Exploiting A Losing Image

When asked what others think of how they are playing, many people say things like, “tight,” “loose,” “aggressive,” or “solid.” In reality, I believe that most live players don’t much care whether you’re tight or loose. Instead, they react most to whether you have been winning or losing over recent hands.

Today’s article is about exploiting a losing image. Unfortunately, I use the term “exploiting” loosely here because the adjustments your opponents will tend to make against you when you’ve been losing tend to make them play better than they usually do. Nevertheless, players will react predictably to a loser, and you can take advantage of these tendencies.

You have a losing image, obviously, when you’ve been losing. But it’s a specific type of losing that really generates this image. If you get all-in preflop for $1,000 in a $2-$5 game holding A-A against an opponent with Q-T, and your opponent makes a straight, it’s not going to earn you a losing image.

You earn a losing image when you make plays that don’t pan out that could appear weak. For instance, you flop a 12-out draw and, for whatever reason, you decide to call with it on the flop and turn. You miss, your opponent bets the river, and you fold. This looks bad. You called two streets and then folded on the river.

Here’s another example. You raise with K-K and get called in two places. You bet the flop and get called. You bet the turn, get raised, and decide to fold. Again this looks weak, even though you likely played the hand just fine.

Another play that will certainly earn you a losing image is when you value bet thinly and value own yourself. For instance, you bet K-Q on a Q-high board on the river against a loose player, and he calls and beats you with A-Q. Since this river bet is one many players would be too timid to make, and since it didn’t work out this time, it will make you look like a weak player.

Okay. You’ve been playing for an hour and a half, and you’ve played three or four hands like these and lost them all. You’re already stuck over a buy-in. You have a losing image. How will your opponents respond?

They’re going to lose their fear of you. They’ll be more likely to run a bluff, particularly if you’ve shown a little weakness. They’ll also be more likely to call you down with a weak made hand. They’ll also be more likely to call your preflop raises or even reraise you preflop a little bit lighter than they normally might.

In other words, in situations where your opponents might normally have gotten out of your way, they will now stick around in pots and sometimes make some trouble for you. Since most no-limit players are naturally too docile and predictable, these subconscious adjustments actually have them playing more closely to an optimal strategy.

So how do you exploit your image?

Move Tables

Okay, this is the opposite of exploiting your image, but first consider moving tables. If your opponents are temporarily playing better than normal against you because you’ve been losing, you might want to see if there’s another equally soft game you can switch to. Wiping your image clean could be your best play.

Bluff Less

Your opponents will be considerably stickier in your pots when you’ve been losing. They may also expect you to be tilting. Tilting players often start bluffing more, so you can expect to get looked up a little bit lighter than usual.

Bluffing less starts preflop. Tighten up a bit. Play fewer suited small card hands, since these hands rely on a certain amount of fold equity to be profitable. Call fewer preflop raises, since your opponents will be emboldened to try to barrel you out of their pots. (Again, since most live players don’t barrel nearly often enough with their default strategy, this adjustment makes them tougher to play against).

Offsuit high-card hands gain value with a losing image, since you can flop top pair and squeeze a little more value out of it than usual.

Make Bigger Preflop Raises With Premium Hands

If you’ve just lost a buy-in and a half and then you immediately pick up pocket kings, make a larger than normal preflop raise. They’ll still call. You’re the target now, and players will be willing to take the worst of it preflop to try to beat you. You might as well charge the maximum.

Value Bet Top Pair More Aggressively

If you flop top pair, don’t be as worried about kicker problems as you normally might be. You’re getting more action than usual, so bets that might not usually be profitable (because you won’t get called by enough worse hands) now become correct. This is particularly true on boards that have a few draws on them.

You’re playing $2-$5 with $1,000 stacks. A player limps in, and you make it $25 on the button with J T. Both blinds call and the limper calls. There’s $100 in the pot, and you’re $975 behind.

The flop is J 8 6. Everyone checks to you, and you bet $60. The big blind calls.
The turn is the 3. Your opponent checks, and you bet $100. He calls.

Consider betting many rivers. With a normal image against a tightish player, a river bet might be a little too thin, since your opponent may show up more frequently with a better jack than a worse pair. But with a losing image, I’d be more inclined to bet.

You don’t want to make huge, pot-sized bets. Bet small enough that the subconscious thought, “this guy’s a loser, maybe my eight is good,” wins out.

Bluff Catch A Little More

I don’t bluff catch very much at small stakes live games. Why? Because players don’t bluff enough. With a medium-strength hand like a good pair on the river, I’ll often bet and fold to a raise. If the river card was bad, I might check and fold. I’m happy to fold because I don’t expect the bet to be a bluff often enough to justify calling.

But, with a losing image, I might check and call in some of these scenarios. Say I held a good pair, the turn offered both straight and flush draws, and the flush arrived on the river, but the straight bricked out. I might check and call a bet. My losing image is going to provoke my opponent to bet many more hands on the river than he normally might. He’ll bet his flushes, for sure. But he’ll also be more inclined to bluff his busted straight draws. And a losing image might even convince him to bet a weaker pair for no reason other than that he expects me to lose. ♠

Ed’s brand new book, Reading Hands At No-Limit Hold’em, is available immediately for purchase at notedpokerauthority.com. Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor and on Twitter @EdMillerPoker.