i think i said somewhere i was going to make a bit more challanging strategy question. this isnt really a challanging question, but im sure it will spark discussion.

you are at a table, whether it be tournament or ring, that will be going for a while. thus, unless the other players are asleep, they will take into account if you are playing agressive, passive, loose, etc.
the players are your typical beginner/intermediate that you would find in any sort med. buy in N/L holdem game.

so, at this sort of table(at any table), it is extremely important to know what your table image is, and how the other players percieve you. you need to know how your actions are effecting other players, and when it is appropriate to change gears. why? because you should play according to how the other players think you are playing. if the other players happen to think you are stealing alot of pots, they will begin to call you with marginal hands and you should only play solid hands in attempt to get paid off. if you appear to be a rock, use this and steal pots.

its early in the game. thus, to the other players, you are completely unknown. which of these paths, if any, would you take in order to build an image around yourself. (im not saying any of these ways is "correct" just pick)

1. show many bluffs. raise many pots, bully the table. try to build your stack and become "table captain" once the table is fed up with your steals, tighten up and get paid off once you hit a great hand

2. play tight poker. if you take a pot uncontested, show your good hands, reassure your opponents they made the correct fold. your goal is to exploit this tight image you have created for yourself later, when you can steal pots. (and in tournaments, much needed blinds)

3. muck all uncalled hands. keep opponents guessing. your playing style doesnt matter here, you just give away the least ammount of information possible.

4. other?????????

which way, in your oppinion, is the most effective, in a standard, N/L holdem game, with beginning/intermediate players.

At this point, for me, its 2 for me, especially in the early going. I won't play much of anything because at the level I'm currently playing/trying to learn more at (mostly $5 buy in tourneys) there seems to be a lot of maniacs who look at the experience almost like a lotto ticket as opposed to a thinking game. For me, especially in one-table games, survival is the name of the game for the first level. That may or may not be the smart thing to do but its what I'm comfortable with at the moment.

If I get a monster, I make sure to show it because I like to take pots after the flop, so I want people to think that I only play the monsters (which is mostly true but I am loosening up lately).

I also am not entirely sure how much my table image matters at these buy-in levels. I'm fairly certain most of the other players only worry about their hands rather than the other hands in play.

I think I'm in the same boat as 24601 here, but I also use the tight play to save me from myself. If I force myself to fold anything but really good starting hands, I reduce the amount I lose in call - folding. Thus I have more money left later on when I make a bad call, or just general donka-doodle behaviour.

I also find that I can often buy myself out of trouble should I have a brain fart and call something stupid, by representing flushes and the like by raising with a medium/medium large sized bet. I always find that going all-in tends to scream call me to the trout.

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If I enjoy necrophilia and beastiality, am I flogging a dead horse?

I think I'm about a 2.75. I VERY rarely show anything, but when I do it's usually when an oppent thinks a while and lays down a hand I think I had him beat - I'll sometimes show that to try and help me steal later on.

I usually don't show bluffs because unless you REALLY know your opponent you don't know what affect it would have on him and can really force you to tighten up.

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I'm CDO. It's like OCD, but everying is in order just like it should be.

#1 defo. But only if you have the stack size. Getting people on tilt pays off but if you don't have the stack size to bully then don't do it.

#2 seems pointless for an MTT as chances are you'll move tables and have to renew your entire table image. I would go with this one at an SNG but #1 ocasionally if i have a healthy stack.

I play $5 to $10 SnG. I agree with 24601, in the early levels the maniacs are playing anything and everything.

I used to be a combination 2 & 3 early in the tournament then got more aggressive as people dropped out. I finished in the money 5 of the last 6 SnG I played this way. Stupid me, I figured I should get more aggressive early on and try and bluff more. I wanted to build a bigger stack early so I would take more first place finishes. I also started raising the pots more and betting heavier when I was bluffing trying to reduce the pot odds for my opponents. That really did not work out the way I had planned. I haven't placed in the money once since I made the changes. So this week I am switching back to my old style.

Everything I've read says that u should play tight against the maniacs then switch gears after u have created your image. So I am going to go back to my old style and make back some of my investment I threw away. Expensive but a good learning experience.

How you play, how you want to play, and your image are three different things.

How you play is reality.

How you want to play is fantasy.

Your image is how other people choose to perceive you. The key word being: CHOOSE. Your image is apart from your style. You don't know your image without knowing the people you're playing. Different people perceive different people differently.

I'm Indian, so I look Arabic. No matter how tight I play, people expect aggression. I have little to no control over that.

Online, it's easy to overrate people's attention span. Most people are surfing the net or watching a ball game more attentively than the game they're playing.

You have no reason to believe that you have an image, let alone what it is unless you're given multiple clues to surpass correlations and ASSumptions.

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At the micro SnGs I feel that most of the players don't think for 2 seconds about how they perceive me, when they make decisions. So what are some of the "clues" you speak of that tell me someone is forming an opinion of my image.

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"There is a good chance I gave you a very bad description of something that doesn't work."

i agree with all of it except the last part, i think you are mistaken because im talking about table image at a LIVE table. obviously online you have no reason to belive anyone is paying attention.

in a live game, if you dont take into account your table image, you can be missing some profitable spots, and you can get caught in some unprofitable ones. each hand in poker is a differnt situation, and this is one of the things that seperates a good player from a great player. a good player will look at his preflop hand, and play the hand according to how a poker book tells you to play it. which is good, winning poker. however, a great player wont look at his hand, he will look at the situation, (again, more so in LIVE games) and base his decisions off every piece of information he has taken in thus far.

in live play, its your job to assess what your image is. some players use 1-3, and thats why i made a #4 choice, because like yourself, some players just mannage to create(or, avoid) action in other ways. you appear arabic, i myself look my age (17) so every time i sit down SOMEBODY makes a comment about how i should be playing for pennies, or where i got my fake id. most players try to outplay me with subpar hands, and it usually ends up as profit for me.

and as for me, i usually dont show anything. i play off whatever image i feel i have, some of the time like you said alex, the players are asleep or so steamed from trying to get even, it doesnt even matter.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't account for your image. I'm saying that everyone has many images depending on the opponent. The "clues" are just getting to know your opponents from their style of play (weak-tight players tend to overrate aggression and vice-versa) all the way to their views on guys with earrings can give you human clues on how they tend to judge and place tags on others.

Most of figuring out your image has little to do with an adept poker knowledge and more a connection between not being a social retard and basic knowledge.

In my cases, I get to know people best through comedical banter. You just get vibes off of people as to where their prejudices lie.

Your table image doesn't start with your play. It starts with the prejudices that every human brings to the poker table of life.

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