The Poker Table: Your Table Image, Presence, Awareness and Its Importance In The Game

Poker Tables

Whenever most of us think about poker, we tend to think of it as a game that is complicated, full of logical deductions and complex mathematics. All of these things can be true, but one element of poker cannot be ignored. This element is the poker table. It is the place where you meet your competitors, where you play your actual game. It is a place where you are your most human. Your humanity at the poker table has an important role to play. If you’re wondering how then let me explain.

All your fellow competitors on the poker game table are people with a psyche that you can use as an advantage. Playing some tricks to mess with their heads, at the poker table, can definitely be an important weapon in your arsenal. Read on, and you will learn how.

Table Image:

Your table image is the idea or opinion about you, which is formed by your opponent’s sitting at the poker table. It’s basically what they think of you.

The players will form a judgment about you based on how you play your game. It’s similar to your first day of college. You’re careful about how you dress because you know that people tend to form opinions on the basis of what they see. While in life, you tend to be as true to yourself as possible, poker is a game, and you can experiment with your table image.

 If you play a loose game, the players will think of you as a loose player, even if you aren’t one. You can definitely use this to your favor, by tricking them into thinking you’re one kind of player when you’re not. But, you should also be cautious about the table image you’re setting. You don’t want to give away too much of your game.

So remember that a poker table is one place where it matters what other people think of you.

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Table Presence:

You’ll often see the terms ‘Table Image’ and ‘Table Presence’ used interchangeably, but that is not the case. While table image is what the folks at the poker table think of you, then table presence is what you can and cannot do now that your table image has been set. They’re like two sides of the same coin.

If you’ve been considered a certain kind of player by the table, then you can start planning your bets accordingly. You can appear to play certain hands and intentionally mislead your opponents into thinking you have those particular cards. For example, if your Table Image is that of a player who has a big hand, you can keep raising the bets, strengthening the pot and weakening your opponents’ confidence.

When your table image is set, it is done so by the other players at the poker table. However, you can actively participate to create your table presence. If you can pull off some acting, you can use these tactics to further your own poker game.

Your table presence will allow you to play some mind games. After all, they don’t call it a poker game table, for nothing.

Table Awareness:

Table awareness is the reverse of the previous two terms. While those terms consist of the other players’ idea of you, table awareness is your perception of the table.

As a player, to be able to pick up what kind of game your opponents are playing. You need to develop skills that help you understand your opponents’ playing style and their games.

You can use certain tricks to do this; you’ll need to observe a larger set of hands in order to make any educated guesses because viewing a small number of hands can mislead you. But apart from this, you can use some other clues.

In a live game, where most players know each other a little bit, picking up on their conversation will give you context about the game and even hints about the hands that have been played.

If you’re playing poker online , then don’t worry. There’s a poker table online, as well. Heads-up display stats act as your poker table online. These stats will give you enough information about the players for you to develop some kind of table awareness.

Next time, you’re at a table, you need to keep your eyes and ears open and understand your opponents so that they don’t pull an Uno reverse card on you, and trick you, instead.

Paying attention to such intangible aspects of poker can help you become a better player. You can play a good game of poker before you begin actually playing, just by keeping the table in your mind. You can try out this new approach at any card room or come join us at Spartan and play online poker from the comfort of your home!