Your Table Image Matters In Low Limit

As you may know if you read the blog, I play live often at a $1/2 card room in Florida. The people there are about 80% retirees, married couples, or guys coming in after a hard day at work. The huge minority are players that are there to make money and play seriously.

I always find it funny when I see players sitting at these micro-limit tables wearing Ipods, hoody's, and worst of all, Sunglasses. Are you kidding me?!? This is low *limit*. Guys are watching their favorite player at the WSOP and without thinking, just imitating what they see and bringing it to the card room. Are they really afraid that the 70 year old retiree squinting at the flop is gonna catch a read on him and call down his stone cold $1 bluff. This just seems so ridiculous to me. If anyone sits down at my table like that, I pin him as a *sucker*. He obviously has not played much limit. This isn't High Stakes No Limit son, this is Bingo at the local VFW.

If anything, this image actually hurts them. The vast majority of people are there to have a good time, not to be the next World Poker Tour champion. They are paying money to gamble, socialize, and have fun on the weekends. Do you think they are having fun with you if your not saying a word, covering your face, trying to imitate a statue everytime you bet? Well, they aren't. That's too serious and it either makes them not want to play at your table or play better whenever you're in a hand. On top of that, if you're quiet, whenever you suddenly wake up and start betting, it's a huge red flag to everyone there. You don't want to be Chris Ferguson at these tables, you want to be more like Daniel Negreanu; happy, friendly, chatty, always smiling etc.



That was a great example of playing well while being very entertaining to the rest of the table. Even though your tight play is pretty well known to most, when you're very friendly and talkative, people will still want to come into pots and play with you. I'm sure the "serious" players are afraid that talking too much will give something away, but anyone with any real sense will realize that the old lady waiting to call will not pin you on your KK because of how you were joking with your neighbor at the time.

If your a statue, your soft seat will usually dry up after you run off all the players you earn from. However, if you're fun, people will sit there with you all night and just keep rebuying. They are paying to have a good time remember, make sure they get their money's worth.

Another side effect is that conversations start up that will continue through hands. Many times players involved won't even be paying attention to whats going on or paying any attention to the hand that they are still in. When you raise or re-raise, it's not nearly as big of a flag because most people don't even realize it and you've been involved with the table all night so it's not as big of shock that you're suddenly alive. You'll find people not even realizing the action is to them to call or fold to your raise, they get reminded mid-sentence, and make a quick call to keep the action moving. You can make a lot off your value bets in this way.

I'm naturally quiet when I play. I like to concentrate and get absorbed in my own world at the table. However, I knew this wasn't the best way to play at these low limit tables and last weekend I decided I was going to have a good time. I would be chatty, strike up converstations, and be as friendly to everyone as I could be. I ended up having the most successful night I've ever had. I played as well as usual, but the pots I won were usually bigger because more people wanted to play. Often one or two conversations were going on while I was in the hand (with the best hand) and I got way more action than I normally do. Even when I would raise with KK or something pre-flop, someone across the table would say "He must have a great hand, if he's raising he's got it"......AND THEN CALL. I would literally raise with QQ pre-flop, look across to someone I had been chatting it up with all night, see them looking at me deciding to call or fold to my raise and say "C'mon, you know I've got it" and they would STILL call. These are the same players that would previously fold without a strong hand whenever I raised. Here they were calling with rags.

My table stayed soft all night. People kept rebuying over and over and my stack kept growing and growing to the point I started feeling like I needed to hide part of my stack before their good demeaner changed and I got mobbed to get their chips back. It never happened though, the seat was soft all night, the pots were big, I got lots of action, and probably best of all, I actually had a lot of fun.

I almost felt sorry for the guys that would occasionally sit at the table with the serious, No Limit demeaner you see professional players have. They played well enough but they didn't win nearly as much as me and were often made fun of and disliked by the players at the table. At one point, a guy sat down that takes 1 dollar bets far too seriously, wearing an Ipod and a hat that almost covered his eyes, and some of the most desired people to sit with almost got up and left. Everytime he was in a hand, he would lower his hat to the point you couldn't see his eyes. Guess what? The married couple and retirees never got a read on him, but he also never got any real action.

The next time you're sitting down with a table full of people playing for fun, leave the headphones at home. You're there to make money and they are there to have a good time. Make sure that happens and they will keep the money coming. Oh, and save the sunglasses for Foxwoods.