Image

Probably the topic I like talking about the most is table image. How you perceive others and how other perceive you is on the psychological side of the poker animal. There is one thing to remember, some players don't even pay attention enough to think about image. Some guys don't care that you've folded every hand since noon, and still cold call your under the gun raise with KT offsuit. If that's the case, then you need not make any changes in you gameplan against them. They will give you action regardless. For the people that DO pay attention, then you have to start changing up your play. Switching gears is vital to becoming a great player, even though I may not be one myself. :) I was playing the 15-30 game at bellagio tonight, and i was making a steal raise, and won the blinds. The very next hand I picked a pretty good hand again, and won another pot on the flop. The next hand after that I pick up a monster, two kings, and fire again. This time, instead of 2 or 3 way action I got 6 callers, all of which think I was just trying to run over the game. I love $15-$30, if they thought I was stealing, they should 3-bet me to isolate, but generally, they don't realize that concept. So my Kings dodged aces, two pair, and whatever else was out to get me, and held up, and I won a big pot, turning over my two kings.
Yes it was just a small rush, but because I had made position plays, and raised so often, I got action on my big hand and maxed out the pot.
Later in the night I picked up KQ suited in the big blind, there was 6-7 callers, and I pumped up the pot one time. the dealer reamarked, "Just in case, huh?" I smiled and nodded. I ended up hitting my flush on the river, winning a big pot. This is a play I normally wouldn't do, but I do it once in a while with a suited connector, obviously KQ is better than most, but hands like 67, 78, 89 suited are the ones I usually do it with. Its simply manipulating pot odds, and creating a bigger variance, but every so often, youll win a big pot, and get to advertise you hand, giving you action later. Smarter players will know what you are doing, so you have to realize who you are deceiving. It only takes a one or two plays that get shown to yeild a long term advertising value. Many players will remember that hand that you raised with 67 suited and flushed out a big pot.
I was going to make a better point that these, but its late and I'm tired, so that's it for now.