Table Image: Second Thoughts

I have been feeling slightly anxious the last few days. I'm a bit worried that in my last post, Table Image, I recommend playing recklessly in order to achieve a profitable table image. I'm really not comfortable with the idea of people deliberately doing stupid things, because it is difficult to stop doing them once you've started. I don't recommend you try cultivating a loose/aggressive table image until you are an experienced enough player to do so without loosing all your chips in the process.

Some of you might also have noticed that this talk about loose play runs counter everything I've said about playing tight poker. It does. Again, 99% of the time tight is right and you can only appear to be loose if you are skilled enough to make it pay later on. I would not recommend the beginner player try this, as it is far more important that you use every bit of your concentration just to play strong, solid poker.

Also, you often don't have to deliberately do something crazy or stupid to make people believe you are crazy or stupid. Even a really good player makes a boneheaded move now and again, and when you do make a mistake you might be able to capitalize on it later.

A good example of this just happened to me yesterday. I was playing a one table sit-n-go tournament. I wasn't giving the game the attention I should have been. In fact I was writing a blog and playing poker simultaneously, which is a pretty dumb thing to do. Anyway, I got into a hand early in the tourney where I was in the big blind and every one kept checking. I would have folded my J 9 pre-flop but nobody raised me, so I saw a flop of 9 K 4 for free. I would have folded this pair of nines but nobody raised me, so I saw the turn (the Ace of diamonds) for free too. All this time I'm trying to write my blog, trying to fold, but nobody raises after the turn so I see the river for free too. The river is the nine of diamonds. Sweet! I've got three nines, which is very likely to be the best hand even with only a Jack as a kicker. So I make a pot sized bet and the moment I do I realize something: there are four diamonds on this board! How could I be so stupid? I see there are three players to act after me, so the odds that any one of them has hit the flush is very high (about 84% I think, but if you disagree let me know) high enough to make my betting here qualify for the bonehead move of the day. One guys calls and beats me with a lousy six of diamonds. Everyone sees what a doofus I am and one guy immediately starts ripping into me: "What F'cking Moron!" he writes in the chat box. You see constructive criticism like this a lot on internet poker.

So two things happen after that. Firstly, I forget about the blog and concentrate on the poker. Secondly, almost every time I make a hand from then on I get plenty of callers. I think looking so dumb really worked in my favour and I ended up winning the tourney.

When (not if, but when) you do something wrong, don't get mad at yourself and go on tilt. Think about who saw your mistake, what they think of you, and how to exploit that perception.