In a previous post “Poker Tells: Observation for Profit” I talked about the ‘strong-when-weak/weak-when-strong’ concept which suggests that some players, when they have a good hand, will try to represent that they have a weak hand, and vice-versa. They will try and trick you (but probably not successfully if you are a studier of tells and their meaning). Conversely, there will be times when you may need to trick another player into making a wrong play.
My experience is that it is easier to act weak-when-strong, than it is to act strong-when-weak. I classify myself as a tight-aggressive player; if I were a loose-aggressive type I would be acting strong-when-not so strong a good percentage of the time, but it’s not my style and am seldom in a pot without a solid hand.
Sometimes acting strong when you are strong (or at least have faith that you are strong) works best, and sometimes when you are weak you have to be prepared to improvise and use whatever means you can to confuse or mislead an opponent. You can only do this if you have formed a good enough impression of a player to predict his response to whatever trick you intend to pull.
A good example of acting strong when strong came in a low limit ($10) rebuy tournament when I held the nut flush on the river. The remaining player in the hand checked to me, announcing to the whole table, “I know he’s got the flush”. My turn, so what do I do? We both have good chips, but I’ve got him covered. I could:
A. Check, so as to be a gentleman and have a showdown.
B. Make a very small bet which he would probably have to call out of curiosity
C. Make a bet of a larger size, which he probably couldn’t call out of curiosity
D. Make a very large bet that he couldn’t possibly call
The other player just happened to be rather weak, and prone to making errors. Checking it down would achieve nothing, a small bet was hardly worth the bother, and if he would call a large bet he he might possibly call a very large bet. Which is why, in line with the concept of acting strong when strong, I chose option D and bet the pot. He knew he was beat but called anyway.
Another nut flush situation: I flopped the Ace high flush and checked it right down to the river with total disinterest. Being weak when strong was called for here, as any bet would have scared the other player out of the pot. I had no option but to check on the river, hoping for a bluff. Once again, this was a weak player who hadn’t got a clue. For some unfathomable reason he decided a bet of his entire stack was appropriate.
As in any endeavour you have to pick the right tools for the job – and know how and when to use them – which depends a lot on who your opponents are and what you can predict about them. The weaker the opponent, the easier deception.