Table image: don’t make me laugh!
Posted by Dave Bremner on 01 Mar 2010 at 15:03
In the game of poker, table image is everything. Well, maybe not everything, but it’s pretty important. But I’ll tell you what: a lot of people don’t half put a lot of effort in all the wrong places.
First things first: I’m rubbish at reading tells. It’s one of the reasons I love online poker. At a real table your eye could bleed Casino Royale-style and I’d never pick up on it. So all that stuff people do to hide their expressions is pretty much wasted on me.
I know that half of it is to build a table image. Cap pulled down; shades; iPod: it’s supposed to add up to “poker pro”. Don’t mess with me, I’m the man; chip bully supreme, the Phil bleeding Hellmuth of Dagenham.
Yeah, right, mate. Sit down next to me wearing all that and I’m likely to laugh. Not because I think you’re a berk – well, not just because I think you’re a berk – but to try to unsettle you.
And it’s even more pointless in online poker: whether you choose the avatar of the bloke in the baseball shirt, the smooth type in the whistle and Peckham, or the balding geezer in the Hawaiian number makes no odds to me. In fact, I don’t think it does to anyone who’s played more than a few hands of Hold’em.
There’s only one way to build a table image in my book, and that’s with the cards. Online and in the casino people are going to judge you by how you play.
If you fold, fold, fold and then scoop a big pot with the nuts people will think you’re a rock; play like you’ve got to get rid of your chips before your house finishes burning down and they’ll assume you’re a bit more loose.
So come on and stop me laughing. Play good poker and I’ll happily admit you’re not a berk. But first you’ve got to take my chips off me...
All Comments
There are no comments for this page yet.
