Be Mindful of Your Table Image

So, I just got home from an 8 hour session where I'm stuck $140. Interestingly, I feel like I played great poker for 7 of the 8 hours. Recently, I read an article in CardPlayer that talked about developing and utilizing your table image. So, it took me about 3ish hours, but I developed a "rock" image... meaning uber-tight play. Every time I raised, everyone folded; and I, still trying to develop an image, would show a premium hand, and complain about how I didn't get any action.

As the night went on, my hands got progressively worse and worse, but I had learned that I could strategically raise certain people, and they would fold (by strategically, I mean that that it'd only work in certain situations). It actually worked out really well because I, being the "tight" player, could bet people off better, and often times winning hands, because they respected my bets and disliked the texture of the flops. There were even times when I had to 2 barrel and 3 barrel some hands because they would be suspicious. Eventually, they would fold and I would rake the pot. At this time of the session, I was up about $160, and really never had to showdown a hand.

Then disaster happened... our table was broken up

So, when I sat at the new table, I was still in the "raise/steal" mode. What I failed to realize, due to fatigue, I'm sure, was that most of the people at the table had no idea about the image I had built at the previous table. So, I would see situations that were similar to the raising situations at the other table, and they wouldn't work. In fact, in retrospect, I played enough pots to have actually developed a "loose aggressive" aura. It didn't help that we had an actual poker elite (for Caesars Indiana) at the table, who was pretty much dictating the action. I ended up donking off most of my stack in an effort to bluff out the pro, who was in turn trying to bluff me out as well... it's just that he had 5x more chips than I did. I lost all of my profits and about $140 to the pro, who was playing very good aggressive poker.

So the moral of this story is: Remember that your table image last only as long as the table remains together. If you move/break, you have to reset, and reestablish your image.