Hello guys,

I play a lot of poker and sometimes you take several beats in a row that makes your table image weak. Players be like, oh you're running bad I have to call.

My question is how do you play your JT+ non pair hands like Q10s kjoff, a10off
Or small pairs like 6s and below in early or mid non opened pot.

I will always raise with these hands in non open pot from most positions. With the correct table image it's working ok for me.

But what should I do when my table image is weak? In my opinion JT, q10, are raise or fold move in an unopened pot. Is this the correct play?

Obviously we all know these are dangerous hands that could be dominated....and in the last session I've folded some of JT+ (non a10, aj, Aq, ak, I will play all these hands)

Like for example I folded q10suited from early mid position in unopened pot, is this ok?

Small pairs, I will always raise in unopened pot, is this ok? But with bad image, raising with 44s from early and mid will almost get calls from late positions, especially good players in late position. And flop will always be overs.

Maybe bet sizing will help to reduce the variance?

Please help. Thanks

If your image is weak and you are going to get called down than tighten up and value bet when you have the goods. Why would you willingly put yourself in a horrible spot by opening JT or QT OOP?

Play in position, make a hand, collect monies.

With a losing image tighten up your starting hand range and don't play as many speculative hands. Just limp small pocket pairs.

Listen to both of these guys

Usually fold those weak Broadway's. with losing image tighten up raising range esp oop. So raise only premiums oop

When you're losing, you want players to pay you off on three streets with QJ when you've got AQ, so if you know your image isn't intimidating to the table, don't get into the habit of value betting QTo in these spots, because your bluffs will be called on blank rivers, and your Qs' often aren't as strong as you were hoping by fifth street.

^^^ What others have said.

Also consider a table change. If you are losing hands due to negative variance, set over set, then it shouldn't really matter. But if your table image is bad because you are tilted/spewy/bluffing, then you need to find a new table.

Change tables, change cardroom or give yourself a day off (if bad image after several hours).

As played, just play knowing you have to showdown. This will head you in the right direction. If you must play with a poor image, wide your value range, valuebet thin more, and be prepared for a boring time UNLESS you get some type of rush which could restore your image.

With this image, you get called much more often so play accordingly.

Until we start to improve our image tighten up and look to play mostly in position. We can profitably muck those hands in MP when the only way we expect to win is showing down the best hand out of position.

Since our cbets aren't commanding respect I'll probably limp pps below 88 and call when getting odds to set mine at most passive 1/2 or 1/3 tables and still bring em in for a raise at 2/5 or more aggressive 1/2 or 1/3 tables.

As Bobby Hoff said, you need to tighten up and bluff far less when you don't have a good image. I'll note that the vast majority of live players have no clue whether it is +EV to play most hands in most positions. If you're raising ATo and KJo in all positions, I'd be surprised if you are +EV with them.

No.

Losing image = nit it up. Wait, wait, wait, and win showdowns. Boring I know, and you're already tilted from losing, making it doubly hard, but nobody said winning poker was easy. The table change suggestion is good to reset your image, but I value how soft the table is over my image so choose wisely. You can adjust and play to your image, but not every table is full of donks.

I fold ATo, KTo, QTo, JTo from EP even with a winning image. Suited I might limp/fold at a passive table (or call with huge multiway odds), but this is extremely dangerous and requires good hand reading skill and discipline to fold postflop the majority of the time. Folding QTs from EP is not a mistake, especially with a bad image.

Small pairs are always limp/call small raises to set mine from EP/MP, image irrelevant. Don't open raise small pairs OOP unless you have tons of fold equity at a tight passive table because you're going to be forced to bluff with them a majority of the time. That's why you can open them in late position, your fold equity is better IP and you can make more effective bluffs after you've observed your opponents' actions. You can also straight up fold small pairs OOP if missing your set is going to cause you to tilt and spew.

Small pairs are 8's and below for me, 9's and T's are stretching it. If you're not likely to flop an overpair, it's a small pair in my book. A set mining hand. 2's are not much different from 8's, the primary differences are that the set of 2's is more likely to get counterfeit and will lose more set-over-set (or boat-over-boat), but both are pretty rare occurrences to fear, especially at 100BB and below.

