In poker, image matters.

Throughout a tournament, your table image will help determine how much action you'll get and, ultimately, how you can manipulate your opponents into making big calls or big laydowns at the wrong times.




While establishing a loose, aggressive image early on can help build your initial chip stack, I believe it's important to develop a tight table image in the later stages of a tournament because it gives you the ability to maneuver at the times when the chips matter most.





When the action is folded around, some players will always raise from the cutoff and the button. The problem with this play is that's its predictable and can be easily exploited. If you always raise from the button, the players in the blinds catch on sooner or later and will put in a big re-raise with any two cards. You will also find players just calling you with a much wider range of hands from the blinds before putting in a big check-raise on the flop.





Why do they do this? Because you have been presenting a loose table image by raising any time the action is passed to you. During late-stage play, this image hampers your ability to maneuver because any time you try to make a move, it's likely that someone will play back at you.




It doesn't take long before your loose table image will make you a target for the experienced players at the table (or even the inexperienced players who get tired of being pushed around). The amount of chips you risk by being loose in these situations is usually not worth the reward of just picking up the blinds. Be careful, though, because when you play too tight you end up missing many opportunities to slowly accumulate chips or even just stay afloat. Ideally, you want to project a very tight image while actually being somewhere in between the standard perceptions of "loose" and "tight."




I have one very simple piece of advice to help you with this part of your game. It may sound so simple you would wonder why I bother mentioning it but, in fact, this is one of my most important rules: Always fold junk.
By always folding junk hands, you accomplish a number of goals:

• You resist the temptation to attempt a blind-steal just because action was passed to you. With the level of aggressiveness that characterizes today's play, it's better to pass on bad hands even in position.
• You avoid pot-committing yourself with a hand that will usually be dominated in a race with a short-stack. For example, if you raise from the cutoff for 3x the big blind with J-3 attempting to steal the blinds and a stack with 8x the big blind moves in behind you, you are in a bad spot. It's better to just avoid these situations altogether.
• Most importantly, you further cement your image as a tight player. Now when you raise with a hand like A-8, you can feel confident that your tight image will allow you to steal the blinds although you're actually playing a bit looser.

Another temptation players face is to pick on someone's blind just because they view that player as "weak." I rarely pick on someone's blinds without a decent opening hand. Opening from the cut-off with a hand like K-9 suited is about as low as I'm willing to go in attempt to just pick up the blinds.
Using my tight table image enabled me to maneuver through a very tough field in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold 'em event at the 2007 WSOP*. After I doubled up early in Day 2, I used my table image in the late stages to steal blinds and to pick up a number of pots in key situations. I was able to carry this momentum to the final table, where I was fortunate enough to win the bracelet.




Remember, it takes more than good cards to be a winning player. By creating a solid table image in the late stages of a tournament, you may actually be able to play a wider variety of hands than your opponents expect and take down key pots at critical times.



Allen Cunningham

You shouldnt have put the allen cunningham bit at the bottom sicne i was about to say, wow you were in the wsop, but you werent. I like the pic though

IDK, when I play online poker it seems like it doesn't matter as much, it probably matters more in live poker. Online more players are multitabling and you don't see people's actual faces. In tournaments I usually play pretty tight and often when I make a raise from late position I'll get players moving over the top of me with nothing. Today in the middle of the tournament I had AK raised from the button (I didn't even play a hand for the past few rounds) and the small blind went all in, I called and he had 4 3 suited and I won.

See there you have a table image, even if you're not aware of it, and even if they mis-assign an image to you.

Most online players, when you raise from the button, assume you're like them. They assume you've been watching poker on TV, and that you make moves against people from the button. They just have an image of you as another aggressive online player. And while that may be totally opposite of what you are, that's the table image that you have against a lot of players, like it or not.

Boy...that sounds so familiar. I just can't quite put my finger on it. Hmmm...let me see..... Oh, yeah...

Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - Poker Tips: Tips From The Pros: 1st November 2007

I hope, by putting Allen Cunningham at the botto of the post, you were trying to give him credit.

Gee, and I was about to ask you to write a couple articles for my blog, too...darn.

^^^ geez calm down gobbs, op wasnt trying to take credit for the article, he was posting it for everyones benefit who hadnt seen it or read it like myself.

Hm..as opposed to randomly putting his name in there for no reason whatsoever?

telmoresgate, what the heck is your problem? Stealing an article written by Allen Cunningham from Full Tilt and claiming it's your own piece of work..

I guess you're right, but he sure went about it as if it were his. Maybe putting up front that the article is word for word somebody else's instead of putting the name at the bottom.

If it were something I wrote, I'd expect the credit to be pretty explicit and up front, not a name at the bottom and that's it. If I hadn't seen the article already, I would have attributed the last paragraph to AC and the rest to the poster.

is that your puppy philthy?, awww i love that pic, srry but way better then your last pic

Yes. It was reasonably obvious, and certainly not a very friendly welcome for a new member...

you know, we just do it this way in Europe. sorry to bust your idea that everyone should give credit in the same way personally, i would never have thought he credited only a part of the thing.

thanks, OP, i hadn't seen this one before and it's rather good.

Yep, in Europe he put the name of the outhor at the bothom ... Thanks for your words!
Next time i put it more explicit!