Table image over rated in low stakes?

So you think you created a table imagine, played 50 hands VP of 9 PR of 9. You see a player that folds a lot of late position. So you make a move in the button with rags on the blinds, because given your tightness you should be A10 or better from that position, 10BB effective stack size, they got you covered by 2X 20BB.

Then you get called down with something like 98S. So the question is does table imagine matter in low stakes? Are people paying attention to it? Feels like I am playing, He must see me as playing as a nit. But the reality is he was watching porntube this whole time.

I think it varies with the player. Some are running multiple tables and maybe relying on a HUD (or not). Some players pay attention, but have a favorite hand they like to play (I used to like 68s). Some are just bad players.

thehangdude said:

I think it varies with the player. Some are running multiple tables and maybe relying on a HUD (or not). Some players pay attention, but have a favorite hand they like to play (I used to like 68s). Some are just bad players.

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Pretty much that. Also HUDs largely make "table image" irrelevant. If I have played 500 hands against you, the data collected over this entire sample is, what I care about. I dont care about the data collected over 50 hands in this particular tournament, where you might have been running card dead or hot.

Depends, but yes I would say it is less important then in higher stakes.

I think most people don't pay much attention to table image in low stakes online. They often play multiple tables anyway. I think that having an avatar lowers your expected winrate because someone may actually link your image to the avatar. What people look at are some HUD statistics. After even 10 deals you can see who plays lose and who tight. But I guess that's it and it can be exploited too.

I agree that in sometimes using table image won't work, It mostly depends on player and the hand, I have seen some players that won't fold their top pair in anycase, I never found a way to beat this kind of donks

" So the question is does table imagine matter in low stakes?"


No, don't think that deeply.

No.. i dont think it matter as much as it would in higher stakes

I think table image is always important, but it is much less important when the opponents are only playing their own two cards or unable to adapt and exploit your play.

For this reasoning, I find the lower levels much less attractive for mind games and table image perception.

Even at the lowest of stakes, table image does mean something, but it might not be as pronounced as one might expect. Table image here is more things like "this guy is a pro" (even if they are just on a hot streak) or "this player never bluffs."

Forget ideas like TAG versus LAG though if no one noticed you folded every hand this orbit.

I’m a tight player and have noticed that I get no respect for my image in the $1-2 MTTs that I play. Even after an hour + at same table and I raise middle position, I get a few callers or reraises and when I shove with my AA I get a couple of callers with junkish hands. Which would be great except when they bust me hitting a straight or trips. I really don’t think at these levels that they pay attention or maybe don’t even understand table image.

It is not only important to build an image yourself but also to recognize the image of the other players at the table. If you have people at the table who call or raise every hand anyway then you can have played tight beforehand, but the probability that they will then call the raise is very high. And yes, I think the probability in the micros is a little higher. But I've seen things like that in the lows or the medium. It's just that there are always people who don't take online poker seriously, so you almost always have to expect that you will meet someone like that, although this is of course increased in the micros because of the low buy-in

blix177 said:

So you think you created a table imagine, played 50 hands VP of 9 PR of 9. You see a player that folds a lot of late position. So you make a move in the button with rags on the blinds, because given your tightness you should be A10 or better from that position, 10BB effective stack size, they got you covered by 2X 20BB.

Then you get called down with something like 98S. So the question is does table imagine matter in low stakes? Are people paying attention to it? Feels like I am playing, He must see me as playing as a nit. But the reality is he was watching porntube this whole time.

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Same as fundiver mentioned above. Being a NIT over 50 hands is meaningless to me. I have to see a player over 200+ hands to have any relevance to my decisions at the table.
(I'm a tourney player exclusively - cash players might have a different opinion)