In high limit/high stakes poker, displaying the right table image is a very important part of the play. While at lower limits you may consider it unimportant, at higher ones, you will need to learn to learn how to go out there and generate value for yourself by misleading your opponents.
By and large, there are three basic types of images you can project: maniac, tight, and crazy (impossible to read).
Which type of image you want to show off, depends on the texture of the table you play at. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at giving your opponents the “maniac” treatment.
Looking like a maniac may seem extremely easy at first glance, but remember one thing: you don’t want to lose all your stack while doing it. On the contrary, your aim is to make money, so how simple does it look now?
In order to look like a maniac and hold on to most of your bankroll in the same time, you have to understand the following thing: it is fairly easy to appear like an action-hungry lunatic to the other players if you raise a lot pre-flop. Just be careful not to take it too far, and fold lots of hands on the flop. People will have you cataloged as a loose-aggressive player if you raise preflop about 5-6 times in a row, no need to prove your point beyond that.
After you have done the preflop raising several times, just sit back, tighten up and enjoy the fruits of your labor. The table will usually become much looser, due to your pre-flop antics, and you’ll be able to fully benefit from it, having exposed yourself minimally, during your brief preflop-raising period.
Besides managing to sink your loose aggressive image in with the other players, you might also get lucky during that time, and catch someone on an all-in.
One more thing you should keep in mind when you’re trying to convey this image is the following: it’s only lucrative in a cash game. By their nature, tournaments are about survival. Not only will being recognized as a maniac provide you with less value, it’ll be much more difficult to make the others loosen up, too. In this respect, I wouldn’t recommend you try to push this image in tourneys. Stick to cash games, do it right and you’ll be all right.
Now for the big question: just how exactly will you benefit from the fact that the others see you as a maniac? For one thing, you’ll get many more calls than before, however, that is not necessarily a good thing, or a bad one for that matter… All that means, is that your bankroll will take wilder swings, but doesn’t give you any good value in the long-run. On the other hand, your opponents will make more faulty assumptions about your play than before, and that is where you’ll get your long-term value.
Again, come in strong preflop, raise about three times the BB, that alone will provide you some value already. I bet you’ve read and/or heard how poker was supposed to be a post-flop game. Well, it is, and that’s exactly why you have to raise preflop. Not only will it pass you as a maniac, it’ll make some opponents fold and others leave dead money in the pot for you, instantly increasing your odds.
The real key to successfully pulling the whole outfit off, is to play it extremely tight on the flop. Whenever you get re-raised on the flop, or you suspect that someone has the nuts, muck’em. If the flop misses you completely, muck’em.
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