Varying your Play for Deception Purposes

Deception can be a useful tool in poker. It is nice when an opponent is playing against you thinking you have one hand when you actually have another. You are forcing your opponent to act incorrectly. An example of deception was used in the previous section where a check on the Turn convinced your opponent to think he had the better hand than you had. Bad players make these mistakes without another player deceiving them. They deceive themselves and will often call you down when they are very unlikely to have the best hand. Against good players who can play more correctly, you will want to vary your play now and then. Play the same hand differently in the same situations if you can do so without giving up much edge. This will make your opponent think twice on future handsto future hands.
Here is a situation:
You are in the big blind and you hold ATs. Everyone folds to the button who is a good player. He raises and the small blind folds. In a situation like this, re-raising or calling is fairly close in value. It is nice to mix up your play by sometimes re-raising and sometimes calling so your opponent will not have a good handle on what you have when you are re-raising him.
Continuing on with the hand, let’s say you simply called his pre-Flop raise.
Your hand: ATs
Flop: A-Q-3 rainbow
You check and he bets. A check-raise may scare off your opponent if he does not have an A, but since you want to also sometimes check-raise when you have KJ and JT (for just a gut shot straight draw), you also need to check-raise sometimes when you do flop an A. When you are
check-raising without the A in future hands, your opponent may assume you do have an A and fold if he does not have one himself. If you play a hand like this the same way every time, it will allow the more astute players to put you on a hand too easily. For example, if you always check-raise when you have an A in this spot, but never when you have a straight draw, then your opponent knows he can fold a hand like QJ. On the other hand, if you never check-raise when you have a weak A, but always check-raise with the inside straight draw, then your opponent can feel comfortable calling you down with the same QJ hand. Mixing up your play will put him on the defensive, and he will not be sure exactly what you have. Scenarios like this come up more often in shorthanded games than they do in full games.
When you vary your game, your play may look dumb once in a while. In the above scenario with a flop of A-Q-3, if you had check-raised with KJ and lost the hand while being forced to show it down on the River, it may look like you were gambling it up and taking unnecessary risk. Some observers may even think you are on tilt or playing poorly, and not give you the rightful respect you deserve as a poker player. When this happens, it is best to try to use this to your advantage. Now you should play a bit tighter and semi-bluff less in future hands because the observant opponents are going to be more likely to call given your previous play.
With all that said, it would be wrong to vary your play too much if it means you are giving up too much expectancy on the current hand compared to the possible expectancy you may receive on future hands. Some players will take this idea too far and play wild and crazy just to establish an image of a maniac. They will surely increase their expectancy on future hands when they do get back to playing correctly. However, they may be losing too much on the current hand in order to establish that wild image. A good way to vary your play is to change up in situations where there really is not too much difference how you play. This way you are not losing much edge and yet gain the benefit of making it tough for your opponents to read your hand correctly

