Deception at poker is a key weapon.

[William]

There are many threads about how to play JJ under the gun, AT in middle position and so on. Knowing wich cards are in the danger zone according to your position is important, but you can surely improve your chances by learnimg how your opponents think.

You have to know your classics; The player who pauses before betting, trying to induce a call from you side. The one who pauses before checking, hoping you will think he has something. The mini-better in first position on the flop, trying to get a cheap turn card, the mini-reraiser, mostly preflop, probably a monster and so on.
The poor players learn a few "moves" and stick to them, and you can easyly use that against them, but the better players start changing the patterns, and here it is important not only to be able to read them, but also to be able to send the right signals back to them, kind of infiltrating their game with a trojan horse.
For example, if I notice that a player is using a certain "move" to get a call from me, I will do the same against him when I want him to fold, as the chances are that he will think that I am imitating him.

The problem is that it is not always that easy. Some players at your table will be smarter than others and what may work with one may fail with the next. They are all watching your play as well, and trying to pickup reads on you. You must be able to identify the smart ones, and be able to "show" them how you play. That way, it will be easy to trap them when they have on you the "read" you wanted them to notice.
No move will however work forever, the other players will eventually unerstand they were wrong and it is now time to use that information to your advantage.
It is a question of constantly being a step ahead of the crowd and keeping your mind open to the adjustments that are necessary to your game to keep deceiving them.

Playing solid non-imaginative poker will make you a small winner; Learn to telegraph your "moves" and keep changing your game and you will really be rewarded by this marvellous game.

Take care,
William

[Bigwig]

[ QUOTE ]
There are many threads about how to play JJ under the gun, AT in middle position and so on. Knowing wich cards are in the danger zone according to your position is important, but you can surely improve your chances by learnimg how your opponents think.

You have to know your classics; The player who pauses before betting, trying to induce a call from you side. The one who pauses before checking, hoping you will think he has something. The mini-better in first position on the flop, trying to get a cheap turn card, the mini-reraiser, mostly preflop, probably a monster and so on.
The poor players learn a few "moves" and stick to them, and you can easyly use that against them, but the better players start changing the patterns, and here it is important not only to be able to read them, but also to be able to send the right signals back to them, kind of infiltrating their game with a trojan horse.
For example, if I notice that a player is using a certain "move" to get a call from me, I will do the same against him when I want him to fold, as the chances are that he will think that I am imitating him.

The problem is that it is not always that easy. Some players at your table will be smarter than others and what may work with one may fail with the next. They are all watching your play as well, and trying to pickup reads on you. You must be able to identify the smart ones, and be able to "show" them how you play. That way, it will be easy to trap them when they have on you the "read" you wanted them to notice.
No move will however work forever, the other players will eventually unerstand they were wrong and it is now time to use that information to your advantage.
It is a question of constantly being a step ahead of the crowd and keeping your mind open to the adjustments that are necessary to your game to keep deceiving them.

Playing solid non-imaginative poker will make you a small winner; Learn to telegraph your "moves" and keep changing your game and you will really be rewarded by this marvellous game.

Take care,
William

[/ QUOTE ]

You're right, of course. Another thing is to read bets -- ecspecially online. A lot of times when you get shorthanded a guy will broadcast his bet. It screams 'middle pair.' Then a guy calls and you know he's on a draw. Often, you can bluff these guys out right away. If you've got top pair, a big raise is obviously the right call.

Also, I play the guess what the other guy has game and figure out my odds of beating him. This alone probably wins me more cash than the next guy.

[eastbay]

Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I'm not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool; you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.......

eastbay

[CrisBrown]

Hi William,

This is so true. You can introduce a lot of deception in your play simply by learning to see situations in greater detail:

* What cards do I hold?
* What is my table position?
* Is it a ring game or a tourney?
* If it's a tourney, how far along are we?
* If it's a tourney, what is the prize structure?
* If it's a tourney, how far along are we?
* What are the blinds?
* If it's a tourney, when do they increase?
* What was the buy-in?
* What is the stack sizes?
* What cards are on board?
* How much is in the pot?
* What has the action been?
* How is the table playing?
* What are my reads of my opponents?
* What are their likely reads of me?
* How many hands have I played at this table?
* How many hands have I seen my opponent(s) play?

All of these factors -- and many more -- can nudge a hand up or down the scale, and change the way I play it. And they have no fixed relative importance. That is, if you change one factor, the relative significance of the each of the others will also change. For example, if you're 3rd of 10 left in a satellite where the top 9 win seats, you just need to survive until one more player busts. Provided your stack is sufficient to cover the blinds until that happens, all of the other factors are irrelevant. You just fold.

Reading opponents is a matter of identifying which factors are shaping their decisions in this pot. Deception is a matter of concealing which factors are influencing your decisions.

It's that "simple."

Cris

[Stoneii]

....and this can be my biggest downfall. Sometimes they just grab a drink, take a slug and couldn't even tell you what goblet it came from.

In these cases a bullet in the head (or two in the pocket) is the only subtle answer!.

stoneii