First impressions on image. Tight or loose/aggressive

[bbarker703]

Newbie here, read a lot of the recommended literature but less than 20 hours at the tables. I've read two different ideas on estabishing a table imagine. Mike Caro recommends looser/aggressive the first hour, whereas the author of the Little Green Hold'em Book (? Wong) recommends tight/aggressive before loosening up. From what I've seen, in the kiddie pool it doesn't appear to matter; most don't pay much attention. Intuitively, I'd agreed with Wong. Any suggestions or observations from your experiences?

[bisonbison]

At low limits, the most important thing is that you're friendly.

[Mucking Idiot]

[ QUOTE ]
At low limits, the most important thing is that you're friendly

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldnt disagree more. Sure, you want to be cordial. There is no reason you cant speak freindly. But make no mistake...real-money poker is war.If I am sitting at a table with you...I WANT YOU TO LOSE YOUR MONEY TO ME. If I lose I will be polite and say "nice hand", as i plot my revenge and circle like a vulture awaiting your demise.

If it's worth playing for money, it's worth giving your best game, dont practice error...otherwise play for play money.

As for image at low limits, i would play tight by default..especially as a beginer...and this will give you a tight image. The intricacies to manipulating your own image might best be saved until you develop a more solid base.

GL, have fun and remember poker is war.

ps. read some sklansky..he is "the foremost" poker theorists

[astroglide]

attitudes like yours make low-limit games much tighter/unenjoyable.

[gamblore99]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
At low limits, the most important thing is that you're friendly

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldnt disagree more. Sure, you want to be cordial. There is no reason you cant speak freindly. But make no mistake...real-money poker is war.If I am sitting at a table with you...I WANT YOU TO LOSE YOUR MONEY TO ME. If I lose I will be polite and say "nice hand", as i plot my revenge and circle like a vulture awaiting your demise.

If it's worth playing for money, it's worth giving your best game, dont practice error...otherwise play for play money.

As for image at low limits, i would play tight by default..especially as a beginer...and this will give you a tight image. The intricacies to manipulating your own image might best be saved until you develop a more solid base.

GL, have fun and remember poker is war.

ps. read some sklansky..he is "the foremost" poker theorists

[/ QUOTE ]

hes not saying give he his money away. hes saying be polite, friendly, and tell a joke maybe. the idea is that you dont want your opponents plotting there strategy, and trying to take your money. you want them to just be happy to be there, and not care about the money. The game is also more enjoyable when your friendly.

gamblore

[manpower]

I generally don't invest much effort in cultivating a particular table image at the low limit online tables I play, as there's little fruit too it. However, I generally have great success playing in live low limit games by starting tight. My reasoning is this: It allows you a period of time to develope accurate reads on what are generally very predictable players. Also I find that in games where players tend to call too much anyway, I have an easier time playing when they've come give my hands too much respect rather than too little.

[gamblore99]

I think it depends on the quality of players. at low limits games id start tight, for what manpower said. At a table of higher limits/better players i would start looser and go tighter so as to get less respect for my raises.

[bisonbison]

Muck,

No one is paying attention. Varying your play is only going to have a microscopic effect on unskilled opponents' play. But your attitude can ruin their night out and affect their play greatly. So, the most important thing to do is to play appropriately for the table texture and to make sure that the unskilled players stay in a gambling mood.

It's never war. It's a social game. And frankly, people who act like it's war look really dumb at the table.

ps. read some sklansky..he is "the foremost" poker theorists

Hey, thanks for the advice. Sklansky's body of work has been largely aimed at those who play against knowledgeable, observant opponents. Which is not the profile of your average low limit player.

[Blarg]

I've found I did very well in 10/20 and 15/30 stud by creating a tight image that I then violated whenever there was a good pay-off in it. Once people think you're too tight or that your bets mean something serious, they often throw away the best hand. That doesn't happen very often at all to bring you 1 BB/hr.

All that does work best against people who are observant enough, but tend to lock in their judgments for too long. So it works best against better players who are not as alert or flexible as they should be once they get a fixed idea.

Lower limit players and loose players in general often aren't really reading you anyway, and even if they are, they don't care, they just want to gamble. So it doesn't matter a lot what you do either way. Image becomes pretty meaningless in a lot of live poker, and in online poker, the people rotate in and out of tables so fast that they often have little time to get a good read, even if they care.

As to how to behave toward people, the best play is to make them happy to lose as much money as possible for as long as possible, and make them feel like it would be fun to come back again another day even if they lost today.

If they like to talk, talk to them. If they like to moan about their bad beats, let 'em, and if you can do it without appearing phony, maybe commiserate a little even if you're happy they got their just deserts for a lot of stupid play. If you beat them by outsmarting them in a way that would humiliate them to know, keep it to yourself no matter how hard it is. Muck cards in live games if showing them would make a person feel angry or foolish, because you don't want them to leave the table mad -- you don't want them to leave at all, period. And you want them to come back NEXT time as soon as possible. People don't feel as bad about staying and losing if they feel like the company is good, or their luck is running bad.

[maryfield48]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
At low limits, the most important thing is that you're friendly

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldnt disagree more. Sure, you want to be cordial. There is no reason you cant speak freindly. But make no mistake...real-money poker is war.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the point is that whatever the inherent merits of being friendly or not, it can be effective strategy in waging "war".

[GuidoSarducci]

I think the point is you want to be "unremarkable" at the table. If you're a jackass, you'll draw unwanted attention to you and you'll find that people will subconciously (or very conciously) band together to make your life miserable. Though this might work to your advantage if you end up with the deck hitting you in the head, this is rarely the case.

[bbarker703]

Thanks for your insights. Planning to give myself another six months in the $4-8/$6-12 ranks before moving up to $10-20.