Shaping Perception: Mastering the Art of Representing
In the intricate poker world, where the clash of skill, psychology, and strategy converges, lies a subtle yet powerful art that distinguishes the masters from the novices—the art of representing. A well-executed representation can turn the tide of a hand, transforming marginal holdings into formidable forces and weak cards into perceived powerhouses. As the chips shuffle and bets escalate, players who grasp the nuances of this art gain the ability to manipulate perceptions, bend opponents to their will, and navigate the game’s ever-shifting dynamics with finesse.
Mastering Deceptive Play
A theme throughout our poker lessons is that the strength of your cards is one of the last things you should consider when deciding on poker. What makes poker so special is that it’s both fun and profitable to deceive your opponents.
The crux of this poker lesson is how to play opponents capable of second and third-level thinking. Second-level thinking is “What does my opponent have?” and third-level review is “What does my opponent think I have.” To represent a hand, your opponent must at least be capable of thinking about your writing and not just his own. Additionally, it would be best if you believed on the third level yourself to define a hand. This means that throughout the entire hand, you must be aware of all the factors your opponent uses to make decisions. This includes your table image, opponent’s image, stack sizes, situation, etc.
By definition, ‘representing’ in poker means communicating something false about your hand. Ultimately there are two basic messages that you will share:
- You are stronger than you are
- You are weaker than you are.
Each bet and action will tell a story about your hand. Your job is to make that story as believable as possible. You can use different tactics to tell that story, including the size of your bet, what street you bet, the timing of your actions, and how much of your stack you are committing to the hand.
Representing Strength
Let’s start with ways to represent strength in a poker hand.
Continuation Bets
Since continuation bets are mentioned in many of our poker lessons, we won’t spend much time on this topic. However, it is important to note that poker players have evolved over the last couple of years and that just because you raised pre-flop does not mean you will automatically win by betting the flop. Whether you gamble or not and how much you bet should be based on several factors, including your image, position, flop texture opponent’s tendency to play back at you. While it’s usually correct to continue representing strength, telling a believable story with your bets is more important than ever.
The size of your bet is the most important factor in representing the strength of your hand and will also set up future actions depending on how your opponent responds. For example, you raise in the cut-off position, and the big blind calls and checks a flop of A79 with two hearts. If you had an Ace, how much would you bet knowing those draws are out there? If you only bet 1/3 of the pot, is it believable that you have an Ace? – probably not. In this case, an Ace would more likely bet between ½ to 2/3 of the pot to give a drawing hand improper odds.
Firing Two Barrels
You communicate weakness if you continue to bet, get called, and then check the turn. What story are you telling about your hand if you give up on the turn? You youYoumade a continuation bet hoping your opponent will check behind. Because continuation bets are so common, many l call your flop bet to evaluate how you play the turn. But what hand were you representing on the flop? If you had that hand, would you check the turn? You may also need to bet the arc to tell a convincing story about your writing.
Let’s say you bet a relatively dry flop (say J63, no draws), and an Ace hits the turn. This is one of the best times to fire a second barrel. Your opponent may have called the flop with a mid-pocket pair to evaluate the favor and put you on a hand like AK or AQ. Now that the Ace hits, you could have too many hands that beat him, so it will be very hard for him to continue.
Regarding bet sizing, assuming you read your opponent for weakness, a bet of around ½ – 2/3 of the pot should do the trick. Do not get scared! A big sign of weakness is a turn bet the same size as your flop bet. If the pot was 2000 on the flop and you bet 1200 after your opponent calls, the bank would be 4400. If you now bet 1,200 again, not only is your bet not consistent with the story you are telling, you are currently giving your opponent great odds to see a river card. Since your goal is to get your opponent to fold, bet a size that will maximize the likelihood of getting your opponent to fold.
Using Position to Represent Strength
There are many ways to use your position at the table to represent strength. An early place pre-flop raise is much more believable than a late position raise, and since poker has evolved, late post-raises get much less respect than before. This means that, depending on the players’ tendencies on your left, you may need to adjust the position you steal from. You can also use functions to adapt your game and represent strength against aggressive players.
Pre-Flop Re-Raise
One way to do this is re-raise pre-flop when in position. Re-raising pre-flop from the button or cut-off position shows much more strength than a standard re-raise from the blinds. If you do get called pre-flop, you will likely get checked on the flop, and you can take the pot down with a continuation bet.
Continuation Bet Raise
Another situation where you can use position to represent strength post-flop is when you are on the left of a player who habitually raises from a late position and continuation bets 100% of the time. While one option is to re-raise him pre-flop, it is sometimes better to call pre-flop to control the pot’s size and outplay him on the flop. By calling his raise, you automatically announce that you have a hand – most likely a medium-strength hand since you did not re-raise pre-flop. Since your opponent is continuation betting 100% of the time, and he will miss the flop 2/3 of the time, you can often take down the pot with a 2.5x – 3.5x raise. On a ragged board, you represent an overpair; on a panel with face cards, you mean at least the top pair.
Calling the Continuation Bet
Continuing with the same example of playing an opponent who usually continues, another option is to call the flop bet intake the pot down on the turn. For this play to work, you must use your past tendencies and the flop’s texture to tell a believable story about your hand.
Representing the Flush
One of the most believable and effective turn bluffs is to call a flop bet with a flush draw show. Let’s say you call a raise on the button, and your opponent bets a flop of Q93 with two hearts. By calling the loss, you could have a wide variety of hands that will cause your opponent to proceed cautiously. Because you called the raise pre-flop, you could have KQ, QJ, QT, 77-TT, or a flush draw. If the turn brings a third heart, it will likely slow your opponent down, allowing you to bet and take the pot down representing the flush. Because of the added possibility of you having top pair, your opponent will be forced to fold anything other than a big hand.
Representing or Feigning Weakness
Most people assume that representing a hand means acting stronger than you are to get your opponent to fold. However, you can also represent a weak hand to induce your opponent to pay you off.
Representing a Continuation Bet
This is one of the best plays to use against aggressive opponents. Because continuation bets are so common, many players assume you will bet the flop if you raise the pre-flop. If you connect big with the loss, such as two-pair, a set, or sometimes even top-pair, make a slightly weaker-than-normal continuation bet to induce your opponent to raise. Example: On a board of KXX with a pot of 450, a good bet size here is around 200. It’s small enough to appear weak and gives your opponent the illusion of having fold equity. This is often very profitable when your opponent’s only move is all-in, and they think shoving their stack in will cause you to fold.
Probe Bets with Strong hands
Similar to representing a continuation bet, you can get lots of chips from aggressive opponents by betting weakly into a pre-flop raiser. You don’t want to bet so weak that you look strong, but you want to bet an amount that makes your opponent think you are trying to define your hand. This is often around ½ the size of the pot. For example, if you have a set of 5s on a flop of KQ5 with a pool of 900, bet around 350. You will be representing a hand like QJ, QT, KT, or even JT, and your small bet will cause an aggressive opponent to come over the top of you.
Conclusion
As you take your game to the highest of levels, you are going to be representing something almost every pot you are involved with. To outplay your opponents, you must constantly think one level deeper than they are. Whether you aim to get them to fold, call, or raise them, you will use multiple factors to represent a particular hand. In every hand you play from now on, always be conscious of what your opponents think you have and then use that to win as many chips as possible.
Related Lessons
- Thinking Through a Poker Hand
- Poker and Playing Position
- Fold Equity
- The Levels of Thinking in Poker