Deception can be a useful tool in poker. It is nice when an opponent is playing against you thinking you have one hand when you actually have another. You are forcing your opponent to act incorrectly. An example of deception was used in the previous section where a check on the Turn convinced your opponent to think he had the better hand than you had. Bad players make these mistakes without another player deceiving them. They deceive themselves and will often call you down when they are very unlikely to have the best hand. Against good players who can play more correctly, you will want to vary your play now and then. Play the same hand differently in the same situations if you can do so without giving up much edge. This will make your opponent think twice on future handsto future hands.
Here is a situation:
You are in the big blind and you hold ATs. Everyone folds to the button who is a good player. He raises and the small blind folds. In a situation like this, re-raising or calling is fairly close in value. It is nice to mix up your play by sometimes re-raising and sometimes calling so your opponent will not have a good handle on what you have when you are re-raising him.
Continuing on with the hand, let’s say you simply called his pre-Flop raise.
Your hand: ATs
Flop: A-Q-3 rainbow
You check and he bets. A check-raise may scare off your opponent if he does not have an A, but since you want to also sometimes check-raise when you have KJ and JT (for just a gut shot straight draw), you also need to check-raise sometimes when you do flop an A. When you are
check-raising without the A in future hands, your opponent may assume you do have an A and fold if he does not have one himself. If you play a hand like this the same way every time, it will allow the more astute players to put you on a hand too easily. For example, if you always check-raise when you have an A in this spot, but never when you have a straight draw, then your opponent knows he can fold a hand like QJ. On the other hand, if you never check-raise when you have a weak A, but always check-raise with the inside straight draw, then your opponent can feel comfortable calling you down with the same QJ hand. Mixing up your play will put him on the defensive, and he will not be sure exactly what you have. Scenarios like this come up more often in shorthanded games than they do in full games.
When you vary your game, your play may look dumb once in a while. In the above scenario with a flop of A-Q-3, if you had check-raised with KJ and lost the hand while being forced to show it down on the River, it may look like you were gambling it up and taking unnecessary risk. Some observers may even think you are on tilt or playing poorly, and not give you the rightful respect you deserve as a poker player. When this happens, it is best to try to use this to your advantage. Now you should play a bit tighter and semi-bluff less in future hands because the observant opponents are going to be more likely to call given your previous play.
With all that said, it would be wrong to vary your play too much if it means you are giving up too much expectancy on the current hand compared to the possible expectancy you may receive on future hands. Some players will take this idea too far and play wild and crazy just to establish an image of a maniac. They will surely increase their expectancy on future hands when they do get back to playing correctly. However, they may be losing too much on the current hand in order to establish that wild image. A good way to vary your play is to change up in situations where there really is not too much difference how you play. This way you are not losing much edge and yet gain the benefit of making it tough for your opponents to read your hand correctly

Deception can be a useful tool in poker. It is nice when an opponent is playing against you thinking you have one hand when you actually have another. You are forcing your opponent to act incorrectly. An example of deception was used in the previous section where a check on the Turn convinced your opponent to think he had the better hand than you had. Bad players make these mistakes without another player deceiving them. They deceive themselves and will often call you down when they are very unlikely to have the best hand. Against good players who can play more correctly, you will want to vary your play now and then. Play the same hand differently in the same situations if you can do so without giving up much edge. This will make your opponent think twice on future handsto future hands.
Here is a situation:
You are in the big blind and you hold ATs. Everyone folds to the button who is a good player. He raises and the small blind folds. In a situation like this, re-raising or calling is fairly close in value. It is nice to mix up your play by sometimes re-raising and sometimes calling so your opponent will not have a good handle on what you have when you are re-raising him.
Continuing on with the hand, let’s say you simply called his pre-Flop raise.
Your hand: ATs
Flop: A-Q-3 rainbow
You check and he bets. A check-raise may scare off your opponent if he does not have an A, but since you want to also sometimes check-raise when you have KJ and JT (for just a gut shot straight draw), you also need to check-raise sometimes when you do flop an A. When you are
check-raising without the A in future hands, your opponent may assume you do have an A and fold if he does not have one himself. If you play a hand like this the same way every time, it will allow the more astute players to put you on a hand too easily. For example, if you always check-raise when you have an A in this spot, but never when you have a straight draw, then your opponent knows he can fold a hand like QJ. On the other hand, if you never check-raise when you have a weak A, but always check-raise with the inside straight draw, then your opponent can feel comfortable calling you down with the same QJ hand. Mixing up your play will put him on the defensive, and he will not be sure exactly what you have. Scenarios like this come up more often in shorthanded games than they do in full games.
When you vary your game, your play may look dumb once in a while. In the above scenario with a flop of A-Q-3, if you had check-raised with KJ and lost the hand while being forced to show it down on the River, it may look like you were gambling it up and taking unnecessary risk. Some observers may even think you are on tilt or playing poorly, and not give you the rightful respect you deserve as a poker player. When this happens, it is best to try to use this to your advantage. Now you should play a bit tighter and semi-bluff less in future hands because the observant opponents are going to be more likely to call given your previous play.
With all that said, it would be wrong to vary your play too much if it means you are giving up too much expectancy on the current hand compared to the possible expectancy you may receive on future hands. Some players will take this idea too far and play wild and crazy just to establish an image of a maniac. They will surely increase their expectancy on future hands when they do get back to playing correctly. However, they may be losing too much on the current hand in order to establish that wild image. A good way to vary your play is to change up in situations where there really is not too much difference how you play. This way you are not losing much edge and yet gain the benefit of making it tough for your opponents to read your hand correctly