How important can table image be?

About week ago, I played in $5000 guaranteed tournament that was part of FIVE program on full tilt. Buy-in was 5 points. I played and got 6th place, which I bagged 120 bucks. One great call got me deep. Once everyone found out that I made a great call, people were scared to bluff me and would mostly play their cards that I kept constantly stealing blinds. I came into a final table 8th place but got 6th place.

This is what happened.

I had pocket 7s. Some guy raised from early position. I called with pocket 7s(7 clubs and 7 spades. Flop came out Ad, Kd and 9h. Early position raised. I called. Turn was a diamond card. He raised. i called. River was another diamond. He pushed all-in. I just instant-called because I guessed that he was bluffing. I told myself "f-ck this guy. This guy's full of sh-t. my 7s are good" And indeed it was. He had TJo. I eliminated him and became a chip leader when there were about 35 players or so left that time. He kept talking sh-t to me on chatbox, calling me donk for calling. Although I know that best thing to do is to ignore him, I just wanted to piss him off and said few things like

"don't be mad just cause you suck at poker like you do in real life."
"I'm better than you and this whole table knows it. God knows it."
"Instead of criticizing my call, criticize your plays and see why your pathetic bluff didn't work."
"Don't f--k with me. I'm a calling station who will call with anything."
"Don't you feel miserable that you wish your mother should've aborted you?"

After this call, lot of people were scared to bluff me in the table. I would keep raising the blinds constantly or reraise the raises. I was able to steal lot of blinds and pots using the table image. During this day, everything went accordingly and people move in against me when I had pocket pairs and folded when I raised with rags. I was able to bluff lot of times. Sometimes, I sucked out with stupid hands because when I got reraised all-in, it was mostly from short-stacks and I was pot commited and ended up facing lot of 2:1 underdog matches(two overcards vs two undercards) which I won every one of them. But reason why I dropped from chip leader to 8th place was because I tried reraising the original raiser with Q7o but the conservative player who had as much chips as I had and was 3rd place in tournament that time, pushed all-in with Kings and original raiser called with Ace rags. I had no option but to fold since it's a common sense that person who's in third place wouldn't want to risk all of his chips on a bluff and get eliminated by fighting me unless he has something strong, and indeed he had. This crippled me and came into final table 8th place because I couldn't steal blinds and pots like I used to.

I was short-stacked in final table but I got 6th place because there was another feud and beef going on between two players (LeftCenter97 and TwoSuited78)in other table, they fought against each other and match up was 55 vs A8 and one of big stacks got eliminated 9th place. Then short-stacked moved all-in, there were two callers. One of callers hit his set on the flop and pushed all-in. Other caller had nut flush draw and called and won the pot through hitting his flush, eliminating both players at same time, which automatically moved me into 6th place.

I think knowing how to use table image to your advantage is a very good way to win or go deep into the tournaments. This was the only tournament where I was able to constantly raise with junk hands more than any other tournaments and was able to get people to fold due to fear. I have a feeling that if I can study more and refine my skills on exploiting table images and learn psychological tricks on tilting people or pissing people off through betting patterns, it can help me become a better player.

Does anybody know some strategies of exploiting table images? I can't seem to find lot of information on exploiting images. You can find tons of books on odds, tells, positions, hands, board, etc but I can't find lot of information about table images.

Here's the tourney I played in.

Attached Images

final table 6th place cut.JPG (123.8 KB, 17 views)

Is this article a joke? yes table image is very important but some of the stuff you are stating you did is tbh quite ridiculous. The odds of flopping a pair is 43% and considering there were three over cards and that is not a flop to bluff on as plenty of people will call with any A or K, i would count yourself very lucky he was semi bluffing with a straight draw.

After that sick call, I don't know if I'm being stupid and mispercepting the environment but lot of people were scared to bluff me whenever I was in the pot. If they didnt' have anything, they would check it down. If they had something, they would bet out. When they bet, all it took was one reraise and I can find out if they were bluffing or not. One reraise and if they come right back at me, then I can fold. But majority of the time, they folded. Maybe it was my lucky day filled with passive idiots and weak players. But I think that one great call got my confidence up and made me too cocky. I was going wreckless and starting raising nearly every pot. I stole blinds most of the time and I had full control of the table until I got moved to different table and lost decent amount of chips to guy who had Kings when I folded. I have a feeling that if I can work and refine my skills on exploiting table image more often, I can become better player.

What I don't get honestly is, when people are caught bluffing and lose to weak hand, why are they pissed? If I were caught bluffing and got called by a very weak hand, I would tell myself "F__K, I GOT CAUGHT" but compliment them at the same time saying "good call". But no, what do they do? They stick around in the chatting box and start calling me a donk/fish/etc instead of looking at themselves and see what they did wrong or see why they suck at bluffing. There are times when I stone cold bluff and get caught by weak hand but I don't go bashing the caller or start calling him names. Winning with a weak marginal hand is skills. I compliment the person who made a tough call even if its' a call that pwned and eliminated me. Only times I get pissed are retarded suckouts but as for being caught bluffing by getting called with weak hand is skills and should be applauded.

Table image is important. Your table image after you made your call was idiot. Trust me.

I don't mind about being looked like an idiot after making that call. All I wanted to show was that I'm not a person to bluff or f--k around with. I wanted to give an image that I'm a "calling station" who calls with anything if I suspect anything. This makes people less likely to bluff me. Try telling yourself. If you just saw the guy who made sick call with very weak hand and realize that the guy doesn't know how to fold a hand, would you attempt to bluff him? My guess is not. They'll tell themselves "This guy(or idiot as you just called me) doesn't know how to fold a hand." But at the same time, they're less likely going to bluff me once I call their raise on the flop. After my sick call, I saw more check downs against me than bets firing at me. One reraise was all it took for them to fold. I rarely got 3-betted into me. By raising nearly every pot using my chip leader advantage, I stole lot of blinds and pots. Yes, I got lucky here and there, such as fighting AceQueen with my 4 8 offsuit and hitting a 4 on the board because when short-stacks pushed and reraised all-in, I just had to put up few more blinds to my raise to eliminate a player(or give them small double up).

Table image is important and a useful tool. After playing a lot of Double or Nothings on PO I found myself playing too passive in the regular games. Once I noticed how passive and weak I was being I decided to use it to my advantage. Definitely helped me steal blinds and bluff.

But I have to agree that hand your going to lose most of your chips the majority of the time.

1 thing i can say don't re raise with Q7o it will save lots of money at least try having like J10s so u can have some potential Q7o is just horrible