Poker Image....

[DyessMan89]

When playing in poker tournaments, is there a certain image that you try to express? Do you present a tight image, that can allow you to make a bluff once the stakes are raised? Or do you express a loose image that will get you a call down the road?

Does your image you express change depending on the game or atmosphere of the game?

[BarronVangorToth]

Poker image only matters if people are savvy enough to pay attention. Most in live games aren't and online ... it comes down to Poker Trackering all of the data.

At the end, I think it unfortunately amounts to little -- mostly due to the incompetence of most players.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[soko]

Image isn't crucial, but it's important to let others know you don't get bullied around easily because even the bad players will begin to take shots at you it's obvious you are easy to bluff out.

[deacsoft]

I like to support an image of being a solid and aggressive player. As was already said, the weaker players may not even notice but the the good players will. I feel it's important to have a little respect from the good players in order to keep them off your back until the end (nearly) of the tournament.

[tek]

I start out like Dan Harrington. As the tournament goes on I shift gears. By the later stages I'm full-on Stu Ungar [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[edpsu92]

Well, I play in MTT's between $1 and $20 and SNGs between $5 and $10. I used to be overly concerned about my table image and have come to the conclusion that it is way less important then people think for two main reasons: 1) most of the players arent good enough to notice and 2) you switch tables too much in online MTT's for there to be any real value to building an image.

I am not saying that I think image is completely useless. I play fairly tight in the beginning and then get more and more aggressive. Some will argue that you should do the opposite? I will do a number of things to make sure people realize some small things about my image (maybe to try to gain a little respect from the players better then me and maybe to intimidate the poorer players if that is possible). Personally, I am not so sure how much you can "intimidate" a poor player as they are too poor to even realize the message you are trying to send. The types of things I do vary but just a couple off the top of my head include(none are rocket science):

1) I will make sure that a chronic blind stealer knows that I will come over the top of him if he takes it too far. Of course dont do this without some resemblance of a hand and back down if you get re-raised.
2) I will raise and keep the lead after the flop with a hand like AK even if i miss the flop. I think you have to "shoot two barrels" from time to time otherwise its obvisous each time you miss.

I do many other things but just wanted to mention a couple. Dont know if any of this helps. Take care and GL.