Abruptness and changing gears

Poker Strategy / Marcus Bateman / 25 January 2010 / Leave a Comment

Most solid poker players understand the importance of changing gears when playing. That is, in shifting between playing styles when at the table, leaving their opponents unsure as to exactly what style they are playing at that exact moment. Although this a relatively simple concept to understand, many players miss one of the important nuances of it, and understanding it is crucial to taking your game to the next level.

Most players understand the importance of changing gears, but fail to understand the importance of changing gears abruptly. Like someone driving a car, most players tend to slowly shift up or down in gears, using a steady momentum as they either start slowly playing looser or tightening up. The problem with this is that it is not only relatively easy to read, it is also quite easy to handle. With no abrupt changes, it is easy for players to slowly adjust to you and not make too many mistakes.

Compare this with a scenario where instead of slowly shifting gears, you just constantly flick between fifth and first. Instead of the gradual changes, suddenly your opponents are left with either a very solid player who has the goods nearly all the time, or a deranged maniac who seems to be throwing chips into every pot at points. This is a much harder animal to deal with than a player who gradually changes, as the suddenness and severity of change makes reading them much more difficult to read, and this frequently forces substantial mistakes.

It is an odd feature that the two playing styles that if played exclusively in no limit games make you one of the easiest marks at the table (playing overly tight or like a maniac), if combined make you one of the hardest to deal with. This is simply because the techniques you use against maniacs fair very badly against tight players, and vice versa. Calling down rocks light or trying to constantly bluff a maniac is not profitable, and if you can abruptly change gears you make your opponent's life much harder in terms of them figuring out the best strategy to use against you. Suddenly swapping between extremes of style can force huge mistakes from your opponents, and in no limit games huge mistakes soon add up to massive amounts of money.

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