Acting out of character

Poker Strategy / Marcus Bateman / 01 December 2009 / Leave a Comment

It is essential that you can make plays such as this, even if they backfire frequently.

If you start to become involved in medium to long terms heads up matches, you will start to build a very in depth picture of your opponent's tendencies, typical behavior, and views on what constitute 'correct' moves in certain situations, as will they of you (unless they are truly awful).

Weak heads up players tend to be very constricted in these terms, their behavior relatively set in stone, with the result that they become easy to read and therefore easy to exploit over time. Good heads up players tend to have a lot of tools in their arsenal, balancing and adapting their play depending on game flow and opponent, and constantly shifting gears and playing style.

This fluidity of playing style and table image amongst strong players is primarily created through constant moves that act outside of the player's typical character; and being able to make plays that your opponent is not expecting is crucial to success in long heads up matches. Predictability is an extremely dangerous trait in any form of poker, but nowhere more so than in heads up games, where the endless mind games needed to succeed are based in being able to make constant out of character plays to keep your opponent guessing.

This can be achieved through changes in bet sizing (throwing out just a few extra small value bets or making one or two over shoves can really mess up an opponent's view of your hand ranges when you make a certain type of bet), how many hands you play, or what hands you will call them with (making just the odd marginal call can really throw your opponent's value betting range, simply because they see that you are prepared to call them down very light), can really change your image at the tables, even if 90% of your play is relatively predictable.

It is essential that you can make plays such as this, even if they backfire frequently. Half of the need for making out of character moves is that you are seen to be out of character by your opponent, and losing money on one specific hand frequently pays for itself plus interest in the future. We learn from game theory that it is necessary to throw in plays which are sub optimal on a given hand in order to maximise returns on future optimal plays, and this is primarily achieved from making plays that your opponent does not expect or understand. Failure to do this in long heads up matches will damage you very quickly unless you are up against all but the very worst players.

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