KNOW YOUR IMAGE

Poker Strategy
1

So “everything you do at the poker table conveys information”… lol. It’s important that we know our image at the table. I think everyone knows this to be true on some level or another. I also think that a lot players think this may only relate to the quote unquote hyper aggressive spaz machines. This can’t be further from the truth though. If you’re a tight player, you have to know that and if there are players at the table who are paying attention and are aware of what’s going on around them and capable of playing exploitive poker you need to be careful. No matter how loose or aggressive they are. There is good lag and bad lag poker, if you’re tight aggressive you should know which you’re up against.

Here’s a HH for one example of what I’m talking about. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m hyper aggressive at all, I play ranges and I get involved in a ton pots, at least in relation to what the norm on Replay is. Because Replay is so full of tight, limp happy, never 3! fit or fold player types I know to a lot of semi thinking players perceive my image as reckless.

Ayers Rock
50K/100K (6 max)

We are currently 5 handed as the bb is sitting out. V is a tight aggressive player who is definitely thinking and trying to win. Has a decent rank and enough bank roll to be shot taking this level, as am I. I believe he thinks I play too many pots too aggressively. V has shown a tendency to play me kind of trappy at times, but not usually. I see him play big pots, a lot of which he creates with big bet sizing in order to protect his hands and get max value when he’s ahead. Usually continues with pot sized bets when he opens. I have not ever seen him bluff huge into pots, when he bets big he has near nut hands where it was hard for him to be beat.

I am 1 otb(off the button or some would say the cut off, if anyone wants to discuss why this is a better way to describe positions at the table hit me up in comments) and have been very active at the table for about 75 hands or so. Came in for 15M and have been up and down to where I currently sit at 20M up 5M. V is in the BB with 40M.

Folds to me 1 OTB with 3s6s I open 250K, BTN folds, SB folds, BB V calls. HU to the flop.

Flop (550K) 3d 3h 2c… V x, I down bet 165K, V calls

Turn (880K) 6c… V x, I down bet 265K, V calls. I have this board crushed only losing to 1 combo of 66 and I don’t want to scare off villain and give him a chance to catch a card with hands like back door clubs, AK, pair and straight draws.

River (1.41M) 8h… final board (3d 3h 2c 6c 8h) V x, I 3.5M… I choose to 2.5x pot here because I’ve been called twice now so I believe V has something he wants to get to showdown. I also know he doesn’t want to believe me and looks at these over bets from me as bluff heavy. I think he’s calling with any 3, which he can have a ton of in the BB, and all his over pairs which he’s decided to slow play this way. I could bet 1M to target calls from hands like 44 and 55 which he would call with but he could even call the over bet with these as well.

The reason for the post, V x/r shoves all in for an additional 15.7M more. This is a 2x pot shove for a 400 bb pot on the river. V here obviously found himself in a spot where he was too invested in my image and doesn’t take into account his own image. This should just be a call all day long imo as V. It’s not that I’m polarized either, that would be a simple explanation. I am exploiting this particular V for my image in his eyes so I would be making this bet with some hands near top of my range like AA or any 3, hands he beats with his straight. The problem is his own image allows me to make this bet with these hands that are near the top my range that I can snap fold to this shove. If he stops and thinks about how he plays and considers that he’s never doing this with a bluff, and he knows that I know this about him then he should realize that he’s never getting called by a 3 and should just call with his straight and only shove 88 (3 combos) and 66 (1combo).

Thoughts?

2

Also, I absolutely hate these long winded post. They’re hard to read when others post them and I don’t want to be that guy. I’m going to put more effort into being more concise in the future.

If tl;dr I understand. :slight_smile: Cheers

3

Why are you unable to post links to the hands? The point of Replay Poker is that the hands can be replayed.

4

He doesn’t want everyone to know who V is, or tell V that he knows his style.

3 Likes
5

If I posted a hand like that, I would expect the advice to be to never play 63s. Even flopping trip 333s, you’re still vulnerable to a better 3. Which, given that we can ALWAYS expect players to be in a hand with Any Three, it’s a great way to lose a lot of chips here.

Being suited here is a further liability, as any flush you make is beaten by a better flush. So I have no idea why you are even playing here. Maybe you’re that much better than I am at poker, but I don’t see playing this hand. But ok, you’ve got position, no one opens or limps, maybe it’s worth trying to steal here.

You get a great flop and turn the fourth best hand you could hope to make with your hole cards (6666 3333 66633 33366) and… I’m not clear what you did on the river, did you lay down the full house to the shove?

If so, then it just reinforces that you should have never played here, if even the 2nd best full house you could make was still not enough for you to be confident at the river.

If it was a good lay down, and you were facing 66 or 88, well, good for you, but you were behind the whole time, other than the flop, and how much did you just spend to find out 63s wasn’t a good hand? Did you really need to read your opponent’s image very well to know that?

3 Likes
6

He doesn’t want everyone to know who V is, or tell V that he knows his style.

