Table Image
The topic of building a table image is one that’s not very well covered in the mainstream poker literature and yet the subtleties of how you portray yourself at the table can add a very profitable element to your game. Table image is, for the most part, more a process of trial and improvement, than following a strict set of guidelines. In my experience, table image can and should be used differently in tournaments and cash games. Below I hope to give you a few suggestions on how you could manipulate your table image in both scenarios. The key to a good table image is one that serves to disguise the way you are actually playing. Indeed poker is all about deception and our image at the table is one of the key tools that we can utilise.
In cash games building a table image can serve both long and short term aims, depending on whether or not you are going to be playing against the same players on a regular basis. As in life, first impressions do stick, and you might be surprised how long people will pigeon-hole you into a particular category of player from the first few hours you play with them. A good way to use this to your advantage in a cash game is to play very loose at the start of the game, making sure that your hands are shown down. If the hand does not go to show down this means showing your hole cards to the table, specifically when you’re running a big bluff or making a “bad play”. Some people even advocate deliberately losing some small pots early in a session to show down bad hands and to create the image that you are a reckless player. The idea then is of course to switch gears (see Praz’s article for more on this) and play very tight, waiting for a big hand. It is surprising how long it takes players to realise that you’ve changed your playing style and they will be queuing up to pay off your big hands for quite some time, meaning that any money you may have lost early in the session is more than compensated for.
The key difference between tournaments and cash games is that the blinds and antes are steadily increased. What this means is that you don’t always have time to wait for a strong hand and you are forced to make moves to steal the dead money and keep your head above water. Where as in a cash game we can set up a loose image and then sit back and wait for a hand, this can be difficult in a tournament situation. If your cards dry up you can’t just sit back and wait as you’ll be anted away. A good strategy for tournament play can therefore be just the opposite. When the blinds and antes are low at the start of a tournament, try to set up a very tight table image. Don’t play many hands, the hands you do show down will be premium hands and you can even add to your image by careful table talk, commenting to the players next to you about the loose play of others, for example, and generally leading everyone at the table to believe you to be a very tight player. Later on in the tournaments when the blinds and antes begin to increase you can then use this image to your advantage by stealing the blinds, running bluffs and re-stealing from serial raisers who will need to find a big hand to play back at you because of the table image that you have built up.
Of course you don’t need to wait until the blinds go up to use your image once it has been well established. In the recent WSOPE main event I used this tactic on the very aggressive Annette Obrestad. Whilst I knew a lot about her playing style, we had not played live together before and so I took the opportunity to build a tight image when she moved to my table. I knew she would be raising a lot of pots and so I spent the first half of the current level passing to her raises. The only hands I did play I made sure I showed them (AK, JJ). My plan was then to use her to increase my stack. Rather than just stealing the blinds in the usual way I planned to reraise her, hopefully after someone had called in between, and then I take both the blinds and her raise (and any callers bets) and use that to increase my stack rather than just keeping level by stealing the blinds once a round. This tactic proved very successful. It’s important not to do it too often else good players will soon realise you are no longer playing tight, but if used carefully and in the right spots it can be very profitable. On one hand she raised again from late position and I reraised her from the small blind without looking at my cards. Unfortunately for me the big blind then decided to move all in and when I looked down at my cards, my 8-3 wasn’t looking too attractive. Annette quickly passed and (out of frustration) I passed quickly too. This was a mistake as my cover was blown – the reaction of Annette which was one of shock (and almost horror!) showed just how effective my tactic had been as she obviously hadn’t even considered that I might be reraising her without a hand. Whilst I made a mistake in passing my hand quickly when a long dwell and a good spot of acting might have allowed me to carry on reraising her for a while, it was not the end of the world. I was able then to sit back for a while to use my new found image of a squeeze-play merchant to wait for a big hand to make the same play with. This worked well in this particular tournament where the structure was very slow, but in general I would advise trying to keep your cover as a “tight” player for as long as possible.
Overall your image at the table is very important and you should always be conscious of how your current table views your play. Things to consider are the number of hands you have played, what hands have been shown down, who at the table you have played with before and what hands and styles have they seen you play before. For example it’s no use setting up a tight image with someone if in a recent game you ran a series of huge bluffs on them (or someone else at the table) and they have seen your cards! All these factors and your current perceived table image should constantly be at the forefront of your mind when at the table and you should be using this knowledge so as to play every hand as profitably as possible.
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