Re: Deceptive Ways – Beginners Mistakes
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We could add "levels" corresponding to the basic issues of poker psychology: "this is my hand," "this is the range of my opponent's hands," "my opponent is likely to put me on this range of hands," "my opponent thinks I'm putting him on this range of hands," etc....
Deception is marginally useful for the second issue, and becomes much more valuable with each successive issue. But against an opponent who considers only the first issue, deception is worthless and you should just play standard, ABC poker.
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I think that the optimal strategy for poker involves playing exactly one level above your opponent. So, yes, deception is useless against a player who operates solely on the first level. But let's explain why theoretically. That player acts only on his hand. I have yet to see anyone come up with a way to deceive a player about what cards he is holding. It makes no point to think about what your hands your opponent is likely to put you on if he is, in fact, not putting you on any hand at all.
The moment a player considers things of which he is uncertain, that is when he becomes vulnerable to deceptive play. The more deeply a player thinks, the more hazy and uncertain his assumptions, and the more prone he is to being deceived. A player who considers the hands you are playing is open to deception because he cannot see your cards (unless, of course, he cheats). You are deceiving a second-level player when you establish a table image of what cards you will play, then trap someone by playing cards contrary to that image. I suggest that this sort of deception is the simplest and easy to accomplish. All you need to do is identify that the player acts on this level. Often, they will inform you themselves by being shocked when someone wins a pot with a hand that the book says to fold pre-flop. Mediocre players who whine about bad beats ("you called with that!") are often the most vulnerable to being trapped with an occasional loose pre-flop call if (and it is a big if) you can first establish respect.
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