LOL! If V is reading this, I expect he is intelligent enough to recognize himself, even if his name is cleverly changed to Villain or V, because dayman is using his own RP ID to post. Also, this is not for real money.

1 Like
7

Exactly! Plus most of the HH’s I post without results so I can get unbiased feedback. I believe it’s more informative and thus more educational for everyone involved in the discussion if results aren’t given. @MekonKing

8

I don’t mind if he does. Nor do I mind if someone else from the table recognizes the hand. I openly discuss strategy with anyone who’s game. I think this is the most productive and fastest route to improvement over all other avenues of study. IMHO.

3 Likes
9

Sometimes if you are on the button or close and there is a tight player in the BB, you can steal the blinds with relative impunity, and then even if he calls with two high unpaired cards and the flop comes low, you can bluff, or sometimes the flop hits you. Personally I don’t like 3 6 suited very much, but at least it has the merit of not being easily dominated by V’s range as he is unlikely to call with A3 or A6. The reason I don’t like 3 6 is that the 3 can only make bottom pair unless there is also a 2 on the board, but then he is not really playing for top pair here, more for the bluff.

2 Likes
10

I would give you that advice as we’re not playing the same game AINEC. You play FR SnG’s with relatively short stacks where you bust and you’re out. I play deep stack short handed ring games where the decision tree is infinitely more difficult to maneuver due to the extent of how many different ways the it can branch out at every decision point. EDIT: Need to add the fact that in ring games you have the ability to buy back in and/or top up at the end of every hand.

I have a very high level of confidence in my hand reading ability and I’m usually pretty clear where I’m at in a hand. When you’re playing deep stacked at a short handed table the blinds come around fast and aggression rules the day. If you’re only playing top 15% of the range tree then you’re going to be mostly face up and any opponent who is mildly aware will exploit the crap out of you. 63s is a mandatory open in the cutoff when folded to 200 bb’s deep with the BB and even more so when you have a post flop skill advantage over the rest of the table.

As for the rest of your comment I SNAPPED him off and won the 40M chips in the middle.

2 Likes
11

Guys, I’m not stealing blinds 5 handed 200 bb’s deep. I’m building pots pre flop to out play my opponents post flop. So, I’m not stealing blinds, I’m stealing pots. I’m not playing hands, I’m playing poker.

1 Like
12

Rock on, then. Good call. But did you really need to know your opponent’s image that well in order to call with the full house here?

I’m not calling your skill into question, I’m questioning whether this is a particularly good example of how an insight you gained from reading the Villain’s table image helped you to know that calling his shove was the right move. It’s not so hard to call with a full house.

This story is way better if you folded aces full of kings because you could sense your opponent had quad kings.

1 Like
13

Can you tell anything about my game? What is my image? Do you know how to play me? Is it possible to read my fortune next?
Please!

2 Likes
14

I may not have articulated the purpose of this post well enough. What I mean to do is to encourage players to always be mindful of images. To remind us all, or for newer players to raise awareness to the fact that “all” players image at the table matters, including our own. I was absolutely aware of V’s image in this spot and my own. I believe that our villain in this hand got to caught up in my image and just did not consider his own. I would have easily folded A3 here, furthermore had I held 22 for a flopped full house I would have considered folding that as well. I don’t know that I would have, but it definitely would have been a sigh call that I wasn’t happy to be making. Now I don’t know for sure this is the case with this villain, maybe he just sees me as a massive fish and if I fold A3 he just thinks, yep, he was bluffing again… lol. In reality though I just know he’s never bluffing which would make A3 a trivial fold as I said.

15

Was V holding A3 here? I might have missed something in your post but I didn’t recall hearing what they were playing.

16

He had 45o for a turned straight. I may not have included that in the OP. I’ll check it and if it’s not there will edit. FWIW I also failed to include 3 combos of 83 that he could have although I do think they can be heavily discounted as he would probably just be folding them pre. Maybe I can give him 8c3c for one additional combo that I lose to.

1 Like
17

Ok, there was some mention of the straight in the original pot, but I wasn’t clear whether it was actual or hypothetical. Thanks for clearing it up.

So, what I surmise then is that your opponent didn’t have a good enough read of your image to sense that they were beat. Which, given your holding, I think that’s a difficult hand to put most people on. Maybe especially if they think you are reckless, or just playing trips.

1 Like
18

You got it! Thank much for your input @puggywug, it’s greatly appreciated as always. Cheers.

1 Like
19

I’m sold.
I plan to go hard in the future with 63s because a lot of semi-thinking payers perceive my image as reckless. Then when I hit the boat I can take down the straight!
LOL good stuff dayman!

5 Likes
20

Seriously, what other flops is he winning with these cards? How do you build a pot and win and outplay the opponent with any other board?

I think the real lesson here is, don’t play 63s, and don’t call with 45o. But definitely call with a full house.

1 Like