Shake It Up

By Erick Lindgren

THE FIRST THING MOST PEOPLE THINK OF with regard to mixing up your play is the notion of occasionally playing weak starting cards just to keep your opponents honest. That’s fairly obvious.

But just as important is the idea of not playing too many hands, even if your cards are strong. Cards, initially, will dictate how you play. But let’s say you get five or six big hands in a round. If those hands go unseen by your opponents, and you’re out there raising a lot, your opponents are going to think you’re goofing off more than you are. So you actually may need to tighten up the next round.

I like to call it “playing with the flow.” You need to play with a flow that allows people to believe you’re playing good hands most of the time. For the typical player, it’s important that your opponents believe that you’re not goofing off, but it’s also important that you’re playing enough hands to remain seemingly dangerous.

And playing with the flow isn’t just about which starting cards you play. It’s about how you play with them. You need to mix it up using every tool possible. For example, I’m not a big fan of re-raising before the flop early in a tournament; I like to see a lot of flops and play with a little more information. But, occasionally, re-raising is a good way to add chips if people perceive you as being fairly tight. Say you just have a J-10, and a guy’s raising a lot of pots. If you put in a pretty cute re-raise, not too big, a lot of times the other guy will fold.

Also, don’t be afraid, early in a tournament, to just flat call your opponent with a big hand, even aces, kings, or queens, just to disguise it. You have to throw a lot of different looks at your opponents. You don’t want to be predictable. And don’t be afraid to play after the flop, especially if you have position.

Position is something that’s always important to keep in mind when mixing up your play. If you come and join us at a WPT event or at a World Series of Poker circuit event, an event where we get 10,000 in chips, there is a lot of post-flop play early. So, say you’re starting with 50/100 blinds, and a guy makes it 300, don’t be afraid to just call the guy when you have position, when you have an 8-9, or even a 7-6, preferably suited. You can call somebody with a lot of junk, as long as you’re in position. You’ll be a real thorn in somebody’s side if, every time they raise you, you call with position on them. It gets really frustrating to that person.

What stage of the tournament you’re at is also crucial. Playing with the flow is more prevalent early in the tournament, when there’s a lot of post-flop play. Depending on the structure of the tournament, a lot of times, when you reach the final table, the blinds and antes are pretty high compared to the chip stacks. That takes away a lot of the post-flop play, so then you’re not necessarily playing with a flow, and instead you want to be super aggressive, re-raise people when you think they’re weak, and really put them to a decision. You essentially go back to the approach that Doyle Brunson always advocated for poker, and that’s putting your opponent to a decision for all of his chips.

But earlier in a tournament, you don’t have to be quite so aggressive. You want to mix it up and play with the flow. You have to make it difficult for your opponents to figure you out. You have to keep them guessing.

Erick Lindgren, who recently released a book entitled Making The Final Table, plays poker at FullTiltPoker.com.