When They Think You Are a Fish

[PokrLikeItsProse]

Early in a session, the first hand I showed down was a pot checked to the river, when my opponent bet after five relatively low cards hit the board. I knew him well enough to know that would have check-called with an ace and that he would have bet previously had he caught any piece of the board. Given that he was overaggressive when opening on the button and could have anything, I felt it likely that I had the better hand more often than not and that I was justified in calling.

In one of the next few hands I showed down, I jammed the flop with bottom pair and a flush draw.

The combination of the two hands early in a session led to my having the table image of a complete fish. I am used to working with a tricky, LAG-y image and I encounter problems playing short-handed when I have a poor table image and I am not exactly going card dead, but I am getting a lot of hands that are playable, but barely so (imagine getting KTo on the button when it is folded to you and the blinds are somewhat loose).

Any thoughts on playing short-handed against what would normally be a profitable set of aggressive but not that smart opponents if you have a very poor, fishy table image (which is inaccurate)?

[irishpint]

well, id say this isn't a problem. tighter blind steals, less bluffs since you ought to expect to get some callers. but once you have a hand or two you'll get paid off big and they'll wonder what your deal is.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

I have a hard estimating how often my opponents are bluffing. Given their behavior in other hands, I expect a certain style of play, but they radically change how they play only against me so that I feel a bit unsure.

What do you do when a player who normally almost never bluffs except on a missed draw will call your flop bet with nothing and check-raise you on the turn with nothing under the assumption that you have crap? I can call that player down if he is tilting or sometimes if I know that is an occasional move in the player' arsenal, but it is more difficult under these circumstances.

I'm having problems understanding how my opponents see me. More specifically, I can't even begin to estimate the range of hands my opponents are putting me on beyond that they think it is so likely that I have crap that it becomes difficult to ever follow through with a bet on the flop if I miss after raising preflop.

[kahntrutahn]

but I am getting a lot of hands that are playable, but barely so (imagine getting KTo on the button when it is folded to you and the blinds are somewhat loose).

Barely playable? This is premium blind stealing for me, as Im normally coming in with all sorts of trash with a 34% equity vs 2 random hands =)



And as far as the fish image... great... you will get a ton of action when you make a hand... so for the next 100 hands or so, I'd probably tighten up just a bit so that I could hopefully pound them a couple times with monsters before their PT stats told them that I was really a TAG =p

[poker-penguin]

Yeah, KTo barely playable? It's the kind of hand I almost WANT a call with when I'm opening from the button.