Creating a deceptive persona at the poker table.
When playing in online poker tournaments, you’re eventually going to have to start mixing up your play so as to trap your opponents and capture their stack. Ideally you will make a few cheap plays that will leave your opponents thinking you are a weak player.
Forethought should always be taken however, because your adversaries in the early stages of online poker tournaments are willing to risk far more than you would expect.Once you make it past the early cycles though, you will find more tight-aggressive players that can fall into your trap if you mix up your game and hand selection prudently.
Your goal here is create confusion in your opponents and that may take some experience to do correctly and inexpensively. It’s not exactly a simple thing to do, but with some practice and commitment to your game you can start to make some good reads – even online.
So extra caution is needed, as well as a serious dedication to pot control in each hand that you are involved in. This is often difficult because many new players suffer from a lack of emotional control at the table and that gets them into difficult and often times expensive situations.
This is often the biggest hump to get over when improving your poker game, but you must do it so as to avoid being too easily readable by sharp opponents. For long term winning in poker tournaments, a lack of control will cost you money.
Building deception in a poker tournament can be easily attained by using this tactic. Have a few select “favorite” hands that you will play like they were much stronger hole cards and whenever you get them debate making a bet. Of course, not always in case someone else went all in before you or made a huge raise from early position, but you when you are in those small ball pots against strong players, raise with your 67 suited, your J9os or your Th8h.
Whatever hands you select at the start of the tournament, consider those your inventive hands and there you go – unpredictability. The added bonus here is that if your opponents are using poker software to track your style of play they are getting misinformation.