Balancing Your Game

Are you mixing up your play enough? Are you exploiting your edges and maximizing your profit? You need to keep your opponents guessing at the table. By staying in one particular playing style you become extremely predictable. Usually, players with good fundamentals will play stronger hands from early positions and weaker hands from later position for obvious reasons.

That reason being position. However, just because you raise from under -the-gun with Pocket Aces does not mean you should make that same play the next time with the same hand. The same goes for any other hand you play from any position.

Always be hyper-conscious about what hand you showed at show down time and how you played it so that you can vary your play as necessary. Contrary to popular belief I actually call the minimum bet from late position from time to time with Aces or Kings. Why? Because it allows me to catch players off guard when I hit my set. No one puts me on the ace. If I flop quads and I am up against [K][K], [J][J] or [Q][Q] I am going to get paid off more often than not. If I play the hand the normal way I will likely see my opponent fold pre-flop or after the flop and thereby minimizing my profit on the hand.

Within the natural flow of a poker tournament or poker cash game there are numerous opportunities for bluffs and changing speeds. These are skills only experience and a great feel for the game can teach you. However, once you understand your own game in relation to how others play back at you it will allow you to maximize your profit in the long run. Always keep them guessing and that means mixing up your play frequently.