (Why else bluffs from me. He might even assume I was on tilt. (Why else would I try to bluff three times in a row?) Moreover, I was sure that time. This was because it was he against who I had tried my unsuccessful bluffs, while the other players had not been observing very intently.
Just a few minutes later I picked up in the small blind.
He open-raised on the button. I reraised. I did so, aware that he may have seen me as simply playing back wildly with a mediocre hand. The two of us saw the flop which came:
I bet, again knowing that he would believe there was no reason to assume I had a pair, much less an ace. True to form, he called. At that point, because of how I believed he viewed me, I felt that he could have any pair or a draw. The turn was a 5. Again, I bet and he called. The river was a K, a bad card for me. However, it did not change the fact that he was going to call me with any pair, or maybe even with queen-high. Also, I did not think this player would poker bluff or bet anything less than a king if I checked. So I bet again, and he again called. I turned over my Q © Q ¨, and he mucked his hand. The point of the example above is to show how keeping tract o the image you have in the minds of individual players earn you extra money at the table. In the hand I played I was able to collect an extra bet by betting my queens for value despite the two overcards on board.
I would most likely have checked in the same spot against any other player in the game that day. I would have figured them to be less likely to call with a hand I could beat, though I might have induced a bluff with my check. So keep track of your image and how it changes on the general and player-specific levels. That way you will know more precisely what your opponents are thinking as you play against them; for they are not really playing against you, but rather against your multiple, changing images.
AFTERTHOUGHT
While the section just concluded contains a number of specific plays which some readers might find interesting, I hope thoughtful readers come away as well with useful concepts and perhaps even new ways of thinking about strategy during play. Much of the material focused on reading opponents’ hands and thoughts. In my view these areas of play are a large part of what makes poker interesting. Moreover, they become increasingly important as you move up the limits; for they are at the center of the strategic interaction between skilled players. If you understand poker playing card play in some detail, and have a grasp of basic odds, becoming proficient in these two kinds of reading will boost your results substantially. I hope this section helped a bit in that regard.
The Strategic Moment in Holdem / One Way Not to Fold /
Beating the Berserko: Preflop Against a Maniac /
On Into the Storm: Playing the maniac After the Flop
One Reason to Reraise a Maniac / A Simple Read / Countering a Good Reader
Thinking About What They’re Thinking / Out On the Edge
Considerations in Two Blind Stealing Defense situations
Easing the Transition to the middle Limits: Part I
Easing the Transition to the middle Limits: Part II / Multiple Changing Images