Deception (1) - Basics

» COLUMN

Deception - Basics

by MiiWiin

Deception is one of the basic principles of poker. In this article I'd like to mention the sense and the basics of deception and why it is so important.

First of all I will quote David Sklanskys „Fundamental Theorem of Poker“: „…every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and everytime they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.“[1]

Someone, who masters the standard play normally tries to play without any moves. He bets or raises strong hands, in order to maximize their value and he checks or folds weak hands because he doesn't want to invest too much money in a pot he will probably not win.

You don't need to argue against this type of play, but Sklansky finds fault with the fact, that you become readable. Someone, who always raises or bets strong hands and checks or folds weak hands, simply becomes readable. He will sooner or later reveal his cards, so that Sklanskys proposition can be applied.

Our opponents will be able to read our play. They will determine our range and adjust their play. They won't know our exact hand, but they know what kinds of hands we use to play. In the long term they will come closer to our actual hands and make less mistakes.

But this point is annoying. Our opponents should make mistakes. This ensures, that we make profit. We profit from every opponent's mistake. On the other hand our mistakes cost money. But as long as we allow reads on our play, our opponents won't be able to make too many mistakes.

To this topic another quote from David Sklansky: „Your opponents' mistakes are your opportunities for profit. Good no limit players try to win the battle of mistakes.“ [2]

Now we have to consider how to benefit from deception. We must mislead and confuse our opponent. And we must not become readable. Our aim should be tempting our opponent to make mistakes and avoiding our own mistakes.

But we also have to consider situations, which demand a straight-lined play. Sometimes we can even give a hint about our hand and still make profit because in some situations we must protect our hand if we think, that we play against a draw, which could possibly be completed with another card.

Basically we have to consider three points if we want to decide, whether we should play misleading or straight-lined.
1.	Firstly our opponents' skills: Is our opponent able to determine our range. Should we try to mislead him? Against weak players, especially against calling stations, you should prefer a straight-lined play. Bet on every street against them. There is no point in representing a strong hand, if your opponent is not interested in your cards and your play. He will be concentrated on his own hand and not make more mistakes if we try to make special moves. But what about strong opponents? How do you play against someone, who is very aggressive and analyses your play? In this case you should try to become unreadable. This kind of player may not understand our strategy completely, so that he will still make mistakes facing a strong opponent, who adjusts his play, we should start minding deception.
2.	Secondly the pot size: The bigger the pot is, the more important becomes deception. The fold equity will decrease and all kinds of players will rather play their own cards instead of estimating their opponents. There are only two possible ways of playing in a big pot. We will fold weak hands, which will probably lose if they remain unimproved and we will play strong hands aggressively, in order to maximize their value and protect them. Smaller pots can be played in a rather tricky way. You can try to win a pot with a weak hand. If you manage to steal small pots in the correct situation, they will add up to a considerable amount. Moreover you will become unreadable, which should definitely be your aim. Stealing small pots with a weak hand has a positive effect on your image. An opponent will eventually not believe your strong hands and he will play a big pot against our better hand.
3.	The third important point is the number of our opponents: Deception should help us make our hand unreadable. You can successfully do that in a heads-up, but an increasing number of opponents means a decrease of fold equity, which we need if we want to pretend a strong hand. Who wants to check/raise a weak flush draw in a 5-handed-pot? Against a big number of opponents we should prefer a straight-lined play. We should bet our strong hands and fold our weak hands.

» SUMMARY

In every hand we have to consider, whether we need deception or if it would be better to play straight-lined. Therefore our opponents are decisive: Against many players in a hand, especially many weak players, you should rather fold weak hands and avoid special moves. A big pot has the same effect, it will give a small chance of pushing opponents out of the hand.

But deception can be a big advantage if we play small pots against strong opponents, especially in a heads-up or 3-handed pot. We draw the curtain over our hands and will cause opponents' expensive mistakes.

As a last point I will quote David Sklansky about "reverse thinking":

“Sometimes it might even be the best type of deception to play straightforward, since especially strong players will assume that you are bluffing." [3]

Quellen:
[1]-[3] "The Theory of Poker", David Sklansky, S. 63-69