How to Manipulate Your Table Image

Some of the world's leading poker players, players whose credentials and skill at the game simply cannot be denied have imparted yet another remarkable piece of advice to us struggling poker players: the importance of deliberately showing a weaker hand to throw your opponent off guard. This may seem self-defeating (playing only weak cards) but it means that you can save your finishing strategy for later on the game and ideally, for whenever you know that the pot is well and truly in your line of fire.

By making yourself appear as the weak link of the table this means that the remaining players will be lured into a false sense of security and as such, they will end up using weaker cards against you and will continue to do so for as long as you convince them that you pose little threat. That way, the pot size will increase as time progresses.

Just make sure you are pragmatic and careful with the number of chips you choose to spend at any given time, make sure that they last. This is especially true of tournament situations where there will be a lot of changing of players meaning that this artificially weak image you have so carefully crafted will be for naught. Please note that this strategy is of little to no use on the internet because there are so many poorly skilled players who quite frankly are an embarrassment to the game that you passing yourself off as one of them will be a waste of time.

It is the same few idiots who always end up making the same silly moves and they end up exacerbating the size of the pot beyond a comfortable level and do so with nary a second thought as to what they are actually doing. With so many weak players involved in most tournaments it should be noted that even if you are exceptionally mean with your bets and calls, you can still expect to progress within a very short period of time. It would seem that the internet brings out the very worst in these jokers.

You will quickly discover that it is in your best interests to be more assertive and become a little bit of a risk taker during the middling section of the tournament, with the cautionary remark that only do so if your bankroll can actually stretch that far. Be prepared to make a risk, but don't become reckless with it.