Be aware of your Table Image

Recently I had been playing in a cash game at our local casino. One of the guys at our table had been playing loose aggressive all day long. He was winning the majority of the pots he played in and overbet each time he felt he had the best hand. Needless to say after thirty minutes or so a few of the guys at the table began to express their frustration. This particular player was not loud or rude to anyone but he simply was getting involved in pots that he probably had no business in and the deck was hitting him pretty good at that time.

We have all experienced rushes like that before. You know how it can be when you can almost play any two cards and it seems like you can do no wrong and win just about every hand for short periods of time. I knew this would not last forever and I simply was prepared to allow the guy to cool off before I got involved in a big hand with him.

Anyhow, I decided to take a break from that table for a while just to get some air. I can back about ten minutes later and all hell had broken loose. Apparently the guy that was playing loose aggressive got caught up in a big hand with the small blind to his right. All I he kept saying is, "How could you play a hand like that? I was playing the nuts!" Well it looked like our friend picked up Pocket Aces in the Big Blind and the small blind raised his blind with [5][3] on a steal move. Now this player had been playing tight all day and I suppose he was figuring he wanted to win a pot at the time . No big deal. Happens all the time.

The loose aggressive player did not re-raise the pot with his [A][A]. This was his BIG mistake. Had he done that it is likely his opponent folds his [5][3] and the hand is over.

The flop came down [A][2][4] and the loose aggressive player bets out big as he had been all day. The problem is that he was behind and had no idea he was about to be in big trouble. His opponent smooth called.

The Turn was a blank and so was the river and the argument began from that point until the floor had to be called to settle things down.

The moral of the story is this. You need to be extremely aware of the image you present in a poker game. People will play at you and with you based on that image. What kinds of hands they will play against you is also affected by your image too. So be smart and know what your own game is about before you get angry at another player for playing less than the best cards against you.