Intermediate Strategy: Change the Tempo in Your Poker Game
by Dougie Goguen | Jan 2 2012
We take a look at what changing your typical game strategy on occasion can do to your profits.In jazz, one of the most applauded things is the ability for a player to improvise, to take a melody and extended it and riff off it and create an entirely new piece of work. Poker's a lot like jazz in this way: the best players are able to change their game when they need to throw off their opponents. Playing a consistent game is a mistake that almost every type of player does and it's something you need to be aware of in order to fix it, especially in shorthanded games and games where you're going against good players.
Play online poker at Bodog today!I'm a value bettor. That's always been my thing and I found myself getting called out on it. I discovered that if I bluffed on the flop every so often, I could shake down my opponents and steal the blinds and their bets. I couldn't do this every time, but every ten or fifteen times I was in a hand, I'd try to throw them for a loop.
This works especially well in no-limit games because it's naturally much easier to bluff in no-limit, but it can still be used in limit games. I've seen sports metaphors used to delineate how changing your place can affect your profit at the game, but let's look at it this way: you make more money by playing the opposite of the others' expectations.
If you play a tight-aggressive game and your opponent expects it, you might expect to make $50 an hour in profit at an average $5/$10 no limit table. However, by confounding their expectations, you can increase your profits heartily, maybe as much as a 90% increase, which would mean you could be making $95 an hour by strategically throwing them for a loop. Loose aggressive players might see a similar increase, but they'll generally find that it's not nearly as dramatic: a 50% increase or so is common.
Bodog's first-time online poker deposit bonus gives you more money for your bankroll!Most of the time, increases like this occur only when you get a bit more unpredictable, changing your game and playing against your normal impulses between 20% and 30% of the time. Again: this all depends on you playing against smart opponents that can understand what you're doing. If you're playing against the mathematically-minded sorts who occupy microlimit games, you're not going to be able to play any kind of psychological game. Keep this in mind and keep your clever play for the players who can appreciate it, even as they hand you your chips.