As for your idea to change bet sizing. You will get called pre light with a bad image so it makes sense to increase your open sizing to isolate more easily. Do this only with good hands in position. Win/win: If everyone folds, and this happens several times, it will improve your image. ("Wow, that guy gets a lot of good hands!") If you get a caller or two, you have a strong hand in position with reduced SPR, perfect to go for a strong showdown. If the whole table calls anyway, give up easily and raise more next time.

I strongly disagree with your suggestion that a table image which encourages opponents to play too loose is a bad thing. You want players to call too much. Those are the easiest players to beat.

I also think your ideas about how to win in these games are wrong. What level are you playing at? It sounds like you try to bully your opponents at the table. Trying to bully people into folding is not the best way to try and beat these games.

Maybe one reason your opponents call you so much is you're actually very loose and too wild IMO. You're raising in a lot of situations when you clearly shouldn't be raising. I strongly suspect that your opponents think you're reckless when they start calling you down.

The problem here isn't image. The OP has a great image when he encourages his opponents to call too much. I would never table change or try to "improve" my image if my opponents wanted to call too much.

Why would you want to have a different image anyway?

Table image tends to matter less at these stakes. You think that playing loosely and aggressively works when your table image is strong but doesn't work when your image is weak.

Maybe your preferred style works when your opponents are weak and fold too much or when you get a lot of good hands/lucky flops and doesn't work when your opponents call to much.

Maybe one problem is that you have a hard time telling the difference between when players be like, oh you're running bad I have to call and when players be like, oh I'm a calling station I have to call.

Don't play these from early position winning or not except for the PP's imo.

It ties your hands and forces you to play a suboptimal ABC type game. You are unable to bluff favorable board run outs nor will semi-bluffing be as profitable. When you raise preflop you are more likely to get callers that have position on you and the hand is more likely to go multiway. You won't be able to Cbet in spots where it is generally profitable to do so. Even a bluff check-raise when you know your opponent is weak is unlikely to work. In general, it's just way easier to play winning poker when your image is good.

Generally your image live is lucky/unlucky, not good/bad player. Being perceived as unlucky inspires more correct play against you, lucky brings fear and inspires poor scared/weak play against you. And yes, the fish do notice very much who seems to be getting lucky and who seems to be losing a lot.

Almost everything you're saying here is "You won't be able to bluff." Even if that's true, why should that bother us? Just value bet the calling stations. The type of game you're describing sounds amazing. I'd rather play against calling stations who pay me off than play against nitty regs that constantly fold to my bets and raises in small pots when I have a good hand. Sure, you can make more moves and bluffs and open up your game more again the nits, but that doesn't mean you'll make more money playing against them.

Your post reminds me a lot of people who say "Move up to where they respect your raises.". If playing ABC works well in your game, that means your opponents are awful. Doesn't that sound like a fantastic game?

You're more likely to get callers that don't have position on you.

And I'm okay with multiway pots. That means you're getting a lot of value. Also, if the games are as loose as you say, I would increase the size of my raises and get even more value.


I actually think your post shows why it's harder when your opponents tighten up. The easiest games to win in are games against calling stations. Your post strongly implies that being able to bluff makes a game easier and more profitable. I don't see why we should assume that.


I disagree that ABC is suboptimal if your opponents force you to play that style.

People seem most afraid of me when I'm card dead and constantly folding and losing small pots. They think I'm tight and it probably does give me more fold equity. In those situations I'm never perceived as lucky.

I don't think they play worse when they tighten up. So many players are playing too many hands, so I think they play better when they play tighter.

It probably depends a lot on stakes and the skill level of your room.

I find that when I'm running good, poor players tend to limp->call->check->fold and basically throw money at me. They're sure you will always have top pair or an overpair so they are looking to hit the flop hard, which will not happen the vast majority of the time.

This was more true back in 1/3 land, people are more gambly and sticky at 3/5 where I play now.