Poker Room Radio

Adapting to Perceptions of Your Play:
If you go to a regular home game, you will probably be familiar with the pros and cons of playing poker against the same crowd each week.

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I quite enjoy playing the same people each week personally, as it keeps you on your toes in terms of adapting your play I feel. Everyone perceives me to be an aggressive player at my local game, which is often true, but I also tighten up when I feel players are starting to call me with very marginal hands.

The fact is that this isn’t the only way to deal with players who are calling you down more often, you can make a slightly more risky and complex play. Being first to act becomes the favourable position in the process too.

I have recently had some success with this, and the idea for it came from noticing the frequency with which players put out tester bets when you show them weakness. If I am first to act against a player I know makes these type of bets regularly, I can check raise them with nothing on the flop, and find a lot more success than you might think.

Part of my successes with this type of play stem from the fact that a check raise always looks powerful. Many players will immediately fear that you have a strong hand that you did not want to immediately force them out of the pot with by betting, and that your initial check was a trap.

Of course to make the reraise it will mean you risk a little more than raising as the second player to act after the action has been checked to you, but you can win a bigger pot too.

The key is partly to have the right type of player second to act, so it works well when you are playing the same players each week. With so many players making a standard raise after the first player to act has checked the flop heads up, it can be a more powerful and intricate bluff to make when you are first to act.

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