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It is generally accepted that the tight aggressive approach is the "healthy" way to play poker. If you already spent some time around the tables of an online poker room, though, you probably know that there's one huge flaw in this type of play: after a while it becomes so predictable, winning will become impossible. Everyone around the table will know you for what you are and after that it'll go down like this: you're going to be bullied out of every single big blind you post, because no one will believe you hold anything in the big blind position when you raise. They'll know it's only a feeble attempt to defend it and they'll punish you mercilessly. .
Running a bad luck streak, you'll hardly be able to play any hands, and the few times you do decide to see the flop, will end in fiascos as well. Finally you get hit by pocket aces. Cautiosly ( as you have bought it big before on a pair of kings) you limp in. The flop hits you with another A and you can hardly contain yourself. Revenge time!-you figure. Vary of sending the wrong type of message out, you decide to slowplay the hand. Someone raises and you limp along, only to notice that everyone starts folding left and right and you take the pot as the last player standing. You win a couple of bucks and suddenly it seems like all the annoying avatars the other players have around the table laugh right into your face. You start cursing like there's no tomorrow, and you go on a tilt.
Definitely not a good case scenario... So, what does one need to do to keep the other players from reading him/her? Keep them confused?
Sowing confusion through the ranks of the opposition is the next best thing our poker player figures he needs to do. Keeping others in the mist regarding what he'll do next will certainly be one step up from being read, however, it'll give birth to "sheer luck" situations. An example of such a situation is when you raise on the river holding a strong hand and thus make your opponent fold his even stronger hand. Nice play, but still you get no credit for it. You had no idea what you were doing, you kind of just flowed with the game and got lucky.
Next time your luck will run out and there you'll be on the losing end, having used the same "strategy" as before.
Good online poker players do not allow their opponents to be confused about anything. They need to be close to 100% sure of what you have most of the time. This is the only way to make conscious winning moves and to cash in on your counterintelligence.
Just think of a poker ring game in terms of a war ( after all that's what it really is, isn't it?): you and your opponent face off, armies ready. What kind of an opponent would you like most? One that is confused and is going to make random momentary decisions, or one that wants to strike you in a specific place and you know it? ( of course, if you're in a position of overwhelming superiority it doesn't really matter a whole lot)
Now all of this, is easier said than done in an actual Poker game. Especially for a player of limited skills ( kind of like the type I consider myself to be). In order to achieve the same effect I devised a strategy which usually helps me create such good "counterintelligence" situations, and then make the most of them.
Once I entered a low stakes TH ring-game feeling particularly aggressive. I played my first few hands in a suicidal loose and aggressive manner, bluffing on no good hands and getting burnt all the way. Then suddenly a monster of a hand hit me. ( I think it was a full house involving both my pocket cards – which is the best type) I pushed it just as I did on the hands before, and sure enough, three players decided to take it all the way down the stretch with me. I suppose I need not detail the amount of money that the pot contained when it came to showdown. It felt so right. I knew they had me figured for an easy doner, and I used that against them. After that, I pulled off an easy bluff, and then swithced. I turned tight and scrappy. I won't lie to you, I didn't solely do it out of strategy considerations, but rather out of a need to protect my newly earned stack. I lauched a wild bluff every now and then, when I felt there was indeed something to gain on them, and all in all I more than tripled up that night.
Never be afraid that your opponents will have you figured. Let them figure you as much as they want to, then switch to a different 'playmode'. Giving out a lot of information is what you need to do in order to be able to capitalize on the different ( not necessarily wrong) image your opponents will have of you.
-written by James West
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